An announcement was made by an employee and tester for Mozilla at the beginning of January, stating that although it is not quite ready for testing yet, the time is coming, within weeks.

On an update Marko and his team have made some progress. He writes:

"When I wrote the original blog post, what we had was very basic content rendering to VoiceOver or Accessibility Verifier. And I mean really basic. We had just crossed the point where loading a second page, or opening a new tab, would actually tell VoiceOver what content there was. Previously, it would not even take notice of the new content and still show the old stuff. Also, the web area was just now then being announced as “HTML content” by VoiceOver, like in Safari."

He then goes on to inform us that:

• Headings are now announced
• tabs count correctly
• all roles are now spoken
• dialogue text and other text speak completely
• links are activated through VoiceOver.

Things that still need to be worked on include:

• Navigating by character, or interacting with, the text in the awesome bar does not speak the character.
• Firefox doesn’t tell VoiceOver when it has finished loading a page
• passwords don’t yet give the audible feedback when typing
• VoiceOver doesn’t see form fields when nested within elements
• VoiceOver says the word "text" after every chunk of text inside a paragraph
• Various form elements states not communicated to VoiceOver [I.E. check boxes checked or unchecked]
• Landmarks not communicated to VoiceOver

Although the bare branches are all we have right now and no public beta build as yet, it seems the Firefox team are indeed working on the accessibility of Firefox with VoiceOver once again. We will keep you all informed as soon as we know the beta release is available. Lets hope we can all help contribute and make FireFox finally accessible for VoiceOver users on the mac.

Thanks to M.J. Phoenix for contributing this story.

1. First, make sure Dropbox isn’t already running.  One of the first things the setup program does is to place Dropbox in to your login items.  So even if you were unsuccessful installing it in the past, the app may be running.  Go in to Activity Monitor and look at the process table.  If there are any entries for dropbox, you can remove them by selecting “quit process” from the toolbar.
2. Make sure you have the latest version of the Dropbox software in your Applications folder.  At the time of this writing, the latest version is 1.1.34.
3. In the Finder, go to your Applications folder, select Dropbox, and press VO-Shift-m From the resulting context menu, select “view package contents”.
4. A folder called Contents will appear.  Open it and select the MacOS folder.
5. From here, you’ll find a file called Dropbox, that you need to open.  This is a unix executable file, and will open in the terminal.  You can ignore this terminal window for the time being.
6. After a few seconds, the Dropbox setup will appear.  This setup dialog is self explanatory and completely accessible.  At some point during the setup, you may hear VoiceOver announce the presence of a new window.  This is an authentication dialog, where you must enter your admin password.  If focus does not shift to this window, you’ll have to use the VoiceOver window chooser to get there.

After you’ve completed the setup, Dropbox should be properly configured and working.  It’s worth noting that since you launched Dropbox from the terminal, that’s where it will be running.  So if you quit the terminal, Dropbox will quit as well.  Once you’ve done this, you can reopen it in the normal way, the way you would open any other Application.

The article also shares a bit of detail on other features current iPhone users may find helpful, such as multitasking and folders. OS 4 is expected to be released sometime in June, and should be announced at the upcoming Worldwide developers Conference on June 7th.

You can read the entire article here.

Last month, Adobe promised Flash and Flex accessibility for Mac OS X in the future, though by all accounts that is at least eighteen months away. Applications currently available for the iPhone that were developed using Adobe’s Flash to iPhone app technology are inaccessible with VoiceOver.

Acapela TTS for iPhone SDK has been used in a wide array of talking apps available on the Apple AppStore, adding spoken feedback to rich content and inspiring new ways to transform content and tell stories.

AssistiveWare has already adopted Acapela TTS SDK for iPhone & iPad to extend its proloquo2Go (iPhone or iPad) AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) solution to iPad.

Specifically, she proposed the official adoption of The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a set of guidelines designed to ensure access to web content to individuals with disabilities or who may be using assistive technology, authored by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This would result in improved accessibility to screen reader users, among others, including those utilizing VoiceOver on the Macintosh platform.

For more information, read the full article here.

Today, Apple issued a press release detailing their plans for the World Wide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) keynote on 08/June. Specifically, they mention improvements to Snow Leopard that will be shown at the conference, including accessibility. Here’s an excerpt:

Snow Leopard and Mac technical sessions will showcase hundreds of refinements to the operating system and dive deep into its new technologies including a 64-bit architecture, QuickTime® X, next-generation multicore and GPU processor support, and amazing new accessibility technologies. iPhone OS 3.0 technical sessions will cover introductory and advanced concepts to help developers get the most out of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK and over 1,000 new APIs available for iPhone OS 3.0.

Today, M Cubed Software published a lengthy post on their company blog entitled "The Accessible Mac." In this piece, the man behind M Cubed, Martin Pilkington, discusses the challenges, difficulties, and practices involved in developing more accessible Mac software. As a challenge to his fellow developers, Mr. Pilkington pledges "By the end of 2009, all the apps I produce will be fully accessible".

M Cubed Software produces three applications that range to appeal to a variety of users, from software developers to musicians. For more about M Cubed and their products, visit www.MCubedSW.com, or check out Martin Pilkington’s Twitter.

We’d like to applaud Mr. Pilkington’s efforts, and wish him all the best as he works through the challenge. Here’s hoping that more developers follow in the footsteps of M Cubed Software, and the other developers who continue to work to improve accessibility for all mac users.

Today in Cupertino, Apple announced significant changes to its line of notebook computers, a new Apple Cinema display model, and new pricing for these products.

The new MacBook and MacBook Pros employ a new manufacturing process which results in smaller, lighter, and more durable machines. These new MacBooks are made from a block of aluminum which is carved into the needed shape. This eliminates over half the parts needed in the previous generation of Apple notebooks.

Many of the new models include more powerful graphics processors from Nvidia. The MacBook Pro’s 15-inch incarnation includes both the GForce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics cards. The user can choose which to use at any given time.

The newer aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros sport a glass trackpad which doubles as a mouse. It supports multi-touch and more gestures.

The new specifications and pricing are as follows:

• MacBook — The previous generation’s white plastic MacBook model will remain at a reduced price of $999.
• MacBook — 13.3-inch display, 2GHz Core 2 Duo / 3MB L2 cache, 2GB 1066MHz DDR 3 memory, GeForce 9400M, 160GB hard drive, slot-loading SuperDrive. $1299
• MacBook — Same as above except: 2.4GHz processor, 250GB hard drive, and a backlit keyboard. $1599
• MacBook Pro — 15.4-inch LED-backlit display. 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 3MB L2. 2GB 1066 MGhz DDR 3 memory. Nvidia GForce 9400M and 9600M GT cards. 250GB hard drive. Slot-loading SuperDrive. $1999
• MacBook Pro — Same as above except: 2.53GHz processor, 6MB L2, 4GB of memory, 512MB on the 9600M Gt, 320GB hard drive. $2499
• MacBook Air — Mostly unchanged. 120GB hard drive and now includes the Nvidia GForce 9400M video card.
• Options — Several configuration options are available, most notably a 128GB solid-state drive is available for most models.

Additionally, there has been some changes made to the ports. The MacBooks no longer include Firewire support. The DVI video ports have been dropped in favor of the new Mini Display port.

Check back for more details as they become available.

As we reported earlier, Apple teamed up with GW Micro to make iTunes 8 accessible with Window-Eyes 7. This was accomplished by fully implementing MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility) in the iTunes software. What that means, ultimately, is that other screen readers can also take advantage of the new accessibility features in iTunes 8 if they so choose.

It is clear that Apple’s commitment to accessibility extends far beyond their operating system. They have gone far beyond the efforts of other high-profile technology manufacturers, and we are delighted to be able to report on these efforts.

Lioncourt.com just spent a few minutes speaking with Apple’s Mike Shebanek about the new accessibility features announced in Apple’s products today. We’ve learned a bit about how the iPod Nano 4G’s speaking menus work.

Understandably, a device as small and compact as the iPod Nano hardly has the processing power to generate text-to-speech (TTS) on the fly…at least, not speech that would be up to Apple’s standards. Instead, Apple has come up with a unique way to offer speech on the iPod Nano’s menus.

Enter iTunes 8.

iTunes 8 is now fully accessible for both visually impaired Mac and Windows users. When paired with an iPod Nano 4G, iTunes taps into your Mac or PC’s processing power to generate tiny audio files for the various menus, artists, album, song titles, in your library. When you sync, that information is sent to your iPod Nano 4G.

The software uses the system voice settings in either Mac or Windows. The great thing about this is you will be able to purchase third-party voices, such as the Infovox iVox family of voices offered by Assistiveware, and use them on your iPod Nano 4G, including voices for foreign languages. Of course, most people will be very happy with Alex, the built-in TTS voice included in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Any changes to rate, volume, etc of your system voice will be respected and reflected on your iPod Nano 4G.

While the majority of features on the iPod Nano 4G are working with speech, there are some exceptions. Some games will not work, and the clock is not currently implemented. Mr. Shebanek stressed the fact that Apple wanted to get these features out to the visually impaired community now. They will move forward to perfect the system and listen to user feedback.

The BBC is reporting on a new technology being developed by a team of Japanese researchers which uses focused ultrasonic waves to produce the illusion of solid objects in mid-air to the sense of touch.

While still in its infancy, the researchers believe the technique could be used in video games to provide a more immersive experience. Audio and visual sensory input has been a major part of gaming for years, but the sense of touch has been hard to fully tap into. This technology could provide a way to more fully realized virtual experience.

However, to the blind, this technology could mean more. As the technology matures, it is easy to envision ways in which it may be used to provide tactile cues on touch screen devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch, or provide a less expensive and more easily maintained alternative to current Braille display technologies.

Apple announced this week that Mac OS X 10.6 is code named Snow Leopard, and will be shipping in about a year. Unlike the last several versions of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard ill focus on improving the operating system and fixing problems, instead of introducing tons of new features.

There’s very little information at this point, but there are a whole heap of rumors. The most intriguing discusses the possibility that APple may move the entire OS, (presumably meaning the user interface portions), to Cocoa. This could potentially mean even better access across the board for VoiceOver users. Apple’s keeping quiet on this point though, if the rumor is true.

In all, though, this is good news for VoiceOver users. If Apple is focusing primarily on improving the exist architecture, that can only mean better access in the end.

The most recent nightly builds of WebKit have repaired many longstanding access issues. The most notable of the current fixes is the exposure of some web form controls to access solutions, including VoiceOver.

When these changes make their way into the official WebKit release, and then into Safari and Mac OS X, we will be able to enjoy these fixes with VoiceOver. In the mean time, you can download the nightly builds of WebKit and use them without risk to the OS’s core installation of the HTML engine from WebKit.org. The nightly build will install an application in your "Applications" folder to allow you to run a dedicated test browser with the latest fixes to WebKit. Of course, as this is a nightly build, there will be bugs, stability, and other issues, so you will likely want to continue using Safari or whatever your browser of choice is, as your default.

Webkit, the HTML rendering engine that powers Safari and many other components of the Mac OS, has recently completed a number of key bug fixes and enhancements where regards accessibility. While these are very technical, we are providing some information and links below, as we believe these fixes will lead to dramatically improved accessibility in Safari and other applications under Mac OS X. As some links below show, Apple has developers contributing to the open source project themselves to address accessibility issues.

• Tabindex support for all elements [Bug | Trac]
• Basic Accessible Rich Internet Applications support [Bug | Trac]
• Desktop-Devel-List Original Post