At Macworld | iWorld 2012, I presented a Tech Talk in which I blindfolded myself in order to demonstrate the accessibility features built in for the blind on the iPhone and Mac. I’d like to say there was flawless execution, but I’d be lying to you. The good news is that the audience helped me out and told me it better demonstrated how hard it is even though Apple has built these great tools into their platforms.
Audio only download click here
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Just finished watching all of “Blindfold!” I was impressed that you got through it as well as you did – congratulations! When you referenced “headers” in html pages are you talkin’ about syntax or something else? Thanks so much for your advocacy go ALL things Mac.
thank you so much, Tim! the headings I’m talking are the html links for headings. This is going to be hard to type because if I type them correctly they turn into headings! so a heading has a left angle bracket like this: < then h followed by a number where the bigger the number the smaller the font, so h3 is bigger than h4. Then that's followed by a right angle bracket like this: >. Let’s see if I put spaces in if it will show up: < h 3 >
Hi Allison, thought i’d provide an answer to the question that was asked about using VoiceOver in different languages. The issue in the past, was finding a voice for whatever language you wanted. Previously to the release of lion, people that spoke different languages, had to buy third-party voices, as there were only english voices available in a regular install of the oS. Now, with the release of Lion, there is a whole host of voices available, as downloads, which you can access in one of two ways. either going into VOiceOVer utility, down to speech, and the voices tab. In the list of voices available to set for the default voice, you’ll find an option that says customize… Go in there, and then you can check the voice, for whatever language you want. You can also play a sample of the voice, from right there in that dialog. . Also, another way to get to this same dialog, is through system preferences, and speech. Use a Braille display, but speak another language? nO problem there either. Previously, there was only a US english translation available, but once again, Apple in Lion, has a lot more translations available. Hope this helps to answer that question that was asked as part of the Q&A section in your presentation. Thanks. Dan Eickmeier, Brantford, Ontario Canada
that was a great BlindFolded show 🙂 in case you’re curious, here’s some useful links about using VoiceOver
Using iPhone with Voiceover
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com/docs/iphone/index.shtml
Using iPad with Voiceover
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com/docs/ipad/index.shtml
Mac with Voiceover
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com/docs/mac_with_voiceover/index.shtml
also http://www.applevis.com
has info about apps that work well with VoiceOver and other useful information
Well done!
The fact that you ran into trouble during your demo does not at all detract from the success of this event and video at all. On the contrary, I think it reinforces the powerful underlying messages about just how hard and long-winded it can be for blind and partially sighted people to interact with computers, even when the OS supplier and the App developer do their utmost to help (as many don’t).
I for one have been inspired to ensure that any Apps and web pages that I have a hand in designing do now utilise the accessibility features offered by Apple. Hopefully the tiny minority of blind and partially sighted users will then find it at least possible (if still hard) to use them rather than being locked out completely.
Well done again. You did a good thing.
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