Prompted by the , I have been writing a series of posts on making the iPhone easier to use visually; and . What I call intermediate accessibility, what the NY Times calls ease of use in For the Advanced in Age, Easy-to-Use Technology, is accessibility for those with some functional sight. Instead of focusing on tactile and auditory interfaces, the focus of intermediate accessibility is on features like adjustable font sizes, customizable color schemes and basic audio cues. There are a handful of things that Apple already does to make the iPhone (and iPod Touch) accessible and some things it could do to extend this ease of use.
The iPhone does have some nifty features. The zoom feature and the pivot feature are two key technologies that Apple has already implemented to made the iPod accessible visually. By pinching two fingers (or moving them apart), some apps, mainly the web browser and Mail, zooms in and out. You can zoom in close enough to read the text. Some apps also swivel with the device, allowing the screen to go from tall to wide. A much more natural. has many advantages. Most importantly, a wider screen makes reading enlarged text. But these features are not universally implemented in apps. Very few actually take advantage of them.
I would like to see Apple request that all developers, both its own and all outside app developers, take into consideration implementing four things when publishing apps; universal multitouch zoom, universal landscape/portrait swivel, alternate high contrast color schemes and adjustable font sizes when zoom is impractical. Obviously, these features are not relevant for many apps, especially games. However, making developers aware that including these features is desirable would go a long way to making the iPhone more accessible.
Apple could also implement some basic audio cues. My current phone, the Razr, (I have the iPod Touch, not the iPhone) reads out loud every number I dial. Apple could have the iPhone do the same (as an option), but also with each keystroke as the iPhone’s keyboard is notoriously finicky. In audiobooks, audio cues for chapter and time code would be a serious improvement.
All these helpful little tweaks are too numerous to list here. All I am asking is that Apple, and all tech designers and developers, put a little bit of thought into accessibility during their development process. I am not arguing here that we should have the world of Vonnegut’s story, Harrison Bergeron, where everyone and everything is limited to the lowest common denominator. But, when the burden is light, designers ought to take into account users of various ability level, not just design for the ‘typical’ (whatever that means) user. My bet is that many of these little tweaks would be easier to implement during development than added retro-actively.
Read more about iPhone accessibility here.
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