I had two best men at my wedding. Their tandem toast revolved around my relationship to BPR. Addiction may be the word they used. So, as I was browsing the iPhone app store on my iPod Touch, I could not resist testing out NPR Mobile when I ran across it. NPR Mobile is an unofficial app, put together by a volunteer and released gratis. From the web site:

NPR Mobile 1.0 is an easy-to-use application that will help you find your favorite NPR programs and segments. I’ve found that with it, I am able to expose myself to additional NPR programming that my local station doesn’t carry. Often times, when I wake up in the morning, I half-hear a story on Morning Edition, and want to come back to it later in the day. With NPR Mobile, I’ve been able to do this, and hear the full story on my time.

It does exactly what it is supposed to do and it does it with a simple elegance. But how does it look from a low vision perspective?

Since I was curious about the accessibility of the app, I look a look at their sotry, Some Technology Leaves The Blind Behind. How ironic.

NPR Mobile iPhone App

There are two main accessibility features I look for in an iPhone app. Others, like high contrast color schemes, are secondary. First, though, I look for swivel. Second, I look for multitouch zoom or an adjustable font. I had no luck with the NPR app. No swivel. No zoom. No adjustable font.

The only saving grace for accessibility is that NPR is radio, so all their stories have an audio portion. The listen link sends the iPhone into QuickTime so you can easily listen to the stories that interest you.

I look forward to seeing future iterations of NPR Mobile. It does what it is supposed to do ans does it well. In the future, I hope Pass Time adds some zoom and swivel for those of us with reading glasses.

NPR Mobile is available from the iTunes App Store. Read more iPhone accessibility reviews here.

Tags: accessibility, accessibility feature, apple, audio, blind, font, iphone, iPhone app, iPod, ipod touch, itunes, low vision, mobile, npr, npr programming, photo, reading glasses, Touch, vision, zoom

This entry was posted on February 20, 2009 at 8:50 am and is filed under large print. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.