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	<title>tim o'brien photos &#187; accessibility feature</title>
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	<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com</link>
	<description>A blind photographer's exploration of his vision through photography and accessibility.</description>
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		<title>Accessing Wikipedia on the iPhone: Wikipanion Accessiility</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/05/accessing-wikipedia-on-the-iphone-wikipanion-accessiility/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/05/accessing-wikipedia-on-the-iphone-wikipanion-accessiility/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2009 12:39:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alternate color scheme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bookmarking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color scheme]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[font settings]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[interface]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wikepedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wikipanion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wikipedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1550</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wikipanion is a feature-rich access point Wikipedia on the iPhone. it has an intelligent, well thought out interface. Besides support for multiple languages, Wikipanion has smart search and bookmarking features. you can also e-mail your search results to disbelieving friends. Wikipanion is also quite accessible. Not only is the font size adjustable, but you can use both multi-touch and double-tap zooming. You can use Wikipanion in either landscape or portrait mode. The only major accessibility feature it lacks is the ability to choose an alternate color scheme. The Wikipanion web site offers detailed descriptions of these features. This intellgent layout is described as Pretty Print: Wikipanion&#8217;s custom formatting for the iPhone formats each page so that it is easy to read and quick to load. With a direct connection to the Wikipedia servers, pages load several times faster than when viewed from Safari. Wikipanion is the only Wikipedia reader to support double tap zooming in and out on the page. It also has complicated algorithms to display tables, size images and scale TeX equations for easier viewing. The adjustable font slider is describes as Sizes that fit: Interactively resize the font size to whatever you please right in the interface. [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Weather Access on the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/weather-access-on-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/weather-access-on-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:39:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color scheme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1761</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Call me crazy. I carry my own meteorologist around in my pocket. I check the temperature, outdoor conditions and the forecast several times a day. I guess I am crazy. But the iPhone&#8217;s Weather App is a great personal meteorologist. Well designed,, it lays out lots of information in a simple, easy to read format. Using images instead of text, the forecast and current conditions are easy and quick to see. The dark background adds not only to the aesthetics, but makes it much more accessible as well. Weather lacks two important accessibility features, zoom and landscape mode. I understand why the develops did not find this necessary, but I do not see how enabling them would hurt. Read more iPhone accessibility reviews here. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.Related Posts:Accessing the iPhone CalendarAccessing the iPhone App StoreAccessing iPhone Time: The Digital Clock AppAccessing the NY Times, iPhone EditioniPhone as Accessible Pocket Watch]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/weather-access-on-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Feeds on the Go: Accessing Google Reader on the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/feeds-on-the-go-accessing-google-reader-on-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/feeds-on-the-go-accessing-google-reader-on-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:50:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[access]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color scheme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1873</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To keep track of all the blogs I like to follow, I use Google Reader. It has a nice clean interface and works in any browser from anywhere. So, I naturally wanted to check this out for the iPhone. Like most of Google&#8217;s online applications, access to Google Reader is through its mobile web site on the iPhone&#8217;s built-in browser. The iPhone browser allows landscape mode for any site, so Google Reader has that accessibility feature. Unfortunately, that is the only accessibility y feature the program has. For some reason, mobile web sites tend to disable the multi-touch zoom that is the iPhone&#8217;s big accessibility advantage. Google Reader also sticks with Google&#8217;s elegant, but low contrast, color scheme. It is useable, but zoom would make it that much better. Read more iPhone accessibility reviews here. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.Related Posts:Accessing Google Talk on the iPhoneAccessing the iPhone CalendarAccessible e-Reading: Google BooksAccessing the iPhone App StoreAccessing iPhone Time: The Digital Clock App]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/feeds-on-the-go-accessing-google-reader-on-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Tweetie Access on the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/tweetie-access-on-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/tweetie-access-on-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:48:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[apps]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ipod touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[size]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[themes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=2307</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Following my earlier review of free Twitter apps on the iPhone, Accessing Twitter from the iPhone, a reader suggested I check out his favorite Twitter app, Tweetie. Tweetie is a feature-rich Twitter app that has added a couple of valuable accessibility features in its latest release, making Tweetie worth the $2.99 price tag. [Caveat Emptor: I used a free promo code to download this app fro review.] Tweetie now has both themes and font choice. The large font choice is reasonably large (you can also choose small and medium). One of the theme choices is a very accessible light-on-dark. Between these two features, I find Tweetie sufficiently easy to use. There are a couple of changes that would make the app more accessible. Landscape mode, combined with a giant font option, would make Tweetie even easier to read. The theme only covers the main page. Tapping to a single tweet page reverts to the normal white-on-black color scheme. Overall, Tweetie is now my default choice for Twittering on my iPod Touch. Besides the ease of reading, Tweetie also allows me to keep track of both the Twitter accounts I run, oberazzi, for this blog, and BlindPhotogs, for the Blind Photographers [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/04/tweetie-access-on-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Accessing WritePad</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-writepad/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-writepad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[handwriting recognition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ipod touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phatware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recognition engine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spell checker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[text]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virtual keyboard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writepad]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1537</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[WritePad is a handwriting recognition engine for the iPhone from Phatware. WritePad is the free basic app that powers Phatware&#8217;s more functional suite of apps, WritePad Affairs, WritePad Events and WritePad Notes. WritePad Supports iPhone and iPod Touch 2.0 or later WritePad is a new custom editor for iPhone that utilizes handwriting recognition input for the English language as well as iPhone keyboard for text entry, spell checker, context analyzer and standard editing operations such as copy, cut, paste, etc. How accessible is WritePad? Handwriting recognition is a neat accessibility feature since you no longer need to use the virtual keyboard to type text. WritePad also has an adjustable font size and color scheme. On the other hand, the app does not over landscape mode or an alternative color scheme. In the end, it depends on how reliable the handwriting recognition is for you. WritePad allows you to send notes via email and can store multiple notes. I expect that the pricier Phatware offerings build nicley on top of WritePad, but I have not tested them yet. If you find it useful for nothing else, you can literally jot down a phone number or other quick note without the delays [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-writepad/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>BigNames: The First Accessible iPhone App.</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/bignames-the-first-accessible-iphone-app/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/bignames-the-first-accessible-iphone-app/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:02:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=2347</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is hope! A few days ago, an email popped into my inbox about a new iPhone App. BigNames has been developed with accessibility in mnd. This is a first. BigNames is a contact app for the iPhone.  &#8220;BigNames displays your iPhone contacts extra-large and easy to read. Perfect for when you&#8217;re on the move and need to make a call without squinting.&#8221; Designed as a dialer program, it is not currently available on the iPod Touch. So I can&#8217;t do a full review yet, despite my enthusiasm. BigNames has great accessibility features, making it very easy to read. Accessing the built in contacts directory, BigNames displays your contacts in a large font with an light-on-bloack color shceme. The app swivels back and form between landscape (with a larger font) and porrtait mode. The developers have promised to look into making the app Touch firiendly. I may not make phone calls on my iPod, but send emails and need to check addresses and phone numbers from my contact list . You can find BigNames in the iPhone App Store. Visit the App Store (launches iTunes) Read more about iPhone Access here. If you find this post useful or interesting, please [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/bignames-the-first-accessible-iphone-app/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>iPhone 3.0 Accessibility Preview</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-30-accessibility-preview/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-30-accessibility-preview/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:33:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[audiobook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=2352</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apple previewed the upcoming summer release of the next iteration of its iPhone platform today. A small portion of these features have been documented on the web at the iPhone OS 3.0 Preview.How will iPhone OS 3.0 affect iPhone accessibility? To be honest, it is way too soon to say. Apple&#8217;s show today highlighted only a few of the new features and accessibility was not on the agenda.  However, digging a little deeper, I found a few nuggests. More Landscape Mode Landscape mode is a key accessibility feature for the iPhone. A wider screen allows a larger font while maintaining readability. This summer , we will be able to &#8220;(r)ead and compose email and text messages in landscape&#8221; on the iPhone. This is an important first step. Hopefully app developers will follow where Apple is leading. Accessories &#8220;Using the new External Accessory framework, your application can now communicate with &#8220;Made for iPod&#8221; hardware accessories attached to iPhone or iPod touch through either the 30-pin dock connector or wirelessly using Bluetooth.&#8220; This option opens up a market for disability accessories. For example, an external camera combined with the right app could turn the iPhone into a portable magnifier. This could be [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-30-accessibility-preview/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<title>iPhone Accessibility: An Open Letter to Steve Jobs &amp; Apple</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-accessibility-an-open-letter-to-steve-jobs-apple/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-accessibility-an-open-letter-to-steve-jobs-apple/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:05:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[AFB]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blind]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1990</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An Open Letter to Steve Jobs and the iPhone Development Team Over the last few months, I have dedicated much of my time and blog to thoughts and reviews of the accessibility of the iPhone platform for the visually impaired. Since I am partially sighted with some functional vision, I have been focused on simple, easily-implementable features that would improve the iPhone&#8217;s ease of use for users with less than perfect vision rather than for the profoundly blind. Building on the multitouch zoom, landscape mode and the iPhone&#8217;s good color screen, I have set out some guidelines for iPhone developers. Additionally, I have begun a series of app reviews based on an accessibility perspective. I now have a single web page bringing together all of these posts: http://www.timobrienphotos.com/large-print-ideas/iphone-accessiphone-access/. I know that you have had some contact with the American Federation of the Blind on making the iPhone more accessible. I do not know the outcome of these discussions, but I know the AFB&#8217;s focus on providing universal accessibility. I am not addressing that here. Rather, I am focusing on access for the visually impaired more than for the more profoundly blind. With the aging of the baby boomers and the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-accessibility-an-open-letter-to-steve-jobs-apple/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
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		<title>Accessing your Kindle on the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-kindle/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-kindle/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:35:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[E-Book]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=2143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Spotted today on Slashdot, Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software. &#8220;The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync and read everywhere you go. Readers on the iPhone also now get access to over 200,000 ebook titles on the Amazon Kindle storefront. Check out the hands-on image gallery and video of the Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2.&#8221; via Slashdot &#124; Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software. The Slashdot article links to a decent review of the new app and how it words. But how accessible is this new app? Being visually impaired makes me skeptical of reading on my iPod Touch. But it is not impossible, there are several decent e-book reader apps already on the iPhone platform, including the feature rich, but content poor, Stanza and the content rich, but accessibility poor, Shortcovers. My wife has a first generation Kindle, so I tapped into her account to test out the new Kindle app. The only accessibility feature the Kindle app [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/iphone-kindle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Accessing Twitter from the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-twitter-from-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-twitter-from-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:01:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1545</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Twitter calls itself a a microbloogging service. What the heck is a microblog? Basically, it is a mix of blogging, text messaging and emailing. The New York Times&#8217; David Pogue offere his take on Twitter in Twitter? It’s What You Make It. Pogue is right. Twitter is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. I will delve no further into Twitterology. Twitter accessibility has attracted much attention. There are a multitude of ways to access Twitter from your desktop. The most obvious is through the Twitter web site, but there are dozens of widget, apps and plug ins that do the job, each with it own accessibility issue. A popular new access point is through Accessible Twitter, which has a clean, screen-reader-friendly interface. How accessible is Twitter on the iPhone? Besides receiving tweets as expensive text messages, there are multiple iPhone apps that access your Twitter stream as well as Twitter&#8217;s mobile web site. Here, I will compare the accessibility of two of the more popular iPhone apps, Twitteriffic and TwitterFon, with that of the mobile web site. TwitterFon, as you can see in the first image, has a fairly standard visual look with black font on a [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/03/accessing-twitter-from-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>iPhone App Accessibility: Quixotic Quest?</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/iphone-app-accessibility-quixotic-quest/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/iphone-app-accessibility-quixotic-quest/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:03:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[campaign]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color scheme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[font]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vision]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1976</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A few days ago, I had begun to despair that my attempt to bring about more iPhone accessibility would be a long, lonely waste of time. Apple has been unresponsive to my campaign. Few contacted developers responded to my suggestions. I turned to a few iPhone developer forums. At rirst, I had little luck their either. Then I turned to the folks at Ars Technica. After poking around, I started a discussion topic in their forums, iPhone App Accessibility: Quixotic Quest?. I have has some very insightful comments. From these, I have developed four feasible goals for my quest. To sum up so far, a primary focus should lobby Apple to incorporate low cost accessibility features into the iPhone OS and API. This is the low-hanging fruit. Second, I should ask Apple to produce some simple, straightforward accessibility documentation and guidelines for developers. Third, I should encourage individual app developers to improve their app with specific reviews. Fourth, I should try to leverage the broader low-vision market to help with the lobbying. In my mind the low-hanging fruit are enabling zoom and landscape mode by default for all apps, including their own. Obviously, there will be some apps where this [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Slashdot: We&#8217;re Just Not That Into You, iPhone Apps</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/slashdot-were-just-not-that-into-you-iphone-apps/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/slashdot-were-just-not-that-into-you-iphone-apps/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:22:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[slashdot]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1778</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Slashdot reports that We&#8217;re Just Not That Into You, iPhone Apps . maximus1 writes &#8220;A new report compiled by iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media finds the majority of people stop using apps the day after they download them, and only 1 percent develop a long-term relationship with any given app. Instead, most tend to lose interest after a few minutes, according to this article. Paid apps fare slightly better. 30% of the people downloading a paid app return the next day compared to 20% who download a free app. No surprises that the survey found that apps that focused on games and entertainment seem to outlast other categories when it comes to long-term love.&#8220; Why is this surprising? Most apps cost less than a cup of coffee and a cup of coffee only lasts a few minutes. Apps are in their infancy and there are thousands. iPhone owners are sampling the first generation of these projects. The market is now learning what it can provide and what consumers want. Competition and time means that each succeeding generation of apps will offer more variety and more usefulness. Reviewing apps for their accessibility features has given me a good persective on this [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>No Access to the NPR iPhone App</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/no-access-to-the-npr-iphone-app/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/no-access-to-the-npr-iphone-app/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:50:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[audio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[font]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ipod touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low vision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[npr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[npr programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reading glasses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1529</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Accessing EasyWriter: iPhone App Accessibility Review</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/accessing-easywriter-iphone-app-accessibility-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/accessing-easywriter-iphone-app-accessibility-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:02:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[color scheme]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dark background]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[default size]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[easywriter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feature set]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[font]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fonts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPod]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landscape mode]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[size]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[subject lines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Touch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1490</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Next in my series of iPhone app accessibility reviews is EasyWriter. The main feature of EasyWriter, as its programmers put it, is: EasyWriter makes it easy to write emails using a bigger keyboard in landscape mode. Easywriter has one other accessibility feature that the default Mail program lacks; multitouch zoom. Between landscape mode and the zoom, Easywriter becomes a much more accessible way to type emails than Apple&#8217;s offering. The last bit of good news is that it is free! Like all the email-capable apps, sending the email requires the app to hand control back to the default Mail program. There you need to fill in the To and Subject lines and click send. All in all, it is a fairly painless process. What is EasyWriter missing? First, there is no way to ajust the color scheme. Light fonts on a dark background are much easier on the eyes. Second, there is a fairly restrictive limit to how much you can zoom in. More zoom would be very nice. Even nicer would be even more control over font type and default size. Unless EasyWriter adpots some of these additional fearues, I would guess its feature set, landscape mode and miltitouch [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Read it to Me: Kindle 2.0 has Text-to-Speech</title>
		<link>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/read-it-to-me-kindle-20-has-text-to-speech/</link>
		<comments>http://www.timobrienphotos.com/2009/02/read-it-to-me-kindle-20-has-text-to-speech/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:33:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[large print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accessibility feature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amazon kindle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[audible]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[low vision]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ny times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reading text]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[size]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[text]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[text speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[text to speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[variable speed playback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zoom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.timobrienphotos.com/?p=1519</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The NY Times, along with every other news source, is reporting on the new version of Amazon&#8217;s e-book reader, the Kindle.Buried among all the other changes is one important accessibility feature: text-to-speech. According to the Times: Giving Voice to the Kindle: The Kindle 2 also has text-to-speech built in. “Any book, blog, magazine or personal document can be read aloud,” Mr. Bezos said. Users can switch between reading text and hearing it read by a fairly computerized voice. “It’s very easy to go back and forth between reading and listening,” Mr. Bezos said I have tested out the first version, as my wife has the Kindle 1.0. With its adjustable font size set to the maximum, I can read the text fairly easily with my low vision reading glasses. I look forward to testing out the new text-to-speech feature when I find someone with the new version. The new Kindle&#8217;s text-to-speech offers two voices, male and female, and does not offer variable speed playback. I really like the variable spped playback on the iPod, though I wish it had more than three settings. We will have to wait on reviews of the reading quality, but Nuance, who provides the Kindle&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
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