Posts Tagged ‘ accessibility ’

A new company may have solved one of my biggest challenges as a visually-impaired photographer. Manual focus is out of the question for me. Automatic focus is a gamble as it often picks the wrong subject to focus on. I have too many shots that have the background in sharp focus while the subject...
Read More »

Is the iPad the ultimate accessible electronic accessory? Of course not, but it has some serious potential. Right away, iPad 1.0 already wins the accessible tech toy race hands down. With a few small changes, next year’s iPad 2.0 could begin to render many low vision aids obsolete. Out of the gate, the iPad...
Read More »

My new favorite app for writing emails and other documents on my Touch is WriteRoom. It it both accessible and versatile, though it is not free. Despite the rather hefty price tag at $4.99, it is well worth it. For me, accessibility is key and WriteRoom wins hands down here. Not only does it...
Read More »

Blind Photographers has written already about iPhone photography ins Shooting the iPhone 3GS. What will the iPad bring to the table? Nothing yet, as the tablet, like its older sibling, the iPod Touch, lacks a camera.  However, hope is not lost. PCWorld reports that they are  Sleuthing for an iPad Camera. “General consensus is...
Read More »

Apple’s new iPad has had me doing some thinking about its potential impact fro the visually impaired, particularly for blind photographers. Reading an article today (thanks, Dad) about a new e-book reader software, Blio, soon to be put out by a company run by Ray Kurzweil, prompted me to consider a new issue, accessible...
Read More »

Despite Apple’s leading efforts in accessibility technology, I have always found iTunes extremely hard to use. Apple’s major focus has been on VoiceOver and screen reader software compatibility. There are many visually impaired computer users out there (and right here) who have not made the switch to a non-visual interface, preferring to rely on...
Read More »

The WordPress development team is planning to update WP’s media handling in the next version. Via WordPress › Blog » Vote for 2.9 Media Features, “A large percentage of the requests we get from users are for more/better media features, so we’ve decided to focus 2.9 on building an infrastructure for improved media handling...
Read More »

Finding accessibility add-ons for Firefox can be tricky. There is no add-on category for accessibility. Different searches yield different add-one. I have blogged about my favorite add-ons, but not everyone reads this blog. So I have put together all the accessibility related add-ons that I use inot one ‘collection‘, a new way to group...
Read More »

Getting online is not always easy when you are visually impaired. Font sizes can be too small, images hard to see and colors hard to make out. But there are ways to minimize these problems. I have been tinkering with my web browsers ever since I used my first one many years ago. I...
Read More »

I have something to confess. I am one of god’s most pathetic creatures. I am a Boston Red Sox fan. Even though I had to quit little league after getting hit in the face trying to play catch on sidelines, I still love the game. My one season of little league involved a total...
Read More »

I love new gadgets, virtual as well as physical. So, I can’t help liking Google Labs. Google rolls out experimental features, both fun ones and useful ones, for Gmail through Labs. I have always wanted a simple taks manager that integrated right into my email. Now Google offers Gmail Tasks. While still rough around...
Read More »

Apparently, Apple has been listening. I have blogged much over the past six months on the iPhone’s missing accessibility features; more zoom, more color contrast and more voice. Today, Apply announced the next iteration of the iPhone, the 3G S, and it has taken a giant step in the right direction. Apple introduces these...
Read More »

As I noted when I Bought My First iPhone App, there is no built-in way to totate images on the iPhone. Apple probably never thought of it because rotating images on the iPhone makes them quite small. It is both better and simpler just to swivel the iPhone itself depending on whether the image...
Read More »

Apparently, some one, as usual, has beaten me to it.  Not long ago, I posted about talking lamp posts. These talking lamp posts would give nearby visitors an audio description of their location. I thought it would be a better idea to build that capability into GPS-capable devices. They can build the ‘guides’ into...
Read More »

On every digital device, some piece of the screen is almost always lost to toolbars. Windows has its Task Bar. Each individual software has its title bar up top, usually following by the main menu bar. The iPhone’s browser has the same issues. As you can see on the right, a portion of the...
Read More »