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...
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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 features...
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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...
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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’s online applications, access to Google Reader is through its mobile web...
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Facebook, despite its ubiquity, has naver been very accessible. The pages are densely cluttered with an overload of information. Since the company is not doing much about it, there is now a Facebook Accessibility project going on at the volunteer developer group, Project Possibility. But I digress. Facebook has developed a free app, Facebook for...
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I downloaded the beta version of the next iteration of Google’s Chrome browser. The big accessibility improvement is the switch from text zoom to full page zoom. From the Zoom – Google Chrome Help page. If you’re using Google Chrome Beta, try out the new full-page zoom functionality. Go to the Page menu and select Zoom....
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The iPhone Mail app offers an adjustable minimum font size. It is not obvious how to access this setting. Apple buried this feature in the Settings app and can not be accessed from the Mail app itself. From the home screen, tap on the Settings app. Then tap on the Mail, Contacts & Calendars...
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It has been pointed out to me that an effort to convince the iPhone developer community to embrace accessible design may have more fruitful approaches. Specifically, I have been told that it would be more effective to lobby Apple as well as individual app developers. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider...
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Google Maps is a great thing. There is no question about it. But it is not perfect. Surprisingly, it suffers from the same gripe I have with map books and atlases. I can not read the print. It is simply too small, no matter how much you zoom in. This is true both...
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Earlier today, I reviewed several ways to access Twitter on the iPhone, Accessing Twitter from the iPhone. I compared the TwitterFon and Twitteriffic apps with Twitter’s mobile web site. 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...
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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’ 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,...
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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...
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As you can tell, I am a big fan of WordPress, which I use to publish this blog. But I am not always at my desk when a good idea for a post strikes. I have been looking into ways to blog on the go, so to speak, even if that just means while...
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As seen on the Talking Books Librarian, the American Foundation for the Blind’ is conducting a Survey on Small Screen Visual Displays at http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?Mode=Survey&SurveyID=101. Taken from the website: AFB TECH, the technology arm of the American Foundation for the Blind, is currently working to establish standards to improve the readability of small screen visual displays, and...
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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...
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