Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Apple is celebrating and promoting accessibility in a few different ways. The App Store has multiple features highlighting developers, athletes, and creatives, and also has feature for the top accessibility apps for vision, hearing, speech, learning, physical and motor, and more.
Seeing AI has to count as one of the most transformational apps ever created, narrating the world to blind and low-vision users, and it just got more powerful still in the latest update.
Microsoft says the latest version gets three new features …
With the introduction of the Apple Watch and later AirPods, Apple broke new ground on integrating sensors and vital health tracking tools into wearable technology. The company’s health ambitions were cemented with the Apple Watch Series 4, which introduced fall detection and a sensor to let you take ECGs on the go. Other companies are also exploring the intersection of wearable technology and wellness. Starkey has been an early leader in what they refer to as the “healthables” market. At CES 2019, the company previewed new updates to its line of intelligent hearing aids.
Instagram is out today with two major accessibility improvements to give those with visual impairments a better experience on the social media platform. Automatic alternative text and custom alternative text will offer users the ability to hear descriptions of photos.
A small detail Apple changed in the transition from iOS 6 to iOS 7 and beyond is On/Off Labels. In the old days, Apple enabled On/Off labels by default and now that’s no longer the case with iOS’ modern, more flat approach.
Follow along to learn how to turn them back on…
At WWDC 2018, Apple’s Senior Director of Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives Sarah Herrlinger joined the Accessible Podcast for an interview. Hosted by Steven Aquino and Timothy Buck, the Accessible Podcast is an excellent new podcast focused on highlighting accessibility in technology…
Smart home technology can be a great convenience to any of us, but is often particularly valuable to those with disabilities.
We recently heard blind people talk about the life-changing nature of things like Apple’s Siri and VoiceOver, and one 9to5Mac reader has now told us how he uses two pieces of smart home tech to help keep a disabled family member safe …
USB Implementers Forum has today shared a new Human Interface Device standard for braille displays. This marks an important step for providing greater accessibility to those with low vision or blindness to devices across manufacturers and operating systems.
The WSJ has an interesting piece looking at how AI and other forms of technology are transforming the lives of blind people.
Microsoft’s Seeing AI app is one particularly dramatic example – able to do things like identify faces, recognize bank notes, read handwriting and so on – but Apple’s tech is also said to be incredibly valuable …
It’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day today, May 17, and Apple is marking the occasion by highlighting its accessibility features on the apple.com homepage …
Apple has announced that its Everyone Can Code curriculum will be living up to its name, by making it accessible to blind and deaf students, as well as those with other disabilities such as issues with motor skills.
A Swift training program which begins in kindergarten schools, Everyone Can Code started out as a free ebook (available here, with teachers’ guide) before being rolled out to colleges around the world, including a huge rollout in Chicago …
Apple will be hosting at least two exclusive events at its retail stores to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day tomorrow. These include one with Paralympian Scout Bassett and Nike+ Head Coach Chris Bennett and another with activist Andrea Dalzell.
In the run-up to Global Accessibility Awareness Day this Thursday, Apple has been highlighting a few of the ways that it has worked to make life easier for people with disabilities …
Apple engineers visited the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired earlier this week where the company leads its Everyone Can Code curriculum. According to Austin Satesman of Open Source, this was the first class Apple has led for blind and low-vision students.
Apple has long been lauded for their dedication to creating accessible products, and Tim Cook has even called accessibility a “core value” of the company. Now, Apple is giving back to their own local community by partnering with the Magical Bridge Foundation to support the development of a new accessible playground in Sunnyvale, CA.
Microsoft is out today with a new app for those with vision impairments. Soundscape for iOS has been in development for about four years and is now available for free. Read on for how this technology works.
Apple’s commitment to accessibility goes beyond UI features in its devices, says one Twitter user who took a trip to the Apple Park visitor’s center.
User @xarph said that the center was an object lesson in how to design for accessibility ‘when cost is no object’ …
The iOS app Be My Eyes announced that it will be offering support for blind or impaired customers through Microsoft’s Disability Answer Desk in the latest release of the app.
As noted on the official schedule website for the 2018 SXSW Conference & Festival held in Austin, TX, Apple’s Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives will make a public appearance at the annual event.
A classical pianist who teaches music at a school in Queens, New York, says that iPads have allowed students with learning disabilities to play music for the first time – and that experience has transformed their lives.
One of the students who had never spoken before not only now speaks, but also sings the solo in a song he helped write …
I was really impressed when Microsoft launched its iPhone-only Seeing AI app designed to ‘narrate the world’ to blind and visually impaired people. The app uses AI to recognize what it is seeing, and turn that into an audio description …
Apple and Cochlear originally announced their partnership back in July, and today the first product out of that partnership is available. As detailed in a report from The Australian, Cochlear has released its Made for iPhone Nucleus 7 Sound Processor in Australia and it will soon come to other countries….
Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was working with hearing-aid manufacturer Cochlear on Bluetooth and other technologic challenges to offer a direct connection to iPhones. Now, a new piece from Wired offers more detail on the efforts and talks about how “Apple is putting voices in users’ heads” with the technology…
A report on the latest cochlear implants from hearing-aid manufacturer Cochlear has revealed that Apple worked on Bluetooth protocols for direct connection to iPhones – and now licenses it to manufacturers free of charge.
Cochlear implants are used by people who are profoundly deaf, and need to be surgically implanted into the ear. They usually connect to phones via an external device, which are quite obtrusive. What Apple has developed in conjunction with manufacturers of the devices is a protocol which allows that intermediary device to be eliminated, allowing direct connection to an iPhone …
