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 …
iOS 11 delivered with a ton of highly-requested features— especially for iPad users— but there’s still one feature missing from the release that many were hoping for. A true “dark mode” to change Apple’s mostly light-colored user interface like the option it has for menus and the dock on macOS is still absent. But in iOS 11, we get the next best thing with a new feature called ‘Smart Invert Colors’.
For many, this feature will satisfy their dark mode needs until an official feature is introduced. Here’s how to enable it…
New houses being built with HomeKit-enabled appliances are becoming more accessible to consumers thanks to homebuilders incorporating Apple’s home automation technology, and HomeKit isn’t just a convenience or neat demo. NBC News shares the incredible story of how Todd Stabelfeldt who is a “complete quadriplegic with no movement below his shoulders” has been empowered by HomeKit.
Steven Aquino, a self-proclaimed tech journalist covering Apple accessibility, has taken to Twitter today to share some of Apple’s efforts for April’s Autism Acceptance month. Apple hopes to celebrate the unique experiences of those on the Autistic spectrum with new classes at retail stores and with a dedicated App Store page.
While Siri may not be the perfect companion some wish it was, the personal assistant’s voice can lend itself to our lives in a variety of helpful ways. For the past few months I’ve been using Siri to read all the text I want to read but don’t actually need to read. Having the personal assistant read articles to me means I can focus on other activities while essentially turning my reading lists and emails into a personalized podcast.
As he continues making the rounds in Europe. Tim Cook made an appearance at Apple’s retail location in Glasgow. While Cook has stopped in at multiple Apple Stores over the last week, this visit is especially notable because Cook got the opportunity to talk to Angela Reed, a cerebral palsy sufferer who relies on iPhone for its accessibility features…
Apple kicked off today’s keynote with a video highlighting some of the accessibility features of Apple products, such as spoken alerts letting a blind person know when the camera has detected a face and locked focus on it …
Apple VP of environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson has shared a story via ABC7 News about a nine-year-old boy whose hearing was restored thanks to a new type of bone-conduction hearing aid controlled by a companion iPhone app. Highlighting accessibility and inclusion, Jackson wrote that ‘technology can transform lives [and] 9-year old Joshua is a great example.’
Joshua Gomez started losing his hearing at the age of three, and a succession of surgeries over a five-year period all failed. Conventional hearing-aids couldn’t help with his particular condition, but the Children’s Hearing Center at Stanford finally found a solution …
Apple has always been vocal about its commitment to accessibility features for its products, and now a member of the company’s accessibility design and quality team is speaking up on just how committed Apple is. A new profile from Mashable details Jordyn Castor, a 22-year-old, blind engineer.
Apple briefly mentioned some accessibility enhancements during its press event this week — watchOS 3 is adding wheelchair specific optimizations to Apple Watch — but iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10 and watchOS 3 also have many other improvements to assist users with motor, vision, hearing, and learning impairments. Here’s the rundown…
As rumored late last year, Apple has now added a dedicated accessibility accessories category to its online store. As Amvsement noted, Apple currently offers a total of 15 products, addressing the three areas of vision, physical & motor skills, and learning & literacy.
For those who are blind or partially sighted, Apple offers two different braille displays which serve as both screen-readers and control keyboards. For those with motor skills impairment, products include an over-sized trackball and a wide variety of switches to trigger functions on a Mac or iOS device. Devices for learning disabilities include a ‘tactile musical interface’ to provide a fun way to create music …
At a time when so many Facebook posts comprise a photo and a brief comment, there’s one group of people who get rather left out of the picture: those who are blind and partially sighted. That’s a problem Facebook is fixing, starting from today. The iOS app now uses artificial intelligence to figure out the content of photos, and Apple’s VoiceOver feature to read aloud a description of them.
The Verge got a demo of the feature, which Facebook calls ‘automatic alt text.’
Automatic alt text, which is coming to iOS today and later to Android and the web, recognizes objects in photos using machine learning […] While still in its early stages, the technology can reliably identify concepts in categories including transportation (“car,” “boat,” “airplane”), nature (“snow,” “ocean,” “sunset”), sports (“basketball court”), and food (“sushi”). The technology can also describe people (“baby,” “smiling,” beard”), and identify a selfie.
Facebook said that there were two approaches it could have taken to the problem, and it chose the one it believed would be most successful …
My iPhone 6s is not jailbroken, but there are still a couple of tricks that I employ that make it closer to that of a jailbroken phone. For example, getting rid of animations — a feat normally reserved for users willing to jailbreak — is now available to all iOS 9 users via the handy SpringBoard animations glitch.
Another trick, one that I haven’t been shy about sharing in the past, involves reducing iPhone screen brightness beyond levels that are possible with the standard brightness slider controls. Like the animations glitch, this too uses iOS’ deep accessibility features to pull off the job. If you’re someone who likes to use an iPhone or iPad at night, then your eyes will thank you for this trick.
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One of the things that makes iOS special is its SpringBoard animations. The animations help orient the user around iOS using 3D space.
But not everyone is a fan of iOS’ animations — some for purely aesthetic reasons and others for health reasons. With this in mind, Apple has provided a way to reduce the animations using the Reduce Motion switch found in the Accessibility settings. Even with that option available, some wish to take the reduction of animations even further and disable them altogether.
Up until now, many of the available options for disabling animations relied on jailbreaking. But a new iOS glitch found by a redditor makes it possible to completely get rid of SpringBoard animations until you reboot your iPhone. Watch our step-by-step video walkthrough inside to see how.
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High-resolution audio isn’t the only rumor emerging from Macotakara today, the site also claiming that Apple will begin selling accessibility accessories for Macs and iOS devices early next year.
In the second quarter of 2016 (January-March), Apple plans to release Accessibility-related peripherals and accessories for both iOS and OS X.
Apple has long championed access to technology for those with disabilities. The American Foundation for the Blind gave Apple a Helen Keller Achievement Award, while the president of the National Federation of the Blind stated that “Apple has done more for accessibility than any other company.”
Apple has previously highlighted Accessibility apps in its store, and Tim Cook last year told investors that while making its devices accessible doesn’t necessarily increase revenue, the company does so because it’s the right thing to do.
Photo: Resound