I had the chance to speak with some people at Apple today on the
matter of accessibility in general. Here are some assorted notes.
Apple is keenly aware of the accessibility issues. A great deal of
time and effort is going into making the applications which ship with
OSx will be accessible.
Apple has heard the requests about iTunes and is working to make that
product accessible. How iTunes is more difficult than other programs
to introduce accessibility to I do not understand but Apple is very
much aware of the need to get iTunes working with VoiceOver.
The iPhone is so new that there are less than a dozen of them in
existence and those units could hardly be considered finished
products. Again Apple is aware for the need to make it and other such
products accessible and is working to that end. I don't know what
form that might take. I suspect that beyond a few engineers at Apple
no one does.
Steve Jobs quite understandably demoed the iPhone features and
interface that most people will be using. That does not mean that
other options such as speech or touch with voice will not be
available. Remember folks that the blind and profound dyslexics make
up a tiny sliver of the market. As much as I would like to have Apple
mention VoiceOver in their advertising I can understand why they don't.
Greg Kearney
- iPhones, and other accessibility issues Greg Kearney
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