I have been advocating for increased technology access for 25 years now. In the process, I have piled up a number of advocacy successes from talking ATMs by the biggest banks to accessible audio interfaces of voting machines to audio description at movie theaters. I have been a moving force that has aided in securing this access on scores of projects for hundreds of thousands of blind and disabled people. Starting last year, I began advocating for accessible apps. In the world of apps, most apps are not produced in a way that would fall under the jurisdiction of the Americans with disabilities Act or other disability policies put in place in the past 50 years. Therefore, I found that personal appeal and persuasion are necessary and most successful.
I always e-mail. I describe who I am, my station in life and how the app is useful or would be potentially useful to me. I describe the barriers with VoiceOver in clear and detailed language. I also explain how VO is built into every iPhone so validating the problem and replicating it is simple. I conclude my message by stating specifically the problems I want corrected. I refer folks to the Apple Usability guidelines and the section that spells out the issue in question if the problem is not obvious. The communication to the developer is clear and complete and not like a series of 140 character one-liners like those seen on Twitter. Kelly On 8/11/14, Teresa Cochran <[email protected]> wrote: > To my way of thinking, Apple *facilitates accessibility > in third-party apps, and not all of the reps at the accessibility service > number will necessarily know all of the specific blindness-related apps. > this is not to say that they shouldn't be familiarized with them to some > extent. However, making accessibility available in a mainstream product is > somewhat new territory. > > I would fully expect the folks at > apple accessibility to be familiar with the apps built into iO > s, such as Mail, Calendar, and Safari. > > There are many, many third-party apps, and I'm afraid the specific > blindness-related ones like Seeing Assistant, Bard, and NFB Newsreader will > be lost in the shuffle for the most part. > > I look at it this way: how many average blind folks know about switching > devices for iOS, to be used by quadruplegics using mouth controls? > Accessibility is always an education process. For example, i have > experienced some hearing loss, but not to the extent that hearing aids are > required. When hearing aids become necessary for me, I will definitely need > to learn a lot about the use of them with iOS. Icould be learning now, as > well. I know for a fact as a former access tech trainer that some trainers > specialized in certain types of accessibility. I used Braille, and a > colleague was much better than I was at teaching low-vision solutions, since > I had never been sighted. > > I think we're at a frontier, and we need to be aware of this, even though, > in all possible worlds, anyone getting paid to advise on accessibility > issues should have some breadth and depth of knowledge on this very broad > subjet. > > Just my two, > Teresa > > "We can see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well, and seeing > with the brain is often called imagination."--Oliver Sacks > >> On Aug 11, 2014, at 2:45 PM, Michelle Bernstein >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> The bard mobile app is easy to locate I agree. The nfb Newsline was not, >> for me, when I searched nfb or national federation of the blind in the >> iTunes Store and the App Store. What was surprising to me was that these >> apps were not familiar to the people who answered the apple accessibility >> phone line. Apparently I misunderstood the point of the original poster >> in that he is looking for advice regarding speaking with developers, not >> individual stories of frustration with dealing with customer service for >> the accessibility device providers. So please disregard my earlier post. >> >> -- >> The following information is important for all members of the viphone >> list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you >> have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you >> feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or >> moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives >> for this list can be searched at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "VIPhone" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. > All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any > questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a > member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators > directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
