The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast

In this podcast, Allison and Robert speak with Rene Ritchie; writer, podcaster and creative force behind the very successful
iMore
website. In June of 2014, Rene wrote an article entitled
Apple and Accessibility: Pushing back against unacceptable realities.

In the podcast, we learn how Rene became interested in accessibility. He explains how Apple’s focus on accessibility is resulting in better products for everyone and not just benefiting people who have a disability. Rene explains the importance of Apple’s commitment to accessibility coming from the top down. This is a major factor in Apple having become the world leader in designing and producing devices that are useable by everyone.

We discuss the future of accessibility and Rene emphasizes the idea that we can all do more for accessibility. To this end, Rene has created a
Disability Hub
at iMore.com. We encourage everyone to go there and participate. By helping each other, we can make Apple accessibility even better.

Thanks Rene for your commitment to accessibility and for providing a place where stimulating and important discussions can take place. If we bring our experience and expertise to the iMore disability discussions, we can improve Apple accessibility for everybody.

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How many times have you heard the following statement? “The Mac is great for working with email, web browsing and basic word processing. If, however, you want to get real work done, you will have to use Microsoft Office and a Windows Screen Reader.”

In his new book, Mastering the Macintosh with VoiceOver, Tim Sniffen teaches VoiceOver users how to work with Apple’s Pages and Numbers software to accomplish the same advanced word processing and spreadsheet tasks that most people think can only be done using a windows screen reader.

As Allison and Robert discuss this book with Tim, it becomes apparent that Tim’s years of experience and his passion for teaching access technology has enabled him to write a book demonstrating that a skilled VoiceOver user can indeed reach the same level of productivity on the Mac that can be achieved by an accomplished user of windows screen reading technology.

In addition to building on what most Mac users already know as a result of having used an iOS device, Tim makes extensive use of such important Mac and VoiceOver features as the item chooser, custom keyboard shortcuts and custom trackpad gestures to accomplish such things as table creation and the building of sophisticated spreadsheets.

Robert and Allison believe that Tim’s book is the perfect follow-up to Janet Ingber’s National Braille Press book called
Learning the Mac with VoiceOver.
Mastering the Macintosh with VoiceOver is for anyone who wants to move beyond the basics and explore just how much can actually be done with VoiceOver on the Mac.

Tim’s book is available free of charge in the
iBook Store.
We recommend that you read the book on your iOS device while practicing what is being taught on your Mac.

Thanks Tim for a great podcast and congratulations on the fabulous job that you did on this book. Keep pushing the access technology envelope.

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