The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast

Robert and Allison spend this podcast talking with Shelly Brisbin. Shelly is the author of iOS Access for All: Your Comprehensive Guide to Accessibility for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch (iOS 8 Edition.

When Shelly uses the words access for all and comprehensive guide she means them. Chapters 3 and 4 cover access for people who are dealing with blindness and low vision. Chapter 5 deals with Siri and voice control. Chapter 6 is all about access for people who have a hearing impairment. Chapter 7 covers physical and learning access including an excellent explanation of switch controls. There are chapters which discuss accessible apps and the appendices list VoiceOver gestures, VoiceOver keyboard commands and VoiceOver Braille commands.

Allison and Robert share the opinion that this book is a must read for anyone who has an interest in really understanding Apple accessibility. The book is available in EPUB and PDF formats. We recommend EPUB. One can purchase the book directly from
Shelly’s Website
or from the
Apple iBook Store.

Thanks Shelly.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Allison and Robert spend time discussing Rogue Amoeba’s
Audio Hijack 3
Mac application with Grant Farr the Rogue Amoeba developer responsible for the Audio Hijack user interface including the excellent VoiceOver support.

Audio Hijack 3 is a major redesign of this extremely popular audio capturing application. At first glance, one would suspect that the highly visual custom audio grid would be unusable by a blind person. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Grant Farr talks us through the interface and explains how he made it work with VoiceOver.

The effort and creativity that has gone into making Audio Hijack 3 fully accessible to the VoiceOver user is most appreciated. It is clear that Grant and Rogue Amoeba have made VoiceOver accessibility an integral part of the design and development of Audio Hijack 3. For those of us who use VoiceOver, it doesn’t get any better than this.

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Robert And Allison spend this hour podcasting with David Woodbridge, Senior Adaptive Technology Specialist at
Vision Australia.

Most of us know David from his excellent
Podcast
where he provides concise but thorough demonstrations of how to use our Apple products with VoiceOver.

In this podcast, however, we learn that accessible Apple devices have become an integral part of David’s family life. He uses apps like Find My Friends and Find My iPhone to keep track of family and to locate those lost Apple devices that have hidden under the bed.

David uses the accessible parental controls to ensure that his children are accessing appropriate entertainment. Apple’s new Family Sharing system enable David to share apps and entertainment with all family members.

Finally, the fact that Apple operating systems can be independently installed and updated by a blind person means that David can provide his family with excellent tech support.

While Apple software does have bugs (as does all software) David prefers to report the bugs, find workarounds and he continues to enjoy the power and flexibility of accessible Apple hardware and software everyday.

Apple accessibility continues to change the lives of blind people throughout the world. Isn’t that really what Apple accessibility is all about?

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