News

10.10.2 Update

The latest update to Yosemite, 10.10.2, is now live. It claims to fix wifi bugs and other assorted problems, including VoiceOver. With the exception of the two bugs encountered when typing in edit fields on webpages and the inability to play audio iMessages, I have to say that I've found nothing new or fixed in terms of VoiceOver, as much as I hate to write that. See the list of bugs at the bottom of this post. There is a note next to some of them, indicating if it is fixed or could not be tested/reproduced.

An incredible bit of news just hit the wire today--so huge that we wanted to let you know about it ASAP.

The incredible folks that created the biggest innovation to come to touch-typing for the visually impaired community--Fleksy - Happy Typing--released a statement today announcing that the app is now FREE.

An interesting and surprising piece of news today is that Fleksy has been acquired by Pinterest. What’s perhaps most interesting for the vision impaired, is that this may have positive consequences for those of us who remember just how revolutionary Fleksy once promised to be.

A few months ago, the community of blind and visually impaired iOS users was thrown into an uproar when Fleksy split their apps into a new, updated version that was not Voiceover friendly, and an older version that was. Hundreds of comments, tweets, emails, and boos were posted, with some saying Fleksy was abandoning the blind community that helped it get off the ground by purchasing its original app, and others urging patience as Fleksy went through a transition and promised to reunite the two apps into one within six months.

This post is a follow up to my post from December, Braille Display Users Deserve Better From Blindfold Games. In this post, I acknowledged the efforts of Marty for speech users, but pointed out the lack of accessibility for braille display users. While the use of a display is a luxury for some, for the deaf-blind this is not the case, as a display must be relied upon for access to information on a mobile device.

It feels like losing an old friend. Or perhaps losing one's love of life. But American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language was my friend in the world of iOS apps and my love in the world of dictionaries. So going to bed one night with an awesome dictionary which ticks all check boxes in terms of accessibility and getting up the next morning, hearing about the app's takeover by a new developer, re-paying for and downloading it, and finding it an absolute mess in terms of accessibility is nothing but a huge blow to one's morale. And the story doesn't even end there...

With the announcement of Apple’s brand new iPhone X the blind and vision impaired community has been buzzing about one of the biggest changes to the iPhone, the removal of the Home button and the addition of Face ID. We have grown very comfortable with our familiar Home button. After all, it’s been a very consistent part of our smart phone that we use probably dozens of times a day to perform a variety of tasks since the iPhone 3GS. Change is scary and sometimes, especially when it comes to technology it can be far too easy to assume that we will be left out.

GoodReader, reportedly the world’s top-selling PDF file management, viewing, and annotation app for iPhone and iPad, has recently released an update which adds VoiceOver compatibility.

When I spent a few hours with the Apple watch on April 8th 2015, I jotted down notes about the Apple watch’s physical description, general overall points, low vision and speech features, hearing, and Siri.

Some Initial Points

In a recent podcast of mine looking at the click wheel on the iPod nano 4/5th generations, and the touch screen access on the iPod nano 6/7th generations, VoiceOver access on the Apple watch has far exceeded my expectations.

Today, Apple began selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in stores around the world. And, unlike past iPhone releases, consumers now have two devices from which to choose.

Apple's HomePod and HomePod mini smart speakers can now recognize the sound of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send a notification alert to your iPhone or iPad.

The feature, known as Sound Recognition, was first announced in January 2023, alongside the launch of the second-generation HomePod. However, it required the revamped HomeKit architecture, which was released in November 2022 but then pulled in December. Following the release of macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.4, the new HomeKit architecture is available again, and Apple has enabled the Sound Recognition feature.

Update 2 February: Although not specifically mentioned in the release notes, it’s great to see that version 3.0.1 addresses many of the issues mentioned in the original post below. For example, the Share button is now accessible and you can add topics of interest to your custom feed (although you currently need to use a combination of the 3-finger swipe up/down and exploring by touch to access all available topics, as swiping is not reliable).

Google recently announced that it will shutdown its popular RSS aggregation service, Google Reader, on July 1. If the tech pundits are to be believed, the early frontrunner to be many people's replacement RSS service is Feedly.

Introduction

In iOS 8, Apple introduced a great new feature: the ability for VoiceOver to announce streets and points of interest (POIs) as you walk. To enable this, open the Maps app, and double tap the "tracking" button (lower left of the screen) until you hear "on with heading". So long as your iPhone or cellular-capable iPad is unlocked and the Maps app is open to that initial map view you begin with, you will hear announcements as you walk or drive around.

The day has finally arrived. iOS 11 is here. But should you install it now, or would it be better to wait for the next update? To help you decide, I've tested some of the main new features and changes in this release.

Apple has today released iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, introducing new communication features in Phone, Messages, and FaceTime for greater self-expression, while StandBy offers a full-screen Charging view and AirDrop improves contact sharing. The updates also enhance text input, Widgets, Safari, Music, AirPlay and more.

For users of accessibility features, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 introduce several noteworthy new features and enhancements. The most significant of these updates are:

Apple has today released iOS 17.3 and iPadOS 17.3 to the public.

The iOS 17.3 release notes simply state that “this update introduces additional security measures with Stolen Device Protection. This release also includes a new Unity wallpaper to honor Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month, as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPhone.”

Stolen Device Protection adds an additional layer of security in the event someone has stolen your iPhone and also obtained the device's passcode.

Apple released iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 on Monday, September 16, 2024. This post contains a summary of new bugs impacting VoiceOver and braille support that we have identified during testing of these releases. We have also included details on preexisting bugs that our testing suggests have been fixed in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.

We know some of you have been waiting for quite some time for iOS 6.1 to arrive in your hands. That day has finally arrived!

As with any iOS release, we just can't wait to see what new things it has to offer, but mostly to see what has been fixed! As with any release it may not always fix everything you wish it would do and sometimes create new things that weren't expected!