Advocating for IK Multimedia to make their SampleTank app accessible with VoiceOver.

Hi all,

I am a blind musician and I've been interested in making music on the iOS platform for a long time. At the recommendation of a friend, I have been playing around with @ikmultimedia's SampleTank for a little while. I have noticed that the app is not very user friendly when it comes to VoiceOver support, and the developers do not seem to be very receptive to looking into making it accessible. I have contacted them a couple of days ago, and am still waiting for their response. I would encourage others who use the app or who are thinking of using it to do the same, as I feel that a lot of blind and vision-impaired musicians could benefit from using the app. And of course, it would mean more sales for the developers.

I would like to first of all tahnk AppleVis for providing the accessibility advocacy template, which I have modified slightly to make it specific to SampleTank. I have sent this off to the developers, and will post a copy here as well. Again I would strongly encourage you all to write to IK MultiMedia or to send a copy of this letter to them, in the hope that they will make the necessary accessibility improvements. I thank you in advance for your support.

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Hello,

As a blind user, I rely on Apple's VoiceOver screen-reading software to interact with my iDevice. As you may be aware, VoiceOver is an integral feature of all iOS devices, and this is why these are so popular among the blind and vision-impaired community. Apple has provided some information as to how VoiceOver works for the end user at www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/vision.html .

I understand that the current version of SampleTank does not have full support for VoiceOver. Having tested the app, I have observed that Voiceover cannot identify most of the buttons as they are not properly labeled. This is unfortunate, as I (and I suspect many other blind and vision-impaired musicians) would like to be able to use the app. I believe that many blind and vision-impaired musicians like myself would greatly benefit from using SampleTank. I was hoping, therefore, that your development team would investigate the feasibility of fixing these issues. Apple has provided a guide for developers on how to make their applications accessible at http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/iPhoneAccessibility/Introduction/Introduction.html . Additional information for developing apps that are accessible to VoiceOver users can be found on the AppleVis website at www.applevis.com/information-app-developers .

Thank you in advance for your consideration. I would be delighted to assist your developers in any way that I can - beta testing any new versions for example.

Kind regards,

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