One on One Voiceover Training through Apple

By Kelsey Nicolay, 17 June, 2018

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Hello,
I usually attend the in store Apple accssibiity wrkshps, bt ufotuately, the times don’t always work with my scheDule. I have a few things I would like some hands-on help with, one of them being the two finger scrub gesture. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to ake a genius bar resrvatÿion for help with Voiceover. If so, what was your experience like, both in making the reservation and with the actual appointment in the store? I have severa stores near me. Some will let you make a one on one training appointment andsome won’t.

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Comments

By david s on Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 20:19

Hello,

I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles with numerous Apple stores near by. I’ve visited quite a few of them and found most Apple Genius bar folks are not familiar with VO. The few that were familiar only knew the basics. If you need help with VO related issues, you might want to call the Apple accessability support and make an appointment through them. Request that someone familiar with VO assist you at the store. I was at the Las Vegas store a while back and was told I could make an appointment with their VO expert who also happens to be visually impaired.

There are also other places where you can get free VO training. In my area, for example, you can go to Braille institute or a local senior center where volunteers pop in to help.

HTH and good luck.

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 20:19

Hi. I unfortunately do not live close to an Apple store. The nearest Apple store is an hour drive away, since we live in the bood docks. But, when I got my ipad, I was bike you and had a few questions. I have found that the Apple Accessibility people are very helpful. But, my experience with my store, was they had a couple people helping me out. And 1 was knowledgeable on Vo. They all were to a point, but this girl knew about it. In general, if they couldn't finpoint the answer, they looked it up. I found my experience to be very nice!! On both fronts.

By gailisaiah on Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 20:19

Hi Kelsey,
Here's the Apple Accessibility number. This is a number specifically for VO users. They are very helpful:
1-877-204-3930.

By Ekaj on Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 20:19

Shortly after I first got my Mac, my mother and I attended a training with one of the local Apple store employees. This session had been booked right when I got my Mac, so that was a plus. The guy with whom we met was very helpful, and what he didn't know he looked up or asked one of his colleagues. He also ended up training a sister of mine on VoiceOver. She got a Mac not long after me. This employee was promoted though, and I don't think we have seen him since. However, we've found that at least at this particular Apple store, it is so crowded with all the shoppers and such that it's difficult if not impossible to hear VoiceOver even at the max volume. I suppose one could use headphones of some kind now that I think about it, but even that might present some issues in a loud environment like that. This was certainly the case when I went with a former life-skills tutor to a Genius Bar appointment a couple years ago. But the little amount of training which I received at that location was very good.

Regarding my iPhone training, I went to a place here in Chicago called Second Sense. They used to be the Guild for the Blind, and were in a different building back then. But I was trained by a fellow VoiceOver user, and he did a fantastic job. I might be seeing him again for something, but I've got to talk with some other people first around here and see if one of them can help me. I'm thinking specifically of asking one of my tutors to help me out with this, since he also has an iPhone 7. It's not an issue with the phone per se, but I'll work it out. In fact I think I've perhaps almost got it. My oldest sister helped me over the weekend. She is fully sighted and is an iPhone user.