Accessibility Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Apple's Retina display aids accessibility

by Steven Sande (May 16th, 2013)

Macworld blogger Steven Aquino wrote a fascinating piece today on how Apple's Retina display technology has helped him -- a legally blind individual with extremely low vision -- to be able to enjoy Apple's products as if he had no vision limitations at all. Aquino says that he had used the ...

Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: Accessibility edition!

by Kelly Guimont (May 5th, 2013)

Sunday is drawing to a close, and that means it's time for discussing the week that was with Kelly and a few of the usual suspects. This week we'll be joined by Dr. Robert Carter, host of the Tech Doctor Podcast, and discussing accessibility. This week brought a few new features released as part ...

Kindle iOS app adds new features for visually impaired

by Steven Sande (May 1st, 2013)

The Kindle iOS app (free) was updated to version 3.7 today, bringing with it a handful of new features to make life easier for blind and visually impaired customers and to anyone who wants to review a book or read recommendations for similar books. To help the visually impaired navigate their ...

Parenting tip: How to exit out of Guided Access when it locks up

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 1st, 2013)

Guided Access is a handy feature in iOS 6 that lets you lock your child into a single app by disabling the hardware buttons on a device. It prevents your child from going hog wild through your iPhone or iPad when you hand it to them for some play time. Guided Access is great until it locks up and ...

Securing your iPhone or iPad for your children, Part 2: Setup iOS parental controls to prevent in-app purchases

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 29th, 2013)

There has been a string of high-profile cases where children have racked up thousands of dollars in credit card charges through in-app purchases. In these cases and others like them, the iOS devices used by the children have not been properly locked down by the parents. In this three-part ...

Transport for London launches prize to design accessible travel app

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 27th, 2013)

App developers in the United Kingdom take note: Transport for London has launched a prize for developers who are able to create London public transport apps that cater to users with physical or communication barriers. In a recent blog posting, the TFL recognized that for years, mobile ...

Teachers learn about using the iPad with blind students

by Dave Caolo (Mar 26th, 2013)

Bloomberg has posted a video of educators learning to use the iPad with blind students. While iPads are becoming more prevalent in schools, many teachers are not familiar with the device's accessibility features. To address this issue, Ed Summers has designed a course to familiarize teachers ...

Make text more legible on iPad mini

by Steven Sande (Dec 7th, 2012)

While the iPad mini is smaller, lighter and cuter than the regular 9.7-inch version, some people find text on the smaller screen to be hard to read. Some apps -- Kindle, Instapaper, iBooks and more -- have their own controls for making text larger, but what do you do for those built-in iOS apps? ...

Fleksy is an alternate text input tool for the visually impaired

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Aug 20th, 2012)

Fleksy is an interesting take on alternate text input for the iPhone. Designed for those whose eyesight is bad or nonexistent, Fleksy records the taps on the screen and makes a guess based on your patterns. It then says the word, enabling you to quickly construct sentences without even looking at ...

Flashy notifications from Flashr Kickstarter project

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 23rd, 2012)

LED notifications -- the flashing reminders of incoming calls, waiting voicemail or text messages -- are often cited by Android users as an essential advantage over the iPhone. A dedicated LED on the front bezel of many Android devices lets you know when you have something to attend to without ...

Photography for the blind, courtesy of the iOS Camera app

by Steven Sande (Jun 5th, 2012)

Most of us in the sighted world never need to use the amazing accessibility features that are built into iOS, but blogger and developer Stephen van Egmond recently found that these features go well beyond what is expected by even allowing the blind to take pictures with the Camera app. Van ...

Accessibility Spotlight: One Switch. One Head. The World.

by Erica Sadun (Mar 30th, 2012)

Over the years, Apple has consistently followed through on its strong commitment to accessibility in the development of new technologies and products. We at TUAW have a diverse community of both writers and readers, and we use many assistive technology features in our day-to-day lives. We ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: My iPhone won't stop talking to me

by Erica Sadun (Oct 23rd, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, While playing around with his new iPhone 4S Monday evening, Tim's phone started responding to every touch to the screen -- identifying vocally everything he touched and giving instructions about what to do there. He can't figure out how he turned the function on -- and he ...

iPhone 101: Using iOS accessibility to make text larger

by Matt Tinsley (Sep 30th, 2011)

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its making tiny text easier to read using the accessibility features in iOS. Following Stevie Wonder's high praise of the accessibility features found in iOS, we thought we'd take a closer look at some of ...

Three things iPads do well for seniors

by Michael Grothaus (Sep 28th, 2011)

Forbes has put together an interesting list of three things the iPad does well for seniors. The writer points out that Apple's iPad makes it easy for seniors with bad eyesight to adjust the text inside apps like Safari or iBooks. Safari's pinch to zoom text adjustment is especially easy ...