Accessibility Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily Update for Sept. 16, 2011

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Sep 16th, 2011)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the ...

Stevie Wonder praises iOS for accessibility

by Chris Rawson (Sep 16th, 2011)

Last weekend, musician Stevie Wonder played a nightclub in Los Angeles. At one point during the set, the blind songsmith discussed the work he does with the United Nations, trying to make both the United States and other countries more accessible to persons with disabilities. While he said there ...

OS X Lion introduces new, multilingual, high-quality text-to-speech voices

by Chris Rawson (Jul 24th, 2011)

First announced in March, then found in developer previews, one of the little-heralded new features of OS X Lion is its inclusion of several high-quality text-to-speech voices in 22 different languages. The last major addition to Apple's built-in OS X voices was Alex, a higher-quality voice ...

Will the iPad and iPhone home buttons go away? Probably not

by Chris Rawson (Jan 13th, 2011)

As soon as I heard of the new iPad multi-touch gestures in the iOS 4.3 beta, which allow you to reach the home screen with a four- or five-finger gesture, I thought, "Well, that's it for the home button." Boy Genius Report also says it's heard from a source within Apple that the company is testing ...

Apple quietly updates the 5th Generation iPod nano to 1.0.2

by Joachim Bean (Nov 13th, 2009)

This week Apple issued an update to the iPod nano, bringing it to version 1.0.2. Fixes and additions include: Fixed audiobook playbook setting so Normal, Slower, Faster, works for audio podcasts Resolved issue where Genius Mixes did not work when using the Nike+ Sport Kit Accessibility ...

The Mac-cessability Network: resources for Apple accessibility

by Steven Sande (Aug 18th, 2009)

Touting another blog or website isn't an everyday occurrence here at TUAW, but a recent press release got our notice. A site called The Mac-cessibility Network is the work of six dedicated individiduals, all of whom are visually impaired, who provide the Apple community with a source of information ...

Tabs in the title bar: a UI design trend that needs to go

by Robert Palmer (Feb 26th, 2009)

Safari 4 Beta's new tab arrangement has me bothered. It seems to be largely lifted from Chrome's user interface that puts the tabs at the very top of the window. Not only is this a departure from Apple's typical UI choices, it presents problems for users with special needs. On your average Apple ...

New nanos to get spoken menus

by Mat Lu (Sep 10th, 2008)

One of the interesting minor details on the iPod nanos released today is the inclusion of some new accessibility features. There's even an Accessibility section on the spec page, which notes the addition of spoken menus and an alternative larger font. The spoken menus "allow listeners to hear many ...

Apple updates Braille support in Leopard

by Cory Bohon (Feb 5th, 2008)

Today, Apple released the Braille Display Update 1.0 for VoiceOver in Leopard. VoiceOver, part of the Universal Access family of accessibility tech, allows blind or visually impaired users to hear what's on the screen. Via the new update, when you connect a compatible Braille display, "VoiceOver ...

"One Thumb to Rule them All"

by Mat Lu (May 30th, 2007)

This video is just flat out amazing. Mike Phillips is a Mac gamer and writer, who just happens to have been born with spinal muscular atrophy. He's apparently only able to move his thumb, and yet that doesn't stop him from playing Unreal Tournament and World of Warcraft. This is possible thanks to ...