> "Why am I holding the thing up to my face like I can look through the thing is beyond me..." <i>hehehe I chuckled as his joke here.</i><p>I think this is really awesome. It seems so rare to see these types of fun and inviting (and what I would call) <i>success stories</i> around the web, when it comes to accessibility.<p>Hopefully more videos like this surface so that other developers/designers see why it's worth going the extra mile with accessibility! And that doing so, means all types of users can use your app, even people you thought never would!
This is a great story and inspiring and hits all the right "feel good" buttons.<p>BUT.<p>Isn't the story really "how blind people use the accessibility features of iOS"? Accessibility, specifically Voice Over, is a core component of iOS and pretty straightforward for developers to implement. The new Flickr app, for instance, seems to offer many of the same accessibility features shown in the video, though their implementation could use a little work. The Instagram guys should be commended for adding the accessibility hooks but, really, that's all they did. That's a day's worth of work.<p>Can anyone speak to how Instagram works for the blind on an Android device?
His YouTube channel is very entertaining.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyedisonxp</a><p>Tommy has a great sense of humor and explains some interesting aspects of being blind since birth like:<p>Color: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=2" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59YN8_lg6-U&list=PL832E5...</a><p>Cooking: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiOuVA7PEc&list=PL832E5...</a><p>Using an ATM: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5FEADAEA8AEE&index=14" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzah0A6IC5o&list=PL832E5...</a>
We've gotten a bit of feedback from blind (and non-blind but "low vision") users of our educational apps. We even got requests for better Voiceover support for an app that we thought was so visual that someone with impaired vision wouldn't get any use out of it. Turns out that there are a lot of vision-impaired parents that like to use apps with their normal-vision children. That's something that hadn't occurred to us.
I've become more and more interested over the years in computer usability for the blind and vision impaired. I still feel like there's a lot of room to improve these things.<p>Being able to navigate a web page and interact with it just seems like it would be so much more difficult without the ability to see it.
The integrated iPhone camera app even tells you about the objects within the picture.<p>"I simply gawped when one blind woman pulled out an iPhone then snapped a perfect shot, guided by the built-in Camera app [..] One face. Small face. Face near right edge. Autofocussed."<p><a href="http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/" rel="nofollow">http://svan.ca/blog/2012/blind/</a>
well as a visually impaired Web user, with almost every tech device out there and working for a Content Delivery Network. I can say that more Webmasters need to take accessibility and responsive design into consideration when designing and creating their sites. Not everything can be for SEO and usability purposes.
original Link: <a href="http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689" rel="nofollow">http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2689</a><p>+ 2 more videos:<p>How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Twitter & YouTube Apps<p>How Blind People Use The iPhone 4S – Facebook App
VoiceOver is awesome. I wrote a guide for people who can see. I use it all the time. <a href="http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-getting-started-guide/" rel="nofollow">http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/2012/12/18/ios-voiceover-gettin...</a>
Are we know of any famous Instagram users making use of this great feature due to their condition? I'd love to follow someone who cannot see but take pictures.
"Blogspam" (blame the submitter, not the blog) for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1e7ZCKQfMA</a><p>tl;dw: iOS has a mode for vision impaired users where buttons are spoken when touched and a double touch activates them. The instagram app supports that. The video is fun, though it reeks of "viral" ad.