Michael Doise

If you would like to keep up with how the ATSource project is going, then keep checking back here, but you can now follow @ATSourceApp on Twitter for the most up to date information. I will have at atsource.info up soon as well, and then the iOS and Android versions will follow.

A few days ago, Blind Bargains from the A T Guys just released their new application for iOS and Android that brings excellent content for the blind and visually impaired to iOS and Android devices. As the developer, I really enjoy this app myself due to the content that these guys provide to the blind community. The app is accessible on both platforms, and as the developer for the iOS version, I too use and enjoy this app on a daily basis.
I urge everyone that is blind or visually impaired that uses one of these device types to download this new app from the iOS App Store or from the Google Play.

I know it has been a great long while since I have written a review of an app but I am back to review one of my favorite apps for iOS for accessibility, and its name is FlipBoard. The question here is, if FlipBoard is accessible with VoiceOver on the iPhone and iPad.
What is Flipboard?

Currently, there are several news apps out for iOS, but none are as graphically stunning as clipboard. On the iPad, Flipboard works like a book. When the app opens you are presented with a cover page that shows the highlights of your personalized FlipBoard experience. When you want to go on, simply take a finger and flick left to turn the page. On the second page you can set up FaceBook and Twitter to display in this nice book like view. Flipboard will arrange your posts, pictures, and media in a way that looks wonderful to the eye. On the iPhone, Flipboard does the same thing, but a little differently. Instead of turning the pages of a book, you flick up like a note pad or calendar to reveal each page.Users can also add individual twitter, Facebook and blogs to their main FlipBoard sections for more detailed viewing.

Is it accessible?

In short the answer is NO! Not just no, but NO! Flipboard is not accessible what so ever. A user can not turn a page, click the settings button, or even click on each section. Very few buttons work, and when they do they just say, “button.” This is on both iPhone/iPod versions and the iPad version as well.

Conclusion

I constantly use clipboard having some vision, but if I were to need a news app and I was totally blind or had worse vision than I do now, I would not get this app. There is no accessibility, and there is not a way for anyone who is visually impaired to use this app. I really wish that the developers would work on this, and I urge everyone to get this out there and get some demand for accessibility in Flipboard so everyone can use it.

If you are looking in the App store for PocketBraille Reference, pay close attention. Apple has approved another app called Pocket Braille. This app is NOT PocketBraille Reference. It has a few more features, but the creator needs to work on their terminology and use the right wording. for instance, there are Braille contractions, not short hand.
Contractions in PocketBraille Reference

PocketBraille Reference will get contractions, but that will be in a future update. Once I have fixed settings issues with VisualBraille, I will slowly introduce many types of contractions in PocketBraille.

Other Braille Types

We will also be offering computer Braille exclusive symbols, Nemeth math symbols and several more including Braille music, so keep your eyes or ears here at the iAccessibility report, or the app update screen on your iDevice for more.

This post is for all iOS developers, review sites and general iOS Assistive Technology experts. I would like to create an app that contains a list of all Assistive Technology resources for iOS. Please let me know if you would like your resource in this app. If you would not like your resource in this app please let me know. This app will be a free app on the iOS app store, and will allow blind and visually impaired users to gain resources to better use their iDevice.

Boxcar
One of the amazing features of the IOS operating system is the ability to receive notifications of new events right on the home screen of your chosen device. Apple calls these handy little message notifiers “push” notifications. Push is native to many apps these days, since such a handy feature is bound to increase marketability, but not everyone is happy with the basic system. Along come new apps, specifically designed to enhance the “push” experience with more services, more accounts, and customizable settings.

Some are paid apps, like Push 4.0. This is fine. The basic app is only ninety nine cents, and in app purchases of more features, each about a dollar, are available. What about people who don’t want to pay even a dollar to enjoy enhanced push, though? Boxcar is your answer. Boasting fifteen available services to push, customizable sounds for each service, multiple e-mail and twitter accounts, and, for the light sleepers among us, a quiet time feature with selectable times, boxcar is no pushover when it comes to push. The best part is, it’s free! There are adds, but they are very unobtrusive, and you can disable them for a five dollar in app purchase if they are too bothersome.

How It Works

Thankfully for the growing population of visually impaired apple users, this app is completely voiceover compliant. I as a completely blind user, had no trouble at all with any aspect of the interface.

The first time the app is opened on a particular device, a sign up screen appears, asking the user to either “sign in” or “sign up.” There are both labeled buttons, and button labels on the screen. Voiceover recognizes and reads both of these, so don’t be alarmed if each option seems to appear twice. As a new user of the app, tap “sign up.”

This leads to a services screen on which “add a service,” “device settings,” and all available and added accounts are displayed. Select “add a service.”

A new screen appears, showing all available services. Just tap one to go to the setup page. For this review, I chose to register for Facebook, one of the easier services.

Tap Facebook to go to its setup page. You should see or hear the “cancel” button first of all. Below that is a heading with the service name and the save button. Below that are sign in and settings options including, “sign in to Facebook,” “Message Settings,” “Instructions and Help,” and several others. select “Sign in to Facebook” to get started.

You should see a log in screen. Type in your phone or e-mail, and password, then tap “Go” on the keyboard.

If everything has gone as it should, you’re now asked to allow or deny the app. Tap “Allow” to allow the app to give you notifications of messages, comments on your status, and other things.

From here you can customize your sounds by tapping “Sound.” Switch the switch buttons to have boxcar notify you of facebook mail, messages, and if you would like the app to display an update badge.

Tap “Instructions and Help” if you need setup instructions for any service. They’re very clear and helpful.

Finally, to save your settings and account log ins, tap “Save” at the top of the screen. You might see an add. Just tap the “Back to Home Screen” button to return to the services screen where you can add another service or account, view all your messages, or change your device settings. Incidentally, “Device Settings” is where the quiet time feature is located.

Twitter is just as easy to add as Facebook, and the trends and searches services are even easier if you add twitter first. E-mail, however, is a bit trickier. Definitely read the help on this one. Depending on your e-mail client, you might have as many as three steps to go through both on your device and your computer. Gmail proved the trickiest, with google asking to verify the custom forwarding address Boxcar assigns to each e-mail account. Boxcar only keeps the from and subject information of an e-mail, not the actual message, so be sure to check your inbox for the full messages when you get a chance.

Thoughts

This app is well worth a look, especially if you haven’t paid for one yet. Instructions are clear and concise for those of us who enjoy simplicity in our technology. For the less visually inclined, voiceover works flawlessly with this app. Actually, the developer could probably afford to remove the text labels beside the buttons on the new user screen if the buttons themselves have icons. Voiceover speaks them just fine. Be sure to read the instructions if you aren’t sure of what to do, and this app will be your new best friend.

Hey Everyone.
I figured I would share with everyone which apps I used the most in 2010, and would like to hear what apps you have used this year.

1. ZumoCast

ZumoCast has proven an invaluable app for my daily use. I can access all of my files from home, and listen to media while on the go. I usually use this app on the iPad instead of the iPhone though.

2. The Weather Channel.

I use this app every day to find out how the weather will be as I head off to work. I really like the organization of this app, except  I do not like some of the VoiceOver labels.

3. Unibus (iBus-Mobile)

Even though this app went down for a while, it is still the best app for finding out the next bus times for a particular stop.

4. AOL Radio

AOL Radio is an awesome streaming music app from CBS. It may not be the most stable app, but the channels are good and it is free. They even have channels that you can’t find anywhere else, like the video game sound track channel.

5. VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is one of my favorite media players for the PC and Mac. Now it is for iOS. VLC for iOS allows you to play just as many video formats as you can on your own computer. This is a good app for iPad users, and is also good in conjunction with ZumoCast.

6. Audible

The Audible app is a good way to download your Audible books straight to your iDevice. You can even get achievements for listening to books!

7. iWork for iOS

iWork for iPad is a fully featured Office Suite. It is still good for on the go use, but can do any desktop based work if a bluetooth keyboard is present.

8. IM+ for iOS

IM+ is the best instant message app for VoiceOver users. with IM+ you can chat with people from almost any network. You also only have to have one app instead of a special VoiceOver only app like Fring.

9. Facebook for iOS

Facebook for iOS is an awesome app for social networking. the sections are well designed, and in a design similar to the iOS home screen.

10. Prizmo for iOS

Prizmo has to be one of my favorite apps for iOS. With Prizmo, a user may scan documents by taking pictures of each document, and then convert that document to text, business cards and more. I am also waiting to see how DocuScan for iOS will do from Serotek Corporation when it is released on the App Store.

Conclusion

So those are several of the apps that I like, and use every day. I would love to know what apps everyone else is using on a daily basis, so please leave comments with your favorite choices.

Everyone, check this article out. I think this is really awesome!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/nyregion/31owen.html?_r=1

This week, the SeroTalk Tech Chat discussed the best iPhone apps for those who are visually impaired. I urge everyone to either download their podcast from iTunes, or go to terotalk.com and listen to all the information that is provided there. You may also get this podcast from SAMNet on iPhone.

The App store provides many applications for personal banking. Most likely, your bank will have developed and published an app for iPhone users. JP Morgan/Chase is one of those banks who have provided an app to its account holders. Through this app, you may find locations and ATMs, view account balances, pay bills, deposit money through checks, and make transfers.
First screen

When the program starts, you may select to log in, contact, Chase, or find ATMs or banking centers. Most of the time you will select to log in to your accounts. This first screen is completely VoiceOver accessible.

Logging in for the first time

When you log in for the first time, you must show that your device is yours by receiving an email or text message with a confirmation code. This process also must be done on any computer used to check account balances online. This process on iOS devices is also accessible via VoiceOver.

Account Overviews

Once logged in, you may view your account balances. Each account will have its own box which shows part of the account number, the account name, account type, the balance, and a link to use that account to pay bills. Tapping on the account name will allow you to see the account history, and the amounts deposited or spent. Everything in this section is viewable and usable via VoiceOver.

Pay and Transfer

The next section of the app will let you pay bills and transfer funds. You have several options here. You may send money off via electronic check to pay bills, you may wire funds, transfer between accounts, and send money to another person’s Chase account. Each of these sections are VoiceOver accessible.

Deposits

A new feature offered in this app is to deposit a check from your iPhone. This works by taking a photo copy of the front and back of filled out check. do not be afraid to ask for assistance from friends here. Each selection is VoiceOver accessible, but the check must be legible.

More

The last section found in the Chase app has different items such as contacting Chase, and finding ATMS. There are also options to read FAQS, read disclosures, and view the privacy policy. This section is NOT VoiceOver compliant. No option is selectable on the page.

Conclusion

Chase Mobile App is a great app for online banking. The developer took the time to use standard developer techniques that allowed for much of the program to be used by VoiceOver users. The only area lacking access is the more section of the app. If you are a chase account holder and have an iDevice, then get this app. It will be very useful on the go.

Digit-Eyes is one of many applications that allows for the scanning of bar codes. When you scan a bar code, Digit-Eyes will send back any information found by their database of UPC codes. You may also scan labels printed from their web page to custom label items around the home or office.
Bar Code Scanning

The first major feature of Digit-Eyes is the ability to scan bar codes. This will work with any commercial UPC or EAN Barcode. When you start the app, tap scan, and aim at a bar code. The program will do a scan every five seconds. This allows for you to get the code in position, and the program will automatically take the picture for you using the camera. This is to make sure a better picture is taken, instead of a blury image due to finger and hand movement. If the program finds a code, the program will beep, and bring up the information based on the scanned bar code. It will also tell you if it could not retrieve any data.

Text Labels

Digit-Eyes will also do two types of custom labels. The first is called a, “Text Label.” A Text label is a label that a person can scan, and VoiceOver can read. When you have created an account at http://www.digit-eyes.com, you may create and print address labels that contain text. The Digit-Eyes website has detailed information on how to do this. Once your labels are printed, use the method for scanning regular bar codes to scan a text label. Once done, VoiceOver will read the text to you.

Audio Labels

Audio labels work just like text labels. You go to the web site to print them, and you scan them just like every other code. The main difference is that you are given the ability to do a voice recording the first time you scan a label. This also is only kept on your device, so the Internet is not required.

Conclusion

Digit-Eyes is a great application for labeling items, or getting bar code data. The developers really put a lot in to the coding of this application, and made every control accessibile for VoiceOver users. This app is very similar to the functionality of the Pen Friend, which also allows for custom labels. This app is however more expensive than most app store apps at US$29.99, but I feel it is well worth the money.

This week, I thought I would start out with a good an interesting app. Well, it seems that I have found one good enough to report on.
SHAPE’s IM+ for iOS devices has been in the App Store for a long time providing instant message capabilities to iOS users. Since release, IM+ has used the same technique that all other im clients in the App Store have used. This technique is that when you send or receive a message, Voiceover will read the sender and the timestamp, but not the message. This issue has prevented blind and visually imapired users from using multi service clients on their devices.

Today, Apple approved the newest version of IM+. One of the new features added is the ability to use Voiceover with this application. SHAPE changed their software so any user can browse the name, time, and message separately from each other.  What this means is, blind users can now log in to all of their instant message services from just one program and get full functionality from it.

There is still one drawback however. IM+ is not a free download from the App Store. The price for IM+ is $10.00, which is kind of steep for an instant messaging client.

The most notable alternative however, is offered by Fring. Fring also offers an instant messenger client that supports many services, but Fring segregates blind and visually impaired users by requiring the download of a voiceover compatible version of their software. This version however does not have all of the functionality of the regular app. Fring’s biggest asset however, is that both versions of Fring are free apps in the App Store.

In conclusion, there are finally options out there in the App Store for the blind. Which app to use is left up to you, but let us know which im apps are your favorite by replying to this post.