It has come to our attention that there are new terms for Apple’s Non disclosure agreement or NDA this year. It appears that we are able to discuss what users will find when they update to Mac OS X and iOS 8.

In the future, we will be posting articles about what new accessibility features you will be able to use in iOS 8a and with Mac OS X.

We will also discuss the new features that were announced, and if they are or are not accessible.

Unfortunately, there is still an NDA on screen shots and audio, so we may only discuss these things. We can not show users what we are using.

Despite this limitation, we may be able to be very descriptive, and give everyone resources online to experience these new features.

Why is this so important?

In the past, Apple has not let any information be talked about via its own staff or through developers. If this happens, developers may loose their ability to publish to the App Store, and Apple employees may find the need to find a new job. We now have the liberty to discuss what we find, and we can help users understand what to expect in the fall.

Why did Apple do this?

Apple made this change as this year’s updates are huge. We now have many new accessibility features, but more importantly, people will need to know how extensions and handoff works upon release of each OS.

What will be the first topic?

Our first topic will be to talk about a few major VoiceOver changes, and I really think you guys will like what Apple has added to iOS.

On Monday June 2, 2014, Apple Inc started its WWDC 2014 week. WWDC stands for the World Wide Developer Convention, and it happens about this time each year. Apple usually uses this time to talk about new software that will be released in the fall with betas for developers released that day. This year, Apple announced many things at WWDC, and I’d like to share the highlights below.

Mac OS X

Apple announced the release of Mac OS X Yosemite, which is version 10.10 of Mac OS. This version adds transparency to windows, and new widgets to notification center. You can now have better integration with iOS devices, and there is now a great iCloud Drive to access all of your iCloud documents. The thing I like about this feature is that you can keep your documents in one place, and you will not create duplicates in multiple apps. For a full list of features, go to apple.com. 

iOS 8

iOS 8 was also announced at WWDC 2014.  

iOS 8 is the latest version of iOS that will be released in the fall. iOS 8 looks very similar to iOS 7 but with a few additions. The most notable auditions are the ability to add widgets in notification center, and the people chooser in the task switcher. The people chooser will let users pick a person they talk to the most, and call text or FaceTime that person. One new feature that will be amazing at launch will be extensions. Extensions will let developers work with other apps. This even extends to installable keyboards, which is very similar to Android. It is good that iOS is now catching up with other operating systems on this. I think an app like Fleksy will really benefit from these extensions. We will no longer have to add APIs to apps, and we can just extend the functionality of other spps to make the user experience better.

Combination

One of the biggest things Apple announced Monday is that you will be able to start something on one device and continue it on another. This means that if you start writing an email on your iPhone, you can put down your phone and continue the same email on your Mac or iPad. I believe Bluetooth must be enabled for this to work however. Another feature I really like is the ability to send text messages from your Mac or iPad. This makes it more rewarding to have multiple Apple devices.

Conclusion

Apple has released many new updates to their software on Monday. There will be a public beta signup for OS 10.10 this summer, and we will post a link to that signup on our site when it becomes available. You will also find the Keynote at the end of this post so you can see everything Apple has added to their software.

Keynote

Since iAccessibility has moved to Squarespace, I thought it would be a good idea to post a review on the Squarespace apps. Since we have several new authors who will be posting to this blog, I wanted to start with the Squarespace blog app. 

Function

The Squarespace blog app lets users of Squarespace write blog posts from their mobile devices. This is similar to the WordPress app.

How it works

The Squarespace blog app connects to your Squarespace account. You must enter your user name and password on the first screen of the app and flick right to the login button. This button is only labeled, “button,” but you will only use it once.

Once logged in, you will have access to the blogs that are set up on your site. If you do not have any blogs set up on your site, then the app will inform you of this and will log you off so you can login with a new account.

If you do have a blog the first screen you will land on after login is the blog posts screen. At the top, you will see your latest posts, and you can view and edit each of these by double tapping on the post you would like to work with.

At the top left of your screen is a menu button. Tapping this button will bring up the list of blogs, an about app button and the logout button. Everything in this menu appears to be accessible except for some text that says low long you have been a member.

On the blog post page, there is a new post button that will create a new post. Tapping this will bring you to a new screen that lets you enter the text for your blog post. When adding a new post, you can easily add your title and write your post. The important thing to note is that to add images and formatting, you must use the add block button at the top right. When tapped, the block area appears at the bottom of the screen. You can add four different Squarespace blocks in this app, which is a small number compared to the ones available on the actual Squarespace site. You may also change the settings for your post. To do this, find the settings button next to the add block button. Everything here is accessible, except for the close button which is labeled, “button.” One other drawback to the app is that there does not appear to be any formatting options for text, so you will need to write your post and change it on the Squarespace site.

Conclusion

The Squarespace blog app is an amazing way to add content to your Squarespace blogs while on the go. While I think it is a great tool, I think it is a good idea for VoiceOver users to use the main SquareSpace site on the iPad, or use Microsoft Word or Apple Pages while on a desktop to draft articles. This is because the format bar on the desktop does not seem to be accessible to screen reader users at this time. 

Squarespace has shown that they work well with accessibility on their page templates and in their apps, but I think there could be a few improvements to make the authoring experience better to those with low vision or blind users.

in an effort to provide our users with the best app experience, VisualBraille will be the next app to be updated to iOS 7. With this change we will see a few new features, and the biggest will be the addition of notes.

Notes

VisualBraille will now have a basic note taking feature that will convert text to Braille as you type. These notes will be saved to your iOS device for further reference.

Interface

VisualBraille will now have a new user interface to go with iOS 7′s new polished look.

Individual apps

Along with these new updates, VisualBraille will now have each section be available for download in the iOS app store. Each app will cost $0.99, and you may still purchase the VisualBraille as a single app for the same price.

VisualBraille Notes

VisualBraille Notes will be the newest addition to the VisuallBraille feature set, and the VB Notes app will have additional features that can not be found with the notes section of VisualBraille. VisualBraille Notes will also be available for Mac OS X, Android, Windows, and Windows Phone.

I hope you like all of these new announcements, and there will be featured posts to notify everyone as to when our new apps will be released.

Google’s social network Google+ is a nice way to keep up with friends, family acquaintances and more in what are called circles. A Google+ user can add their people they wish to keep in contact with or people who they would like to share information with to certain circles, and only selected circles will see your shared content. Facebook has attempted this, but it does not seem to have been as much a success as it has with Google+

The app

Google released the Google+ app for iOS and Android to allow mobile viewers the ability to post and view items on Google+. The app essentially lets the user do anything that can be done on the web site including hangouts.

App Accessibility

While the app is a great extension of Google+, there are issues when it comes to blind and low vision users. Many areas of this app are accessible, but portions that one would think would be read are skipped over by VoiceOver. For example, The post details are read, but the body of a post will not be read out loud. The text is clearly on the screen, but flicking right and left, or single tapping on that text produces silence. If these issues could be fixed, then this app would make the Google+ network more inviting to low vision to blind users.

Concludison

If you can use Zoom to read your iOS device, then I highly recommend that you give Google+ for iOS a try. You probably have a google account, which means you have a Google+ account as well. If you use VoiceOver, then I urge you to contact Google, and ask that they work to improve accessibility for this app.

There are thousands of choices on the iOS App Store for reading books. For individuals with disabilities, there was no way to utilize the free resources of the National Library Services Talking Book Program on Mainstream devices like the iPhone or iPad until now. Recently, NLS released the BARD Mobile app for iOS which allows for users to listen to their free talking books on iOS devices. Lets look at the app, and you will find that as a VoiceOver user, this app is a must have if you are a member of the talking book program.

Signup

Signing up to use the app is a bit of a hassle. You must first be a part of the talking book program in your state. Once you are, you can sign up for theBARD program at the BARD website. Once your all signed up, reset your password, and download the BARD Mobile app.

Navigating the app

BARD Mobile is a simple app that uses all of the iOS Human Interface Guidelines. There is a simple tab bar at the bottom which contains Bookshelf, Get Books, Settings, and now reading. The Bookshelf tab contains sections to the different types of books you’ve downloaded, Get books has links for you to find and download books and magazines. Settings lets you sign out of your account or change background audio settings which you must turn on, or reading will stop when you leave the app. There is also a setting for downloading over cellular. If you do not have a limited data plan, then you might want to turn this setting on. The Now reading tab contains the player. This only appears when you are actively listening to a book. The neat thing about this player is that it looks just like the NLS talking book player you order in the mail. The controls are VoiceOver compliant, and work just as the actual NLS player would.

Getting books

Downloading books could use some work. To download a book, you must go to the Get Books tab and then browse the new books. Once you find something you must add the book to your wish list. You can also go to the BARD website, and find older books there and add those books to your wish list. Once you’ve added a book to your wish list you can find that book in the wish list section of Get Books and selecting the book there will add the book to your bookshelf. You must then go back to your Bookshelf tab and monitor your book’s download status. Several have said they have had issues with the books downloading, so it may take one or two tries to get your book. I saw an extraction error on a book which deleted the book from my device.

Playback

The BARD Mobile app has great audio playback. The app offers background playback, but has a few issues if other system events occur. The developer should research proper use of background playback, and make a few changes. Once this is done, the playback will be extremely solid.

Conclusion

The BARD Mobile app for iOS is a great new alternative for disabled readers who belong to a state’s Talking Book Program. I really look forward to future updates, and would recommend this app to anyone.

Hello everyone, I apologize for not writing any new articles on the iAccessibility Report, but a lot is going on, and I think that everyone will like to hear what is coming up.

Future of this blog.

The iAccessibility Report has always been hosted here at iAccessibility.net, but in the future, users will have to go to report.iaccessibility.net or our readers can click the blog icon on the newly redesigned iAccessibility home page.

New iAccessibility Home Page

The new iAccessibility home page will be a place for ou users to come to learn more about our products and services offered by iAccessibility. We have a lot of things planned for this site, so we hope you enjoy the page when it is finished.

Conclusion

Not much will change here at the iAccessibility report, except for the location on the web, and also the frequency in which stories are posted. We promise to post more app reviews more frequently, and I’d also like to see a few new authors and some people comenting on these stories.

So now that Fleksy has been released for a few weeks now, I would like to look at the app, and see if it measures up to the hype that surrounded it at #NFB12? How does Fleksy work?

Fleksy is a new keyboarding app for iOS that allows blind or visually impaired users to type on any iPhone or iPod touch. Once the user loads the app, Fleksy loads the speech engine and then brings up a text box and the on scren keyboard. Once loaded, a user can then tap on the screen where they think the character they need would be, and then the the user swipes right to complete the word they just typed. Once the user swipes right the app tries to guess what word they typed and puts it on the screen. swiping down will go to the next suggestion, and swiping left will delete the word. swiping right again will add punctuation.

thoughts

So how well does it work? Fleksy has proven to be a very accurate app. I believe it has up to 90% accuracy The speech is good, and it is very responsive. Several users have said they do not like the price of the app, but for the licensing and technology needed to build this app I can see why this is needed. There are still some things I do not like though. First, I think we should have an iPad version of this. This app will work on the iPad, but the app will still need to be doubled to be used in full screen on the iPad, which lowers accuracy. I urge the makers of Fleksy to please make an iPad app. I would also like to see some saving abilities. Local and iCloud saving would be an excellent thing to add. I would love to see the load times fixed to be a bit quicker, but I do understand why this happens.

Conclusion

Fleksy is a great new app to help the blind and visually impaired type quickly. Even though this is the best audience, I do think that this app could be used in other applications. I think that if the makers wanted a more broad audience, then they would market this app as a fully eyes-free capable app for sighted users who need to keep their eyes on the road or who need to watch where they are going while walking. Even though the app has a lot of new features and is very useful, I think it would be very worth the price if it has some of the features mentioned above. Despite the price, I recommend everyone get this app and support these guys. I also would recomend any iOS developers check out their APIs for their own apps.

Yesterday, I was able to get a look at the new keyboarding technology from Fleksy. Fleksy is going to be a new app for iOS that lets the user type text without having to use exact placement fingers on the screen. All you have to do is tap where you think letters should be and type a full word, and the app will predict which word you are trying to type. After trying this system, I believe that this app/technology is at least 90% accurate.
How does it work?

Fleksy is a simple and intuitive new technology that lets you type without having to find keyboard keys. To start, you start trying to type a word. Once you are done, swipe right and the app will predict what you typed. If that word is not correct, swipe down or up to get more suggestions. The swipe right also puts a space, and there is also commands to add punctuation as well. Swipe left will also delete the word you just typed.

Conclusion

Fleksy is an incredible new technology that will be making its way to the iOS app store very shortly. The developers have also said they would like to create APIs for other developers to use their technology in other apps. I plan to add Fleksy technology to all future app releases I come out with, and would love to see other developers do the same. If you are here at the 2012 National Federation of the Blind convention, try and find one of their representatives and they will give you a demonstration.

I have always felt that the iPad would be a perfect device for Web Design, but I have not yet found the perfect web editor to accomplish this. I have tried Markup, Gusto and others to accomplish this but none of these completely made a great experience as some editors on the Mac or PC could. On Mac OS X, Panic Software wrote a wonderful piece of software called Coda that has been around for many years. Now, Panic has brought Coda to the iPad and has called it Diet Coda. Diet Coda lets a web developer write code and upload that code directly to a web server. This app also lets a user login to their web server through SSH for server administration needs. So how well does this app work for VoiceOver users?

Diet Coda as good as it is, does not allow for much VoiceOver support. The app is very graphical in nature, but Panic Software did not label all of its buttons to work well with VoiceOver. This is very obvious from the beginning. Once a user sets up a site, It is impossible for a user to pick which site they want to work with, because Diet Coda does not have text labels or accessibility hints to help the user figure out which site they are selecting.

Other than that the app is lacking a few features I think would make this app Stellar. One of these include the ability to have offline site storage like Coda for Mac OS X. I also think that iCloud or Dropbox support would also go a long way to make users happy.

Conclusion

While Diet Coda is a great app, I cannot recommend it for very low vision or blind users, because of the lack of VoiceOver support. Otherwise, this is a very good app except for the essential need for Internet support. If your iPad does not have internet, then this app will be useless to you. This is why I feel this app needs to have offline support. Otherwise the feature set provided by Diet Coda is a great benefit to any on the go web developer.

One limitation of any application that uses custom fonts is that that font cannot be copied or used in any other app on an iOS device. Due to some research, this limitation can be overcome. Now, Braille can be copied between apps on all iOS devices.
Look for the AppBraille technology In all future releases of VisualBraille, VisualBraille Lite, PocketBraille Reference, and PocketBraille Lite. Plus some new AppBraille specific apps that include AppBraille Explorerer, and AppBraille editor.

With the iPad 2 and the New iPad, many hardware and gadget vendors have decided to build all new accessories to enhance the use of our favorite tablet. One device that I have recently purchased is the new iConvert Scanner from Brookstone. This device lets a user connect their iPad to a document feed scanner device available only at Brookstone. With this device, a user may scan documents and photos straight to the iPad.
How does it work?

The iConvert scanner is a device that plugs in to AC/DC power with an included power cord. Once the device is plugged in, the user places the iPad in the stand on top of the device, and then holds down the scanner’s power button for 3 seconds. Once this is complete, the scanner is primed and ready to accept documents. To use this device, go to the iTunes App Store from your iPad, and look up the iConvert app from Brookstone, which is free of charge. Download this app and then start it from your home screen. Once you have started the app, look around the screen using VoiceOver. There are several settings in here but the main thing we want to find is the scanner status and the scan button. The scanner status will tell us if the scanner is connected and working, and the scan button will let the user scan a document. Before you double or split tap the scan button take your document, and set the margins on the scanner to fit the size of your paper. Then, take your paper, and gently start feeding it in to the scanner. If the scanner is on, the feeder will grab your paper and move it in to the scanner proper alignment. Now, we can press the scan button on the iPad. While this process is going, sit back and wait. This should not take longer than 3 to 5 seconds, Once done, find the save button on the screen. This button will be in the same place as the scan button. Once you tap the save button, your scanned document will be saved to the camera roll for further use. The saved image is at 300dpi, so you will have a clean and crisp version of your document.

Conclusion

Even with a price tag of $140.00 the iPad scanner is a great and crisp scanning solution for mobile devices. Eventually, I would love to see Brookstone come out with a bluetooth version of this that will work for the iPhone and iPad, but this is pretty nice as it is. In my next post, I will really give the argument why this is really handy for the blind, and yet, it does have to do with OCR.