The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is applauding Apple’s recent move to make iTunes and iPods accessible to blind and visually impaired people. The iPod nano is now equipped with talking menus and large font options. Apple has also made improvements to the accessibility of iTunes.
“This news is music to the ears of the 20 million Americans with significant vision loss,” said Carl R. Augusto, President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, and an avid music fan, in the press release. “I can’t tell you how great it will be to find my Timbaland and Madonna songs without having to shuffle through every song in my music collection.”
In addition to adding talking menus to the new iPod Nano, Apple has expanded the accessibility section of its web site, www.apple.com/accessibility. According to Apple, screen reader users will also be able to access many more iTunes features, such as creating and managing an account and shopping for albums and songs in the iTunes store.
AFB is testing Apple’s new accessibility features, and will release a report on the findings.
For decades audio technology has transformed life for people with vision loss and Apple’s new commitment to accessibility continues this tradition. For more information and thoughts from AFB staff members, visit AFB’s blog at www.afb.org/blog.
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a national nonprofit that expands possibilities for people with vision loss. AFB’s priorities include broadening access to technology; elevating the quality of information and tools for the professionals who serve people with vision loss; and promoting independent and healthy living for people with vision loss by providing them and their families with relevant and timely resources. AFB is also proud to house the Helen Keller Archives and honor the more than forty years that Helen Keller worked tirelessly with AFB. For more information, visit www.afb.org.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Wayne W.” for the heads up.]
Great!!! This is good news. I have glaucoma and I want to be able to use my iPod even though my vision is getting worse. Thanks Apple!
APPLE HAS A MONOPLY ON BLIND PEOPLE PRODUCTS QUICK SOMEONE SUE THEM
sarcasm aside. this is good news. i hope they do more, but i am glad for what they did.
About time. At least they did it right.
Good news!! Now to stop vision loss in the first place with those godawful glossy iMac screens!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061018-8022.html
http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=527
http://macslash.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=192§ion=AskMacSlash&aid=2
That’s right Raving McHeadly, don’t miss a chance to beat that dead horse.
Every
Effing
Chance
You
Get.
My Gawd, give it a rest, man. We ALL know you hate them, ok?
BTW, I personally have a nice big new glossy iMac and love it. I guess I’m alone, or maybe I just don’t have my computer set up in a room with strong backlighting, so I’m lucky. But it sure is beautiful and the colors and contrast seem like the best iMac I’ve owned. (and I’ve owned quite a few)
you can enable the same features in Zune Marketplace, only difference is it would cost you 900 points. LOL. Great news though, way to go Apple.
Cool, now blind people can be deaf too!
I love ‘Glossy’. STFU – RM.
“Cool, now blind people can be deaf too!”
They could come to their senses, and who nose, they might have a taste for the iPod touch.
Great news especially for blind college students who want to be able to access the resources on iTunes U…and imagine being able to download audio textbooks directly into your iPod instead of having to change out CDs.
I’ve been waiting for some sort of accessibility features in the iPod — nice to know that now they’re there.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
As much as I love the no buttons interface, which is probably the way all keyboards will go. I often wondered that it kind of excludes blind people and the normal keyboards of today would become devices for the disabled. So this is a good move by Apple and I guess sighted people could use it to, give it a test run.
Can you hear me now?
Okay, someone had to say it.
The Other Steve:
“Can you hear me now?”
Nice!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />