[Athen] Question re: Apple iPad and eBook accessibility

Humbert, Joseph A johumber at iupui.edu
Fri Jan 29 07:23:56 PST 2010


Hi All!

I have been following the coverage of the iPad. So far I has seen no mention of voiceover. In the presentations and in their online documentation. http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ It is my hope that voiceover is included, but the iPad uses a modified iPhone OS. Features such as voice over may have been removed or disabled. With all of the hoopla over the Kindle and text-to-speech, I wonder what deals apple has worked out with the publishers. I will try to ping Apple to find out the accessibility of the iPad and I encourage others to do so. Thankx.

Joe Humbert, Assistive Technology and Web Accessibility Specialist
UITS Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
Indiana University, Indianapolis and Bloomington
535 W Michigan St. IT214 E
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Office Phone: (317) 274-4378
Cell Phone: (317) 644-6824
johumber at iupui.edu
http://iuadapts.Indiana.edu/

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Jeffrey Dell
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 10:16 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Question re: Apple iPad and eBook accessibility

It is supposed to be. The OS for the iPad is a version of the OS used
for the iPhone. The iPhone keyboard and all apps that come on the
device are accessible to VoiceOver. There are many apps available
from the app store that are. I don't know about the meta tags for the
pictures because I rarely use the camera.
Jeff

On 1/29/10, Karlen Communications <info at karlencommunications.com> wrote:

> Generally, is there any information on whether the calendar and address book

> are accessible using VoiceOver? What about the metadata for photos? I just

> saw the promo video and this would be perfect for me rather than an iPhone

> and lighter than my laptop and would have just the basic tools: e-mail,

> calendar, address book, way of browsing, and so forth. Hopefully I could

> read the RSS feeds from the NYT and other papers. The potential for eBook

> accessibility is interesting too and something I would use.

>

> Anyone know how accessible to VoiceOver the on-screen keyboard is? I assume

> that all apps are not accessible but for the core tools, I think this would

> be perfect for me....but I do need VoiceOver. I was kind of disappointed

> that in the promo tools such as VoiceOver or voice recognition weren't shown

> as more mainstream tools...given the TTS on the Kindle.

>

> Cheers, Karen

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Pratik Patel

> Sent: January-27-10 4:27 PM

> To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'

> Subject: Re: [Athen] Question re: Apple iPad and eBook accessibility

>

> My initial thoughts are that the iBook application itself will be

> accessible. Voiceover will be included. The challenge is going to be

> voiceover enhancements. It's an excellentscreen reader. However there are

> some short-comings. There need to be some enhancements related to text

> reading/text navigation. If the software release can bring those

> enhancements and provide access to the book info in iBooks, I believe

> accessibility will work well. I also want to see how specific epub features

> are implemented will make a difference.

>

> Regards,

>

> Pratik

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Shelley Haven

> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 4:22 PM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> Subject: [Athen] Question re: Apple iPad and eBook accessibility

>

> OK, so the new Apple iPad includes VoiceOver and the built-in iBook

> app uses the open ePub format. From that, what can we infer about the

> accessibility, or potential accessibility, of eBooks on the iPad?

>

> - Shelley

>

> _____________________________

> Shelley Haven ATP, RET

> Assistive Technology Consultant

> Shelley at TechPotential.net

> www.TechPotential.net

>

>

>

>

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