Assistive Technology

Recently, select Apple Retail Stores have started hosting free accessibility workshops. The hour long sessions are instructed by Apple Store employees and cover various accessibility features included in iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks . Workshops are divided based on the user's needs and include hearing, vision, and physical and motor skills. These workshops will presumably cover features such as VoiceOver , Assistive Touch , Switch Control , and more. These workshops are a great way for Apple customers to learn about helpful accessibility features that are already built into their devices. The workshops will also offer u sers of Apple's accessibility features an opportunity to get their questions answered in person. The training of the workshop instructors will be key to a successful experience. Hopefully, these workshops will be offered in all Apple Stores in the near future.  While accessibility specific workshops may not help Apple's bottom line, they demonstrate Apple con...

Apple announced that their World Wide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) will take place from June 2nd - 6th in San Francisco, California. At the event, Apple will preview the future versions of iOS and OS X . It is unknown what these changes will entail, but if history is any indication Apple will preview iOS 8 and OS X 10.10. Consistently, over the past few years Apple has steadily improved the accessibility features of both iOS, which runs the iPhone, iPad , and iPod Touch and OS X, which runs on Mac computers. Last year with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple added Switch Contro l, large text , VoiceOver enhancements, customizable closed captioning, and enhanced dictation. iOS 7 added Switch Control , improved Siri , and ability for developers to utilize system text-to-speech voices. At WWDC 2012, Apple devoted precious time during their Keynote to detail improved accessibility features found in iOS 6. With millions of users any accessibility improvements can have a dramatic impact on many...