EnjoyTech

This week, Amazon announced there first smartphone called Fire Phone. The Fire Phone has a number of flashy, maybe even gimmicky, features along with a few features that may have serious accessibility implications. The phone which starts at $200 and starts shipping on July 25th runs Fire OS 3.5.0 similar to Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets. The operating system includes a number of built-in accessibility features including features to help blind, low vision, mobility impaired, and hearing impaired users. For blind and low vision users, the Fire Phone includes a screen reader which allows users to navigate the screen without seeing it. Assuming the Fire Phone uses the same text-to-speech voices as the Kindle Fire tablets, the text-to-speech voice used is very high quality. For low vision users, the Fire Phone includes a zoom mode and high contrast support. Closed captioning, mono audio, and hearing aid compatibility (HAC) are features included for users with hearing impairments.The F...

Today, Apple previewed iOS 8, the next operating system for iPhone , iPad , and iPod touch. iOS 8 builds on existing accessibility features to offer some exciting new possibilities for iOS users with disabilities. Many websites will have general information about iOS 8, but this post will focus on accessibility related changes to iOS. iOS 8 includes new keyboard options, improved text-to-speech voices, improved Guided Access features, and improved Siri functionality among other accessibility related features. Apple can always add or alter features before the general release. The new operating system will be available this fall for the general public. QuickType and Keyboard Apple's iOS 8 will include a built in predictive keyboard called QuickType. This new software keyboard will predict words for the user as they type. Once the word you want to enter appears in the suggestion bar above the keyboard, you simply tap it to insert that word. This feature will cut down on key strok...

Voice Dream Reader is an app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that supports people who prefer reading in different ways. Voice Dream can read documents from a number of sources with multiple high quality text-to-speech voices. Users can import PDFs , Word documents, text files, webpages, and even Bookshare books into the app. Once the text is loaded into the app you can listen to it using text-to-speech, highlight the text, search for a specific words or phrases, and get definitions for unknown words. Among many other uses, Voice Dream Reader is a terrific Bookshare book reader for students. Voice Dream also works very well with VoiceOver . Now, with newly released Voice Dream Reader version 3.0, new features have been added that makes the app even more useful. Up until yesterday evening, Voice Dream only supported text. All images and formatting associated with a file were stripped away. With version 3.0 images and formatting within PDF files are retained. Now you can read a PDF in ...

By combining the ease of hand writing, the power and accessibility of Apple's iOS devices, and audio, the Livescribe 3 Smartpen is a powerful tool.  With the smartpen you can start writing on a pad of paper and see your handwriting appear on your iPad or iPhone almost instantly. When taking notes It can record audio that is linked to your handwriting, allowing you to easily hear what was happening exactly when you were writing.  It can easily search through notebooks of handwritten pages to find the right note in an instant, and it allows you to share your notes with anyone without copying or scanning. The Livescribe 3 Smartpen is not just a refinement of last year's Sky Wifi Smartpen . The Livescribe 3 Smartpen adds new functionality by pairing it with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The Livescribe 3 is still capable of syncing handwriting and audio, but instead of recording the audio from a built in microphone, the recording happens on an iPhone or iPad ...

This week Apple announced a variety of new hardware and software products at media event. While Apple executives didn't devote stage time to accessibility announcements as they have in years past, the announcements still impact accessibility and assistive technology. Mac Apple previewed OS X Mavericks at their World Wide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) in June. This week Apple released the Mac operating system to the public and announced that it would be a free update. Like iOS 7, Mavericks includes some exciting accessibility improvements including enhanced dictation and Switch Control . Click to read more about each new feature. iPad The main focus of the event was updated iPads. Apple released a new full size iPad named iPad Air. The iPad Air is considerably thinner and lighter than the previous full size iPad . In addition to the slimmer design Apple included the new A7 processor which increases performance. The iPad mini was also updated to include a higher quality reti...

Today Apple sent invitations to members of the media for an October 22th event. The event comes just weeks after the release of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Rumors have suggested that the event will focus on an updated full sized iPad and an updated iPad mini . The full size iPad will likely feature a new design with smaller side bezels similar to the iPad mini's design. It is also possible that the new iPad models will include some of the new features found on Apple's latest iPhone possibly even the Touch ID finger print sensor . Of course all of this remains speculative until Apple officially confirms the details. If you are in the market for a new iPad it is difinitely recommended to wait and see what Apple will announce next Tuesday.

Apple’s new mobile operating system for iPhone , iPad , and iPod Touch includes the ability to redeem iTunes gift cards with the camera instead of manually typing long codes. To redeem a gift card with the camera go to the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store and hit redeem at the bottom of the featured page. Then choose to redeem the gift card with the camera. You can use either the front facing or rear facing camera. To redeem the gift card just point the camera at the back of the gift card and the code is automatically redeemed. This new feature makes it possible for the blind and visually impaired to redeem gift cards without sighted assistance.  Also, iOS 7 eliminates the need for sighted users to type in long and complicated codes.  iOS 7 is  available  now for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Pizmo 3 has just been released with a new design which is perfect for iOS 7 ,  and has some helpful new features. After updating, you will notice a new app icon and a redesigned interface, but the changes go deeper than just a new design. The updated app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touches running iOS 7. Click here to download Prizmo. Similar to previous versions, Prizmo 3 still allows you to take pictures of text and have the text extracted using optical character recognition ( OCR ) in order to have the text read aloud using text-to-speech. In other words, you can take a picture of a document and then Prizmo will read it back to you using text-to-speech. Amazingly, whole process takes less than a minute per page. Prizmo 3 also includes PDF exporting and business card scanning. Prizmo 3 adds a handful of helpful new features including support for dynamic text size, optional faster text-to-speech rate, and one touch multiple page scanning. Dynamic text is a new feat...

Recently Google added advanced voice search to the Chrome browser . Google's advance voice search feature was previously only available for Android and iOS , but is now available on Mac and Windows . The feature is similar to Apple's Siri ,but works on your computer as well as mobile devices. To access the feature, navigate to Google using the Chrome browser and press the microphone icon to the right of the search bar. Then you can search by voice and Google will speak back select results. I have found the voice recognition to be very fast and accurate. One of the most notable features for struggling spellers is that you can ask how to spell a word and then Google will speak back the correct spelling. Google will also provide spoken responses for many other queries as well. Watch the above video to learn more.

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference ( WWDC ) starts Monday June 10th. At the event Apple will detail "the future of iOS and OS X." Apple is a leader in integrated accessibility with their VoiceOver screen reader and numerous other accessibility features such as Guided Access , Speak Selection , Zoom , and Assistive Touch . That being said Apple still needs to improve their accessibility features to remain a leader. New accessibility features have routinely been added to new versions of iOS. Last year, Apple added Guided Access along with other accessibility improvements. A new version of iOS is exciting not only because of the cool mainstream features but the lesser known, but no less important accessibility features that make the devices usable for so many. Make sure to visit The Assistive Technology Blog after the Keynote for all the iOS 7 and OS X accessibility news. In the meantime check out my iOS 7 Wish List video below.

Prizmo 2.0 for iOS was just released in the App Store. Prizmo now works on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch. The update includes many exciting new features. The original version of Prizmo included optical character recognition ( OCR ) but did not include the ability to scan documents to a PDF or text file. The PDF files are not just images but include searchable text. Prizmo 2.0 also allows users to export the documents to other apps. To create a new document in Prizmo you can simply take a picture of multiple pages. Prizmo will automatically detect the edges of the page. In version 2.0 you no longer have to crop documents manually. Once you have captured all of the pages you can recognize the text of the document which is surprisingly fast and accurate. If the Prizmo does make a mistake you can edit the OCR zones or manually edit the text. After the text has been recognized you can email or export the document as a PDF or te...

NaviDys is a web browser for the iPad . The app allows full customization of a website's font, line spacing, letter spacing, and text size. Currently it is only available on the iPad not the iPhone or iPod Touch. While it feels very much like the built in Safari browser that comes with the iPad, NaviDys has features that make it easier to read the web. For people with low vision the ability to enlarge fonts and increase spacing is beneficial. Also, for dyslexics NaviDys includes the Dyslexie font. But using a third party browser does not come without trade offs. You cannot open links from other apps directly into NaviDys. Unlike Safari NaviDys does not include a reader  mode to remove distractions from web pages. NaviDys costs $2.99 from the App Store. Click read more below to view screenshots of NaviDys.

Today Amazon updated their Kindle iOS app with VoiceOver support. VoiceOver   is a gesture controlled screen reader for the iPhone , iPad , and iPod Touch designed to help the blind and visually impaired. The text-to-speech feature can benefit people with dyslexia as well. Amazon describes the new features as follows, "Accessibility features make it easier for blind and visually impaired customers to navigate their Kindle libraries, read & interact with books, and more. Enable VoiceOver in your device settings to begin." VoiceOver support for the Kindle app comes shortly after the Nook app was updated with VoiceOver support. Despite VoiceOver support it is possible that certain books may have accessibility issues that make them inaccessible. Irronically, the Kindle iOS app is now more accessible for the blind and vissually impaired than physical Kindles. Kindle for iOS is avalible as a free update in the App Store . Click read more to view screenshots of the...

3D printers are still new in the consumer technology market, but  3D printers have huge potential to help the blind and visually impaired. To be clear this technology is still in its infancy. Imagine a blind student reading about a geometric figure or a molecule, but who cannot understand the make up or configuration of the object. A sighted user might be able to gather the necessary information through an image but a blind student might need hands-on time for a better understanding of the object. This is where the 3D printer comes into play. If a digital 3D file is available the blind student could print out the object quickly right in their home or classroom. 3D printers typically print a model layer by layer in plastic A blind person could print a model of a building or car in order to gain a better understanding of the architecture or design. As shown in the above picture some current 3D printers can print objects the size of the basketball. The the student could feel and ...