Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I added a phonetic first name into my contacts and SIRI and VoiceOver on the Mac and iPhone appear to use this. I am not sure now, since even in this message Alex pronounced it correctly. To do this goto the Card menu in the contacts application and select add field. Best wishes, Jonathan On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:46 PM, Jessica D jldai...@gmail.com wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Can you add this phonetic representation on the mac too? Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com On Jul 6, 2014, at 6:08 PM, Jonathan C. Cohn jonc...@cox.net wrote: I added a phonetic first name into my contacts and SIRI and VoiceOver on the Mac and iPhone appear to use this. I am not sure now, since even in this message Alex pronounced it correctly. To do this goto the Card menu in the contacts application and select add field. Best wishes, Jonathan On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:46 PM, Jessica D jldai...@gmail.com wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hi I feel the same way. If we find bugs, at least we can report them. the sooner we do, the sooner they will be to get fixed... after the update comes out, that is. Sent from my iPad On Jul 3, 2014, at 12:16 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: I would actually prefer to have more bug fixes in iOS 8 rather than new features. If we got no new features but all the iOS 7 bugs were fixed I'd be so happy. The new features sound awesome, but I just hope bug fixes get proper priority. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Which voice do you use, then if you don’t like Alex. On 2 Jul 2014, at 12:01, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
My only complain about Alex on the Mac is that the voice tends to slur a bit when the rate of speech is up to a high value and if the inflection or intonation is past 85%. Other than that, it's a pleasant voice with a realistic breathing algorithm. I notice that it doesn't breathe when you perform a continuous read but it does if you're using arrow keys to move line by line. Feel free to visit my new Web site http://www.DavidGoldfield.info Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573 Visit my blog http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield David Goldfield, Founder and Peer Coordinator Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired On 7/2/2014 7:06 AM, Daniel McGee wrote: Which voice do you use, then if you don’t like Alex. On 2 Jul 2014, at 12:01, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hi. I am not a fan of alex. I use some of the other english voices, mostly heather because I once bought the acapella voices, because they are better for danish. Best regards Annie. Den 02/07/2014 kl. 11.31 skrev Anders Holmberg and...@pipkrokodil.se: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hi there I realize that we are doing a lot of speculation here, but does anybody know if we will be able to have a female voice with iOS eight? My sided husband had this reaction when I told him about Alex on iOS eight. He is been using voice over a lot lately to do reading on his iPhone because he's been having some trouble with his eyes when it comes to reading. I guess he could get one of the Irish forces or South African voices that are on there now. Sincerely, Gigi Sent from my iPhone On Jul 2, 2014, at 6:17 AM, 'David Goldfield' via MacVisionaries macvisionaries@googlegroups.com wrote: My only complain about Alex on the Mac is that the voice tends to slur a bit when the rate of speech is up to a high value and if the inflection or intonation is past 85%. Other than that, it's a pleasant voice with a realistic breathing algorithm. I notice that it doesn't breathe when you perform a continuous read but it does if you're using arrow keys to move line by line. Feel free to visit my new Web site http://www.DavidGoldfield.info Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573 Visit my blog http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield David Goldfield, Founder and Peer Coordinator Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired On 7/2/2014 7:06 AM, Daniel McGee wrote: Which voice do you use, then if you don’t like Alex. On 2 Jul 2014, at 12:01, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course,
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hi! As someone stated he seems to not be able to talk that good over 80%. I really want to have my speech set to high speed so thats why. /A 2 jul 2014 kl. 13:01 skrev Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com: In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is
Alex on Mac was Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Ar I see. I have him on about 50% speed on my mac and intonation about the same so don't experience these issues. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 13:19, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! As someone stated he seems to not be able to talk that good over 80%. I really want to have my speech set to high speed so thats why. /A -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
The voices shouldn't change a whole lot just because it's iOS 8. We just have a new voice or will be and that's that. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 12:51, Eugenia Firth wrote: Hi there I realize that we are doing a lot of speculation here, but does anybody know if we will be able to have a female voice with iOS eight? My sided husband had this reaction when I told him about Alex on iOS eight. He is been using voice over a lot lately to do reading on his iPhone because he's been having some trouble with his eyes when it comes to reading. I guess he could get one of the Irish forces or South African voices that are on there now. Sincerely, Gigi Sent from my iPhone On Jul 2, 2014, at 6:17 AM, 'David Goldfield' via MacVisionaries macvisionaries@googlegroups.com wrote: My only complain about Alex on the Mac is that the voice tends to slur a bit when the rate of speech is up to a high value and if the inflection or intonation is past 85%. Other than that, it's a pleasant voice with a realistic breathing algorithm. I notice that it doesn't breathe when you perform a continuous read but it does if you're using arrow keys to move line by line. Feel free to visit my new Web site http://www.DavidGoldfield.info Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/573 Visit my blog http://davidgoldfield.wordpress.com Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/davidgoldfield David Goldfield, Founder and Peer Coordinator Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired On 7/2/2014 7:06 AM, Daniel McGee wrote: Which voice do you use, then if you don’t like Alex. On 2 Jul 2014, at 12:01, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: In what way don't you like him? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 02/07/2014 10:31, Anders Holmberg wrote: Hi! Actually i must be the only guy on this list not liking alex at all. For some reason i don't like him. /A 1 jul 2014 kl. 09:31 skrev Sandi Jazmin Kruse sandi1...@gmail.com: gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I would actually prefer to have more bug fixes in iOS 8 rather than new features. If we got no new features but all the iOS 7 bugs were fixed I'd be so happy. The new features sound awesome, but I just hope bug fixes get proper priority. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps support -- and even like OS X Yosemite's new dark mode. iOS does, however, support a pseudo-theme by way of Invert Colors (white-on-black). In iOS 8, Apple is adding a second
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
gorgeous! so now alex can guide me around when i am out visiting patients ! yeehah!! apple way to go! Will it also mean one can hear the map when i drive on the highway one wonders? lets hope so… On 6/30/14, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Correct, speak screen already exists in iOS 7. It is a little harder to find. I have a client who sees perfectly well, but has dyslexia. I am training him to use speak screen for long screens of text that he becomes very frustrated whilst trying to read. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 15:13, Alex Hall mehg...@icloud.com wrote: I imagine Alex will remain English only, with the usual Nuance voices being used for all other languages. That's just speculation, though. I don't know, but the speak screen option seems more for occasional use by people who can usually see the screen; I doubt it is intended for use by VO users. I imagine Zoom users, or those with certain learning problems, will find it quite andy, but VO users not so much. Again, this is all speculation and guessing at this point; I'mnot even a beta tester. On Jun 30, 2014, at 11:05 PM, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
How do you find this option? On 1 Jul 2014, at 5:49 pm, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: Correct, speak screen already exists in iOS 7. It is a little harder to find. I have a client who sees perfectly well, but has dyslexia. I am training him to use speak screen for long screens of text that he becomes very frustrated whilst trying to read. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 15:13, Alex Hall mehg...@icloud.com wrote: I imagine Alex will remain English only, with the usual Nuance voices being used for all other languages. That's just speculation, though. I don't know, but the speak screen option seems more for occasional use by people who can usually see the screen; I doubt it is intended for use by VO users. I imagine Zoom users, or those with certain learning problems, will find it quite andy, but VO users not so much. Again, this is all speculation and guessing at this point; I'mnot even a beta tester. On Jun 30, 2014, at 11:05 PM, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Sounds like speak selection and it's in Settings, General, Accessibility. You select some text and a speak button should appear which one taps on to speak the selection. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 10:39, Sean Murphy wrote: How do you find this option? On 1 Jul 2014, at 5:49 pm, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: Correct, speak screen already exists in iOS 7. It is a little harder to find. I have a client who sees perfectly well, but has dyslexia. I am training him to use speak screen for long screens of text that he becomes very frustrated whilst trying to read. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 15:13, Alex Hall mehg...@icloud.com wrote: I imagine Alex will remain English only, with the usual Nuance voices being used for all other languages. That's just speculation, though. I don't know, but the speak screen option seems more for occasional use by people who can usually see the screen; I doubt it is intended for use by VO users. I imagine Zoom users, or those with certain learning problems, will find it quite andy, but VO users not so much. Again, this is all speculation and guessing at this point; I'mnot even a beta tester. On Jun 30, 2014, at 11:05 PM, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
It is called speak selection. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 21:39, Sean Murphy mhysnm1...@gmail.com wrote: How do you find this option? On 1 Jul 2014, at 5:49 pm, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: Correct, speak screen already exists in iOS 7. It is a little harder to find. I have a client who sees perfectly well, but has dyslexia. I am training him to use speak screen for long screens of text that he becomes very frustrated whilst trying to read. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 15:13, Alex Hall mehg...@icloud.com wrote: I imagine Alex will remain English only, with the usual Nuance voices being used for all other languages. That's just speculation, though. I don't know, but the speak screen option seems more for occasional use by people who can usually see the screen; I doubt it is intended for use by VO users. I imagine Zoom users, or those with certain learning problems, will find it quite andy, but VO users not so much. Again, this is all speculation and guessing at this point; I'mnot even a beta tester. On Jun 30, 2014, at 11:05 PM, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM,
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Hmm, I wonder if you change the pronounciation with siri if vo will use it too. On 7/1/2014 3:46 PM, Jessica D wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
No, voice over and Siri are two completely separate things. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 6:10 PM, Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com wrote: Hmm, I wonder if you change the pronounciation with siri if vo will use it too. On 7/1/2014 3:46 PM, Jessica D wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Yes, but if the pronunciation of names by siri could be given to voiceover it'd be good. Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com On Jul 1, 2014, at 8:06 PM, Jessica D jldai...@gmail.com wrote: No, voice over and Siri are two completely separate things. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 6:10 PM, Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com wrote: Hmm, I wonder if you change the pronounciation with siri if vo will use it too. On 7/1/2014 3:46 PM, Jessica D wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu http://www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 04:05, mário navarro wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Yes, maybe we could request this as a future feature request. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:08 PM, Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com wrote: Yes, but if the pronunciation of names by siri could be given to voiceover it'd be good. Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com On Jul 1, 2014, at 8:06 PM, Jessica D jldai...@gmail.com wrote: No, voice over and Siri are two completely separate things. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 6:10 PM, Devin Prater d.pra...@me.com wrote: Hmm, I wonder if you change the pronounciation with siri if vo will use it too. On 7/1/2014 3:46 PM, Jessica D wrote: A pronunciation dictionary would be nice as well. I have a bunch of names in my contact list voice over refuses to pronounce correctly. Had this time, I cannot change that. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 1, 2014, at 3:23 PM, Daniel McGee danielmcgee...@googlemail.com wrote: I don’t know what to expect from IOS 8 but it would be nice if they could continue the trend of voices. In the form of downloading voices you actually want. Like on the Mac. By example, say for those in the US, by default you get Samantha but you actually preferred Tom for whatever reason. Or for UK folks, you get Daniel but you would rather use Serena. So at the end of the day, you get a choice. Of course, I don’t know if this will happen in IOS 8 but for me I know it would be a welcome addition. Just my thoughts, for whatever its worth. On 1 Jul 2014, at 19:59, Christopher Hallsworth christopher...@gmail.com wrote: iOS 5 was sure a big update. Let me stress that it's far and few in between we get big updates. The last time was iOS 5 back in 2011. Then do you all remember iOS 3 back in 2009? Christopher Hallsworth Student at the Hadley School for the Blind www.hadley.edu On 01/07/2014 19:36, Devin Prater wrote: I think voiceover will be improved, as it always is. Every big release, and even some small releases, contain changes. I still remember my first big update, to iOS5. I loved the premium voices! Then in iOS6 we were able to underline and bold text in any app that supported it, not just in pages. And we all know all the awesome things in ios7, especially for multilingual people... So just wait, I'm sure we'll be delightfully surprised. On 7/1/2014 9:53 AM, Alex Hall wrote: Apple has opened up third-party keyboards, so Fleksy can become your system-wide input method if you wish. They also added braille input directly to VoiceOver, letting you use braille on the screen anywhere you can type. By the way, that last one was on a WWDC Keynote slide, so it's public knowledge. Those, plus the Alex voice, plus all the features still protected under NDA, make iOS8 a pretty exciting release in my book. We have no idea just what to expect to see, so at least wait until iOS8 is out in the wild before saying that Apple has done nothing. On Jul 1, 2014, at 9:25 AM, David Chittenden dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com wrote: 1) Just because Apple has not implemented the features you wish to see does not mean, in any way, that Apple has not added new features to VoiceOver. 2) Unless you are a beta tester, you do not know what Apple has or has not added. And, beta testers are not supposed to provide such information. 3) I listened to two podcasts which discussed some of the new accessibility features. As I respect the list position, even though I am not a beta tester, I am reframing from making any comments besides the one I made about the Alex voice. Also, I will not state which podcasts I listened to. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com mailto:dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 1 Jul 2014, at 23:37, mário navarro mario@gmail.com mailto:mario@gmail.com wrote: ok. seems to me, that users of vo do not have new features in voice over on IOS8. because if these are the new releases for IOS8 accessibility, nothing was done especially for vo. jonathan moasen and some others blind users have made a list of the new features they would like to see the voice over on IOS8, but if these are the new accessibility to IOS8, we can consider that nothing of the desires we all have been met. and there was so much to do and improve the voice over on IOS8. I can not believe that apple has only this to offer us ... I will prepare myself for another big disappointment ... cheers . Em 01-07-2014 07:38, Christopher Hallsworth escreveu: If it's like the mac Alex will be a U.S. English voice only. Other languages should still use the Vocalizer Expressive voices as with the case on iOS 7. As for speak screen I speculate this would be useless for VO users; more for those with low vision such as Zoom users or those with a learning disability such as dyslexia. Just a disclaimer: I am a beta tester but can still only speculate. Christopher Hallsworth
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps support -- and even like OS X Yosemite's new dark mode. iOS does, however, support a pseudo-theme by way of Invert Colors (white-on-black). In iOS 8, Apple is adding a second pseudo-theme to the system with Grayscale. With this option turned on, the entirety of iOS's UI is turned, as the name would imply, gray. The addition of a Grayscale is notable because it gives those users who have issues with colorized display -- or who simply view darker displays better -- another way to alter the contrast of their device(s). Guided Access. The big addition to Guided Access is that Apple is leveraging its own new-to-iOS-8 Touch ID developer API
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I imagine Alex will remain English only, with the usual Nuance voices being used for all other languages. That's just speculation, though. I don't know, but the speak screen option seems more for occasional use by people who can usually see the screen; I doubt it is intended for use by VO users. I imagine Zoom users, or those with certain learning problems, will find it quite andy, but VO users not so much. Again, this is all speculation and guessing at this point; I'mnot even a beta tester. On Jun 30, 2014, at 11:05 PM, mário navarro mario@gmail.com wrote: hi. alex on IOS8 will only support English / USA, or will speak all the languages that are available today in the voices of IOS7 vocalizer expressive voices? yes, because if Alex comes to IOS8, must be present for all languages and not only for English USA. on the mac, alex only supports English / USA. who assures us that alex on IOS8 will not be the same as the mac? now speak about speak screen. Can anyone explain in more detail what this tool is capable to do specifically on the screen? because it seems to me that for this purpose we have the selector elements. with the selector elements can also view the screen and all the elements that can be found in the screen ... what makes this tool more? is this not more of the same? I do not understand what the speak screen will give us more than the selector elements. We can also read the entire screen with two fingers up gesture, that informs us of what is on the screen. anybody explain to me what the speak screen does most specifically? thanks. cheers. Em 28-06-2014 15:23, Robert C escreveu: Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps
An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps support -- and even like OS X Yosemite's new dark mode. iOS does, however, support a pseudo-theme by way of Invert Colors (white-on-black). In iOS 8, Apple is adding a second pseudo-theme to the system with Grayscale. With this option turned on, the entirety of iOS's UI is turned, as the name would imply, gray. The addition of a Grayscale is notable because it gives those users who have issues with colorized display -- or who simply view darker displays better -- another way to alter the contrast of their device(s). Guided Access. The big addition to Guided Access is that Apple is leveraging its own new-to-iOS-8 Touch ID developer API to enable users to be able to exit Guided Access using their scanned fingerprint. This is a noteworthy feature because it effectively guarantees that students (or test-takers or museum visitors) can't leave Guided Access to access the Home screen or other parts of iOS. As well, Apple has added a time limit feature to Guided Access, thereby allowing teachers, parents, and the like to specify the length of time Guided Access is to be used. Especially in special education classrooms, features such as Touch ID to exit and the timer can be extremely powerful in ensuring an uninterrupted learning experience, keeping students on task yet still set the expectation that a transition (i.e., You can play games now, for instance) will take place in X minutes. In terms of behavior modification, Guided Access's new features are potentially game-changing, indispensable tools for educators. Enhanced Braille Keyboard. iOS 8 adds support for 6-dot Braille input system-wide. This feature involves a dedicated Braille keyboard that will translate 6-dot chords into text. Made for iPhone Hearing Aids. Apple in iOS 8 has improved its Made for iPhone Hearing Aids software so that now users who use hearing aids and have multiple devices now can easily switch between them. Moreover, if a hearing aid is paired with more than one device, users will now be able to pick which device they'd like to use. Third Party Keyboard API. This topic (as well as QuickType) is worthy of its own standalone article, but the accessibility ramifications of iOS 8's third party keyboard API are potentially huge for those with special needs. A third-party keyboard on iOS 8. (Source: Apple.com) Anecdotally speaking, I hear from several low vision iOS-using friends who lament the default system keyboard, which is essentially the same keyboard that
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps support -- and even like OS X Yosemite's new dark mode. iOS does, however, support a pseudo-theme by way of Invert Colors (white-on-black). In iOS 8, Apple is adding a second pseudo-theme to the system with Grayscale. With this option turned on, the entirety of iOS's UI is turned, as the name would imply, gray. The addition of a Grayscale is notable because it gives those users who have issues with colorized display -- or who simply view darker displays better -- another way to alter the contrast of their device(s). Guided Access. The big addition to Guided Access is that Apple is leveraging its own new-to-iOS-8 Touch ID developer API to enable users to be able to exit Guided Access using their scanned fingerprint. This is a noteworthy feature because it effectively guarantees that students (or test-takers or museum visitors) can't leave Guided Access to access the Home screen or other parts of iOS. As well, Apple has added a time limit feature to Guided Access, thereby allowing teachers, parents, and the like to specify the length of time Guided Access is to be used. Especially in special education classrooms, features such as Touch ID to exit and the timer can be extremely powerful in ensuring an uninterrupted learning experience, keeping students on task yet still set the expectation that a transition (i.e., You can play games now, for instance) will take place in X minutes. In terms of behavior modification, Guided Access's new features are potentially game-changing, indispensable tools for educators. Enhanced Braille Keyboard. iOS 8 adds support for 6-dot Braille input system-wide. This feature involves a dedicated Braille keyboard that will translate 6-dot chords into text. Made for iPhone Hearing Aids. Apple in iOS 8 has improved its Made for iPhone Hearing Aids software so that now users who use hearing aids and have multiple devices now can easily switch between them. Moreover, if a hearing aid is paired with more than one device, users will now be able to pick
Re: An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features – MacStories
Yosemite is no harder than Apple. It could be worse, much worse. And now we wait out the summer. That for some methinks will be much harder than learning to spell Y o s e m i t e. ;) Quote of the nanosecond . . . I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Robert Annie Yanni ke7nwn E-mail- gone.to.da...@gmail.com On 6/28/2014 5:05 AM, Devin Prater wrote: I totally agree with the article. Even little things like the reader mode in Safari for mac and iOS, make things so simple and lovely. I can't wait to see what's new in Yosimidy though. On a side note, do they have to make OS names so hard to spell nowadays? What ever happened to simplicity there? LOL. On Jun 28, 2014, at 2:15 AM, Nicholas Parsons mr.nicholas.pars...@gmail.com wrote: Thought the below article might be of interest to some on the list. http://www.macstories.net/stories/an-overview-of-ios-8s-new-accessibility-features/ An Overview of iOS 8's New Accessibility Features Since this year's WWDC keynote ended, the focus of any analysis on iOS 8 has been its features -- things like Continuity, Extensions, and iCloud Drive. This is, of course, expected: iOS is the operating system that drives Apple's most important (and most profitable) products, so it's natural that the limelight be shone on the new features for the mass market. As I've written, however, the Accessibility features that Apple includes in iOS are nonetheless just as important and innovative as the A-list features that Craig Federighi demoed on stage at Moscone. Indeed, Apple is to be lauded for their year-over-year commitment to improving iOS's Accessibility feature set, and they continue that trend with iOS 8. Here, I run down what's new in Accessibility in iOS 8, and explain briefly how each feature works. Alex. Apple is bringing Alex, its natural-sounding voice on the Mac, to iOS. Alex will work with all of iOS's spoken audio technologies (Siri excepted), including VoiceOver, Speak Selection, and another new Accessibility feature to iOS 8, Speak Screen (see below). In essence, Alex is a replacement for the robotic-sounding voice that controls VoiceOver, et al, in iOS today. Speak Screen. With Speak Screen, a simple gesture will prompt the aforementioned Alex to read anything on screen, including queries asked of Siri. This feature will be a godsend to visually impaired users who may have issues reading what is on their iPhone and/or iPad. It should be noted that Speak Screen is fundamentally different from Speak Selection, which only reads aloud selected text. By contrast, Speak Screen will read aloud everything on the screen -- text, button labels, etc. Zoom. Apple has made some welcome tweaks to its Zoom functionality in iOS 8. The hallmark feature is users now have the ability to specify which part of the screen is zoomed in, as well as adjust the level of the zoom. In particular, it's now possible to have the virtual keyboard on screen at normal size underneath a zoomed-in window. What this does is makes it easy to both type and see what you're typing without having to battle the entirety of the user interface being zoomed in. Grayscale. iOS in and of itself doesn't have themes like so many third-party apps support -- and even like OS X Yosemite's new dark mode. iOS does, however, support a pseudo-theme by way of Invert Colors (white-on-black). In iOS 8, Apple is adding a second pseudo-theme to the system with Grayscale. With this option turned on, the entirety of iOS's UI is turned, as the name would imply, gray. The addition of a Grayscale is notable because it gives those users who have issues with colorized display -- or who simply view darker displays better -- another way to alter the contrast of their device(s). Guided Access. The big addition to Guided Access is that Apple is leveraging its own new-to-iOS-8 Touch ID developer API to enable users to be able to exit Guided Access using their scanned fingerprint. This is a noteworthy feature because it effectively guarantees that students (or test-takers or museum visitors) can't leave Guided Access to access the Home screen or other parts of iOS. As well, Apple has added a time limit feature to Guided Access, thereby allowing teachers, parents, and the like to specify the length of time Guided Access is to be used. Especially in special education classrooms, features such as Touch ID to exit and the timer can be extremely powerful in ensuring an uninterrupted learning experience, keeping students on task yet still set the expectation that a transition (i.e., You can play games now, for instance) will take place in X minutes. In terms of behavior modification, Guided Access's new features are potentially game-changing, indispensable tools for educators. Enhanced Braille Keyboard. iOS 8 adds support for 6-dot Braille input system-wide. This feature involves a dedicated Braille keyboard that will translate 6-dot chords into text. Made
