Hello, My understanding is that The initial spoken track information which was added to songs (if requested) was set up primarily for blind people. This occurred a few years after Apple brought accessibility inhouse, and the iPods did not have the processing power for a full screen reader as Apple felt it should be accomplished. The iPod was not as powerful a device as other RocBox enabled MP3 players, from what I understood at the time, but it was more intuitive to use. I would love to see Apple's internal documentation to learn when they actually decided to develop VO for their portable devices.
David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 18/09/2012, at 15:15, "Kramlinger, Keith G., M.D." <kramlinger.ke...@mayo.edu> wrote: > My memory may be failing me, but I seem to recall, at a time--perhaps > 2004--something like RockBox was software to make the Ipod Classic accessible > with speech, that I heard Apple was developing what became known as VoiceOver > primarily as a way for sighted folks to navigate their iPod's while otherwise > visually preoccupied, such as while driving, for example. The potential for > use by blind and visually-impaired folks was a secondary or coincidental > consideration or discovery, and not a primary driving force. > > This view may be cynical and inaccurate. I recall it arising during > conversation with others, and not based on any particular source I was aware > of. > > -----Original Message----- > From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of > David Chittenden > Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 9:41 PM > To: viphone@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: Apple's commitment to accessibility [was "Re: a warning to voice > over users concerning IOS 6"] > > Hello, > > Please forgive my cynicism in my final statement of those poor blind people. > I am preparing my proposal for my doctoral research. My proposed topic is how > are blind people able to adapt to touch screen devices, so I am currently > reading all the academic and professional research I can find on the topic. > > I do not know why Apple shifted its core values to include accessibility > within its business model. If we look at the numbers, especially with iOS, it > would appear to be a bad decision considering that there was no expectation > for it, and Apple would not lose any governmental or education contracts over > it. Consider that Microsoft has not lost any government contracts even though > they removed accessibility from Windows Phone Seven and still have not put it > back in. > > We do know that Apple is committed to the end-user experience. The visual > actions of the display have many affects which make it extremely pleasing for > sighted people. Microsoft and Google are constantly trying to copy many of > these affects with mixed results (according to sighted friends). Sighted > people I know who are not at all computer savvy talk excitedly about their > iPhones, MacBooks, and even Airport Xtreme routers because they are so > intuitive and even fun to use. I only hear geek friends talk about Windows or > Android that way. > > I suspect, therefore, that Apple perceives universal accessibility in a > similar vein, that it should be innovative, and should encompass the sighted > experience as much as possible. And, they obviously do not pay attention to > what the experts in the field say. > > > David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA > Email: dchitten...@gmail.com > Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 > Sent from my iPhone > > On 18/09/2012, at 13:51, Joanne Chua <shuang.an...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi David, >> >> If that is the case of what you said, we "poor blind people", why >> Apple should care on putting voiceover in their touch screen products? >> Not only that, Apple also advertise that their products are friendly >> to people with access needs. >> >> Just a thought >> >> Regards >> Joanne >> >> On 18/09/2012, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> You are correct for the Mac. For iOS devices, however, this is not the case. >>> Most of the professional proofs and studies clearly demonstrated that blind >>> peepul, as a whole, did not have the necessary spatial awareness, and >>> attempting to memorise, without good tactile clues, would be almost >>> impossible for most blind people. Therefore, an accessible pure touch-screen >>> device was not expected or required. After all aside from some basic >>> functionality, it couldn't be done anyway. Those poor blind people. >>> >>> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >>> Email: dchitten...@gmail.com >>> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> On 18/09/2012, at 9:34, Christopher Chaltain <chalt...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> I agree with David here, but I also wonder how much of Apple's sales are >>>> effected by their commitment to accessibility. For example, how many >>>> government sales or small business sales or educational sales wouldn't >>>> have even been possible if they weren't able to demonstrate that they >>>> had an accessible solution and meet the various regulations and laws, at >>>> least here in the US? I think this would explode the 100K figure by >>>> quite a bit, although I'm not sure it's possible to capture such a >>>> number. I also don't mean to take away from Apple's commitment to >>>> accessibility. I think their commitment goes beyond just bottom line >>>> dollars and cents, although they are a business, and I don't think >>>> they're doing it entirely out of the kindness of their corporate hearts. >>>> >>>> On 17/09/12 16:05, Scott Howell wrote: >>>>> David, >>>>> >>>>> True, but my point is that although a small portion of the overall sales, >>>>> APple still considers this segment worth the investment. I would love to >>>>> know what the real numbers are across all Apple products including the >>>>> Macs. >>>>> >>>>> On Sep 17, 2012, at 4:19 PM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Do not consider 100,000 iPhones to blind folk to be much of a market in >>>>>> this case. This number represents 0.3% of 1 quarter year of Apple's >>>>>> iPhone sales, but includes all models of iPhones for the past 3 years. >>>>>> In other words, if Apple were to stop supporting VO, they wouldn't even >>>>>> notice the tiny bump to their profits. Apple is not supporting concepts >>>>>> of universal access for their bottom line. >>>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Christopher (CJ) >>>> chaltain at Gmail >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" >>>> Google Group. >>>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >>>> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >>> Group. >>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >>> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>> >>> >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >> Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. 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