Use High Contrast
AAPL224.12  chart+0.00
2010-03-17 16:00

@Maccessibility on Twitter

For more about Twitter, click here.

News Stories

Apple’s iBooks Store and Reader to Support VoiceOver

12 March, 2010 @ 3:19 pm by Lioncourt

As Apple began taking pre-orders today for its new iPad device, they released a few more details about the product. Most exciting among these for VoiceOver users is the news that iBooks, the application that doubles as a digital bookstore and electronic book reader, will support VoiceOver.

Apple’s iBooks page describes its accessibility thus:

Unlike a paper book — or e-books on other devices — you can change iBooks on iPad to suit the way you read. Turn iPad to portrait to view a single page. Or view two pages at once by rotating to landscape. Change the text size. Even change the font. Touch and hold any word to look it up in the built-in dictionary or Wikipedia, or to search for it throughout the book and on the web. iBooks works with VoiceOver, the screen reader in iPad, so it can read you the contents of any page. Even with all these extras, reading is so natural on iPad, the technology seems to disappear.

Our readers will remember the controversy last year when the Authors’ Guild tried to block text-to-speech on Amazon’s Kindle book reader, claiming that text-to-speech was equivalent to audio book performances by human narrators.

The guild will find it much harder to argue that bizarre stance this time, as the access is being offered via VoiceOver rather than a generalized text-to-speech option. By taking this approach, Apple will be providing VOiceOver users with a streamlined experience, and putting the Authors’ Guild in a position of specifically having to oppose access for visually impaired users to their content. We do not believe the guild will want to try to take such a hostile stance.

The iBooks application will also work as a reader for free books in ePub format, whether that content was purchased from the iBooks store or not.

Once again, Apple is putting visually impaired users on equal footing with their sighted fellows.

Posted in Apple Inc., Apple News, Commentary, Education, VoiceOver, iBooks, iPad | No Comments »

Previously...

  • Apple Briefly Mentions Accessibility At Annual Shareholders Meeting 26 February, 2010 @ 11:29 am

    Yesterday, APple held it’s annual shareholders meeting. The meeting included over an hour’s worth of questions answered by CEO Steve Jobs, COO Tim Cook, and CFO Peter Oppenheimer. Most of the discussion revolved around the company’s efforts regarding environmental issues, management, and acquisitions.
    One shareholder and former Apple employee, asked why Apple will not be [...]

  • iPhone Quick Tip #7 9 February, 2010 @ 11:00 am

    Did you know that on iPhone or iPod touch models, while VoiceOver is running, you can start and stop the iPod playing from within any application? This is great for listening to music while reading, using a pedometer, perusing your email,etc. Simply touch the status bar at the top of the screen, (i.e. the clock [...]

  • The Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast #007 – iPad, Therefore, I Want 29 January, 2010 @ 5:10 pm

    In the seventh episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast, knights Cara Quinn, Eric Troup, Darcy Burnard, Holly Anderson, Steve Sawczyn, and Josh de Lioncourt discuss Apple’s big event to introduce the iPad slate computing device, its accessibility, speculation on how VoiceOver may differ from the iPhone, and what we think it means for the [...]

  • Apple Unveils Their Long Rumored Slate Computing Device 27 January, 2010 @ 4:33 pm

    After years of rumors, speculation, and legend, Apple has finally lifted the veil over its slate, (or tablet in you prefer), computing device. It’s called iPad, and it’s quite impressive.
    The iPad runs an expanded version of the iPhone OS, and therefore includes the VoiceOver screen reader, according to its product page. It looks similar to [...]

  • iPhone Quick Tip #6 19 January, 2010 @ 7:30 am

    Did you know…
    …you can copy an SMS message to the clipboard with VoiceOver. Simply touch the message in the list, whether it is a message you sent or received in a conversation, then use the VoiceOver rotor to choose "Edit". You will have one option if you flick up or down, which is "Copy". [...]

<- older |