iOS7 : Designed to Brill

Apple, iOS and it's iDevice range have long since been renowned for their ease of use and in particular, the finger friendly approach to its User Interface Design.  Competing mobile Operating Ystems have long been criticised for lack of optimisation on devices that are primarily for use with your fingers.

Enter iOS7.....

Apart from it's tendancy to have a bright first impression *often with an ongoing after image!) it is more concerning to note some of the more subtle changes in the User Interface that reduces its useability, especially from the perspective a vision impaired user.

Essentially Apple has dumped it's colour coded button system, perhaps most prominent within its own Apps and the Settings application.  Gone are the red cancel buttons and the blue Next/Done button.  Replaced by a small text link that is often hard to located.  This trend is continued in Mail with a white on white on white approach.

Granted, it looks a little more refined (although some claim it looks "childish") it's an odd step for Apple to take.

Unfortunately as someone with a Vision Impairment I cannot seriously consider recommending an iPad/iPhone anymore.  Which is a shame, as Apple has long since been a leader in the accessibility arena.

Going Silent

So you've acquired yourself a Smartphone....

For most people who are Deaf and Deafblind, the most likely reason you bought one is to do your Text or SMS messaging on in some accessible way (at least more so than a standard cheap phone).  So you have magnification, text-to=seech and if you're lucky, even Voice Recognition that understands what you say but what about your ring tones?

But why do I need a Ring tone?

Well you don't actually....
Until you put your phone on Vibrate, chuck it in your pocket or bag and realise you can't really feel it when it vibrates (especially true if you've got it in your hand bag).  While in silent mode your average mobile will still make a continuous "ring" when a new voice call comes in but your average text message notification makes a weak buzz.  You can't change the intensity or duration either directly or by assigning a different ring tone (IOS will let you set it to repeat up to 10 times).

Which might leave you missing your messages left, right and centre.....

It's a shame so much flexibility in ring tone is available to people who can hear them but how about a bit of vibratory adjustment?

It's Your Technology, But is it Your Choice?

As Australians get ready for nation wide reforms in the shape of DisabilityCare Australia I want to take a look at it's primary promise (Your Life, Your Way, Your Choice) and how this relates to the Disability Technology Sector.

Wander through any major technology retailer today and you will find a respectable choice in most categories at varying price points to suit most people's budget.  But how much of that actual technology willl meet the customer with accessibility needs?  For some this is not an issue as they can make simple modifications such as utilising a laptop and activating the magnifier.  But what if you need a braille display?  Gesture Recognition?  Sreen Reading Software?  Special adjustment to your desk....?

Chances are your stuck..... for choice.

Due to lack of demand most Disability Technology is either not mass produced or there is not a competitive market (unless heavily subsidised) to foster a great level of choice.  Let's take a look at Vibrating Baby Cry Alerts for the Deaf as an example.

At the moment in Australia you can purchase 2 different systems.  They both hook into various notification devices and are part of a notification system that provides doorbell, fire alarm and telephone notifications.  Alerts are either via a vibrating pager/watch or a strobe light.  Problems?  Neither of these are particularly effective.  One is a hyperactive general sound detector which goes off every 5 minutes regardless of what noise it is.  The other is apparently "Cry activated" but never worked properly with y own child's cry (rarely a sustained scream).  but there's no other choice....

On the other hand baby monitors for hearing people are a dime a dozen at your local baby store.  Some will now even sync with your phone or broadcast over the internet (not advisable).  The ability to make a choice is based on the presumption that the choice actually exists.

Which all leaves us where we started....
With little choice, or in some cases none at all, and generally quite expensive proprietary solutions.

The Form Factor

Not so long ago, if you bought yourself a phone you were pretty much guaranteed that it had a number keypad on it.  This was due to a design mentality known as Form equals Function.  While this still exists in many devices, the introduction of multi-touch screens and smart devices has seen a shift away from the concepts.  Need to press a button, well we just render it on the screen for you and an App translates what you want by pressing it.

While this gives us a lot of power (the one device can do many things) we lose out in terms of Accessibility and even in Human-Computer Interface terms.

Eventually this will have accessibility benifits (for example you will put your Milk container in a special slot in your fridge which will automatically read the Use By Date and advise you when to throw it out or purchase more) but for the moment, the popularity of integrating Touch-Screens into our everyday devices is causing an accessibility problem.

This is where Haptics comes into play.

Haptics deals with any technology relating to the sense of touch.  A lot of focus at this point in time is on developing technology to appropriately reproduce the tactile feedback we were used to with physical contact (like pushing a button and it remaining depressed to indicate it was On) and representing that in a virtual sense.  Hopefully this will allow us to connect more physically to our virtual world than the flat representation we are becoming accustomed to.

Talk is Cheap....

While the benefits of a multifunctional Smartphone are undeniable these, some people just want a phone or can only access certain parts of a phones functionality (ie the Deaf cannot make phone calls).  Various functions have replaced this including SMS messaging, Video Conferencing (Video Relay) and many others.  But talk is still cheap....

Almost all phone plans focus heavily on Talk-Time which is fair enough if that's all you use but what if you don't?

Most plans come with about 100 free SMS per month.  Phones like iPhone get around this by sending messages through your data plan to your iTunes account (blue messages) but still revert to the old fashioned way when this is not accessible (green messages).  But you still  need to pay for the Talk-Time you don't use.....

And video conferencing will chew through your data plan in no time *for many Deaf this is a much more appropriate method as it allows for communication in native sign language).

I've received a bit more interest in abilIT than I previously expected and I wasn't entirely ready to get started (a lack of contributors and I will be travelling soon).  But I had noticed I was receiving a fair bit of traffic even though I haven't put anything up yet so I figured it was worthwhile getting things started.

However, abilIT needs more in depth explaining if so many people are interested.

abilIT, for the moment in any case, will have an Accessibility to Technology focus and accessibility technology.  We will be looking at various technologies from different areas including :
- PC's
- Tablet's and Mobile Phones
- Dedicated Disability Technology (ie Braille Note)
- Any other areas that are related.

When things get moving will be looking at reviewing some Applications and Hardware (what we can at least get our hands on!).  I will also open it to a Q&A and hopefully we can start a crowd sourced Wiki that relates to Disability Technology.

So stick around for the good things to come....

setting up...

Welcome to abilIT.

For the moment we are just starting to get ourselves organised.  I'm just working away on the graphics side of things and tidying up the blog style and feel.

By the end of August we should have things up and running properly (2 weeks).

In the meantime if anyone is intereted in being a contributor please contact me as while I have some knowledge I can't possibly cover all the topics I'd like to.