[access-uk] Re: IPhones IPads and their accessability
- From: "James, Lyn, Nash & Twinny" <james.austin1984@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:15:24 +0100
Hi Yusuf
On 20 Jun 2010, at 12:47, Yusuf wrote:
I paid a visit to the Apple store on Upper Regents Street yesterday. Whilst
the staff were knowledgeable and helpful I found the environment impossible.
The store is huge and extremely noisy. There are tables with demonstration
models of various Apple products. You stand at the table in order to play
with the various toys. Not a particularly helpful environment for someone
who is blind to really get to grips with a completely new interface, but I
was determined to spend as much time as I could on examining an IPhone and
an IPad.
They can be very noisy can't they? :) But well done for persevering.
> I first looked at the IPhone. I found that the icons seemed to be crushed
> together often leaving parts of the screen where there seemed to be nothing
> at all.
The thing to bare in mind, is that the screen is quite small - there is not
much real estate, at least not horizontally when the phone is in portrait mode.
The more you play with it though, the more you'll get used to it
> Also I found double tapping very difficult. I'm not sure what I was
> doing wrongly, whether I wasn't tapping fast enough, or if my finger moved
> slightly between taps which meant they weren't counting as double taps, even
> though Voice Over was repeating the name of the item I was trying to select.
> This throws a lot of people when they first play with an Iphone. Next time,
> try running your finger over the screen until VoiceOver lands on the item you
> want. Keep it there and tap with another finger. This is double-tapping.
> VoiceOver considers the finger being held down as a tap.
> After what felt like an hour, although was probably more like 15 minutes my
> double taps did seem to be improving, but I still found the process
> cumbersome and terribly frustrating. Definitely no way near the speed I can
> achieve on my N95.
Not to be rude, but this is to be expected. The touch screen is a new departure
for the Blind. We have all ben used to tactile overlays and such for years. You
might find that you get quicker as time goes on though - I have, although I am
still quicker on a physical keyboard. :)
> I've been trying to think back over my experiences of computers,
> phones and PDAs. The first computer I saw was a BBC and that would have been
> in the mid to late 1980s and although there have been huge changes in
> computers, speed, power, operating systems, the interface from a blindness
> perspective has changed very little. We're still using a keyboard which is
> pretty similar to what we would have used 20 years ago. Even with my
> Trekker, I've got a tactile overlay over the touch screen. The IPhones and
> IPads are a completely different prospect using a tactileless interface and
> I do have serious doubts about whether I'll be able to make that transition.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. :) Technology has indeed moved on but
the perspective of many Blind people - I'm speaking generally here has not. As
I said, we are used to tactile interfaces and Blindness-specific technology.
This is something really new and it opens up a whole new vista of knowledge for
us. The beauty of VoiceOver, on the Mac and especially on the IPhone and IPad
due to their touch-screen natures can show us how a screen is laid out which I
think can only be advantageous to us in the long run. The same is also true
with Orca and NVDA to an extent on Windows.
I hope you are happy with whatever decision you come to and as long as what you
are using works for you then that is the main thing. Nobody should tell you
"use this" or "use that".
TC
James, Lyn, Nash & Twinny
> I paid a visit to the Apple store on Upper Regents Street yesterday. Whilst
> the staff were knowledgeable and helpful I found the environment impossible.
> The store is huge and extremely noisy. There are tables with demonstration
> models of various Apple products. You stand at the table in order to play
> with the various toys. Not a particularly helpful environment for someone
> who is blind to really get to grips with a completely new interface, but I
> was determined to spend as much time as I could on examining an IPhone and
> an IPad.
>
> I first looked at the IPhone. I found that the icons seemed to be crushed
> together often leaving parts of the screen where there seemed to be nothing
> at all. Also I found double tapping very difficult. I'm not sure what I was
> doing wrongly, whether I wasn't tapping fast enough, or if my finger moved
> slightly between taps which meant they weren't counting as double taps, even
> though Voice Over was repeating the name of the item I was trying to select.
> After what felt like an hour, although was probably more like 15 minutes my
> double taps did seem to be improving, but I still found the process
> cumbersome and terribly frustrating. Definitely no way near the speed I can
> achieve on my N95.
>
> I found the IPad even harder to navigate. Because its larger than the IPhone
> there are even more parts of the screen with nothing. Double tapping was
> still a problem and I found typing with the keyboard in the notes app
> difficult and frustrating. I thought the IPad had a different interface than
> the IPhone, but either this particular model didn't or its a function that
> you can change in the accessibility settings. By this stage however I'd
> spent over half an hour and had had enough.
>
> My whole interest in the IPhone was based on the fact that I'm due an
> upgrade on my phone, but given my experiences yesterday I'd need quite a bit
> more time playing with an IPhone before I'd be comfortable even considering
> an upgrade. I've been trying to think back over my experiences of computers,
> phones and PDAs. The first computer I saw was a BBC and that would have been
> in the mid to late 1980s and although there have been huge changes in
> computers, speed, power, operating systems, the interface from a blindness
> perspective has changed very little. We're still using a keyboard which is
> pretty similar to what we would have used 20 years ago. Even with my
> Trekker, I've got a tactile overlay over the touch screen. The IPhones and
> IPads are a completely different prospect using a tactileless interface and
> I do have serious doubts about whether I'll be able to make that transition.
>
> I shall be writing to the accessibility people at Apple to see if there's
> any way I can arrange a time and date to spend a few hours playing with an
> IPhone in a quiet environment, that's the only way I'm ever going to find
> out if its worth considering. I suppose I could upgrade and then return it
> within the time period, but right now I'm not even going to consider that.
>
> Of course this is one person's perspective on a short play with both
> products and I know that there are a number of blind people who are happily
> using IPhones, I'm not sure if I'll be one of them though and more seriously
> I wonder where all this touch technology is going to leave me.
> Yusuf
>
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