Slashdot Mirror
Software Update Makes iTunes Accessible To Blind Users
rickthewizkid writes "Recent updates to the iTunes software allow blind users to access the program without assistance. From the article: 'The new software — which transforms the written information on an iTunes-linked computer screen into speech or Braille — stemmed from an agreement between Apple, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer company, the National Federation of the Blind and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.'" It's not just the actual iTunes app, though; the article notes that this update makes iTunes U useable as well.
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Accessibility/Reference/AccessibilityLowlevel/index.html
The problem was largely with the Windows version of iTunes, as well as the Music Store, which uses non-standard windows. But basic accessibility is built into OS X (they tell me its a little more clunky than the screen-readers for Windows, but it is free and built-in)
Turn it on in the Universal Access pane. Try using it; you'll probably give up in frustration after about five minutes. Makes you appreciate having good eyesight.
I wonder what the Blue Screen of Death feels like. Prickly?
Safari and the many other application on the Mac are accessible to the blind. The Mac has a built in screen reader, VoiceOver, that permit the blind as well as the print disabled to have the screen read to them and to navigate to onscreen controls.
Most Cocoa application are, by default, accessible to VoiceOver and there are simple and well documented steps a programmer can do to insure there Macintosh applications are accessible.
Because VoiceOver is built into the OS and not an added services the blind users literally saves $1000s of dollars over the cost of a Windows PC.