AppleVis's blog

Papa Sangre Becomes the Latest Inductee into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

We are pleased to announce that the latest iOS app to be inducted into our App Hall of Fame is Papa Sangre.

In a very tight vote, Papa Sangre edged out a number of other iOS games to become only the 14th inductee.

For those of you not familiar with this app, Papa Sangre is a dark and engrossing video game that is made unique by not having any video. Instead, you use only your ears to navigate this land of the dead, where the only way of escape is to solve Papa Sangre's puzzles and dilemmas.

Support Our Campaign to Make the SiriusXM iOS App Accessible

This month we are encouraging you all to support our campaign to make the SiriusXM Internet Radio app accessible to VoiceOver users.

For those of you who aren't familiar with SiriusXM, it is a subscription-based service that offers more than 140 commercial-free radio channels to listeners in the United States. There are several ways to access the service, which has dedicated channels for a wide range of interests,  including music, sport, talk, entertainment, news, comedy, traffic and weather.

Unfortunately, the latest versions of the SiriusXM iOS app have significant issues for VoiceOver users, and the older versions of the app that were accessible are no longer able to access the SiriusXM service.

ooTunes Radio Becomes the Latest Inductee into our iOS App Hall of Fame

The March vote for induction into our iOS App Hall of Fame was a landmark for being the first ever where every single nominee received multiple votes. It also saw the clearest winner, with ooTunes Radio gaining significantly more votes than all the other nominees.

So, with such overwhelming support, we are pleased to add ooTunes Radio to the small and very select group of apps that have been inducted into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame. You can view the full list of inductees here.

Support our Campaign to get These 3 Nuance Apps Accessible Again: Dragon Go!, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search

In our latest campaign we turn our attention to three apps from Nuance; Dragon Go!, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search.

Earlier versions of these apps were usable with VoiceOver, but recent updates have rendered all three inaccessible.

When you launch the latest versions of these apps VoiceOver effectively 'freezes' and will not respond to gestures. Nuance have also added a number of non-standard controls to the Settings pages, and these are not recognized by VoiceOver as buttons and do not indicate their current selection status.

Let us Know the Great Uses That You Have Found for LookTel Recognizer

It's been a few weeks since LookTel Recognizer was released, and in that time we've heard of some very positive, creative and downright bizarre ways that the app can be used.

In addition to making it easier to identify objects around the home, Recognizer has been put to good use in such places as shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, camp sites and people's work environments.

Announcing the Newest Inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

We are pleased to announce the two apps chosen this month by users of the AppleVis website for induction into our iOS App Hall of Fame.

Our goal for the Hall of Fame is to showcase the passion and hard work that developers put into creating great apps that are fully accessible to VoiceOver users, and we think both of your choices are worthy inductees.

The first inductee is Dropbox, an app that makes it quick and easy to share and synchronize files across multiple devices and platforms. Not only does this make it tremendously useful as a standalone application, but it also adds significant value and functionality to many other apps.

New Campaign of the Month: Starbucks

This month we are encouraging you all to contact Starbucks and ask that they make their iOS app accessible to their many blind and low-vision customers.

Earlier versions of their app were usable with VoiceOver, but this all changed when new features were added that enabled customers to use the app to pay for purchases and to manage their Starbucks Cards. The app is now totally inaccessible with VoiceOver. Considering Starbucks' commitment elsewhere to equality of access, including producing a line of gift cards featuring Braille print, it is extremely disappointing that their many blind and vision-impaired customers are denied access to their app.

We should all encourage them to correct this as a matter of some urgency.

Announcing the February Inductees into our iOS App Hall of Fame

We are pleased to announce the two apps chosen this month by the users of this site for induction into our iOS App Hall of Fame.

Our goal for the Hall of Fame is to showcase the passion and hard work that developers put into creating great apps that are fully accessible to VoiceOver users, and we think the apps that you have chosen are great examples of this.

The first inductee is Downcast, a powerful and feature-rich way to manage your podcast subscriptions, all wrapped up in a fully accessible interface that provides a very satisfying user experience.

Two Nominations for AppleVis in the Blind Bargains Annual Access Awards

For the second year running, AppleVis has been nominated in the category for the "Best Blindness-related Website or blog" in the Blind Bargains Annual Access Awards.

We are very flattered by this, and would like to thank all of you who nominated us.

This will be the 5th time that Blind Bargains have invited the blindness community to vote for the best products, innovations and technologies, and as always there are some difficult choices to make.

In total there are 12 categories, and AppleVis also gets a nomination in the category to find the "Must Follow Twitter Account".

Voting is open from now until 11.59PM Eastern on 10 February, with the winners being announced shortly afterwards.

Share Your Experiences Of The Accessories That You Use With Your iDevice

Following a number of requests, we have recently added a new section to the AppleVis site where people can post reviews of accessories that they use with their iDevices.

There are many sites that already offer reviews, but we believe that there are many instances where the insight and experience of a blind or vision-impaired user can offer a perspective not currently available elsewhere.