News

AppleVis Unlimited: What’s New in Accessible Apps for January 2015

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Welcome to AppleVis Unlimited, our new monthly series which aims to highlight what’s new and noteworthy in the accessible app landscape. Below, you’ll find a recap of the best content posted to AppleVis during the previous month - from new app entries, to app updates, to podcasts and blogs. For easier navigation, the major sections of this post are at heading level 3, and each individual item is at heading level 4.

New and Noteworthy App Entries

Be My Eyes - helping blind see (Free)

From the App Store:

BARD Mobile and Dice World Become the Latest Inductees into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

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We are pleased to announce the result of the public vote to decide which apps should be the next inductees into our iOS App Hall of Fame.
 
Inductions are staged twice each year and are our community's opportunity to acknowledge and reward the passion and hard work that developers put into creating great apps which are both fully accessible to blind and low vision users and which place powerful tools into the palms of our hands.

Be My Eyes - helping blind see To Launch Worldwide on January 15, 2015

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Be My Eyes - helping blind see, an iPhone app which aims to connect blind users in need of assistance with sighted volunteers via video-conferencing, will be launching worldwide on January 15, 2015.

According to the Be My Eyes website, the app works as follows:

Be My Eyes and Voice Dream Reader Among Winners of 2021 Apple Design Awards

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Apple has announced the winners of this year's prestigious Apple Design Awards; and it's thrilling that two of these will be familiar to most in our community - Be My Eyes and Voice Dream Reader.

The awards honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design. This year, Apple divided the finalists into six different categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation.

Be My Eyes Unveils New Virtual Volunteer With Advanced Visual Recognition Capabilities Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4

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The Be My Eyes app is set to gain a new feature called the Virtual Volunteer, powered by OpenAI's recently announced GPT-4 model. This new tool has the potential to be a game changer for people with visual impairments, providing a virtual sighted assistant that can generate context and understanding for images in the same way as a human volunteer can.

Be My Eyes, Blind Drive, and Voice Dream Reader Among Finalists for 2021 Apple Design Awards

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Ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starting next week, Apple has today announced the 36 finalists for this year's Apple Design Awards; and it's great to see that in the running are three apps which will be familiar to most in our community - Be My Eyes, Blind Drive, and Voice Dream Reader.

Be My Eyes, Timecrest, and Zanagrams Named 2023 AppleVis Golden Apple Award Winners

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We are pleased to announce that the winners of the twelfth annual AppleVis Golden Apple Awards are Be My Eyes, Timecrest, and Zanagrams.

Big, Big Surprise on Qantas Boeing 767 from Melbourne to Sydney

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Earlier this week I flew back from Melbourne to Sydney after attending the Vision 2014 International Low Vision Conference hosted by Vision Australia, where I was an Accessibility Ambassador on Apple’s iHouse interactive stand.
 
After getting to our seats, the person I was travelling with commented that the in-flight entertainment system was an iPad, and suggested that I try it out for accessibility.
 
Once the aircraft was up, up and away, I took the iPad out of the seat pocket in front of me and pressed the Home button 3 times wit

Blind Apple Engineer Speaks of the Passion and Dedication of Apple’s Accessibility Team

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Over the past day there has been much coverage online of a Mashable article featuring Jordyn Castor, a blind member of Apple’s Accessibility Team.

In the article, Castor speaks passionately about Apple’s deep commitment to accessibility and her own personal journey.

Braille Institute launches ViA; an App to Help the vision-impaired find useful iOS apps

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The Braille Institute of America has launched a new iOS app that aims to make it easier for the vision-impaired to find useful apps.

Visually Impaired Apps (ViA) claims to fill the need for "a one-stop shop of useful apps that help visually impaired people stay connected and engaged with the world".

BrailleTouch: the AppleVis Editorial Pick of the Month for January

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At the end of each month the AppleVis Editorial Team take a look at all the apps that have been posted to the site during that month - either for the first time or where there has been a significant update - and decide which of these we think is the most noteworthy.

Considering how much its release has been anticipated, it should come as no surprise that BrailleTouch is our choice for January.

Can Sendero Meet the Challenges and Offer a Full-Featured GPS App That People Will Actually Buy?

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It's been reported that Sendero is in the early stages of developing a full-featured GPS application for the iPhone.

Most of you are probably aware of the Sendero Group, and many of you will have used their location-based information and navigation systems for the blind. Considering how highly-regarded these GPS systems are, and the company's near 20 years of experience, it is easy to be excited by news of an iOS application. However, it also raises some questions.

Cast Your Votes Now for the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2013

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We are pleased and excited to announce that voting for the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2013 is now open.
 
The shortlist for each Award has been compiled from the nominations that were submitted by members of our community.
 
Voting will close at midnight on 12 January 2014. You are not required to vote for each award. Only registered users of this site will be able to vote. So, if you are not registered and logged in, you will not see the voting form that follows the list of nominees below.

Cast Your Votes Now For The AppleVis Golden Apples Of 2014

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We are pleased and excited to announce that voting for the AppleVis Golden Apple Awards of 2014 is now open.

This is our community’s opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous work by developers over the past 12 months in creating great and accessible iOS and OS X applications.

The shortlist for each Award has been compiled from the nominations that were submitted by members of our community.

Congratulations to NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile; the Newest Inductee into the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

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We are pleased to announce that our community has chosen NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile to be the next inductee into our iOS App Hall of Fame.

After an extremely close vote, NFB-NEWSLINE edged out its 2 closest challengers by just 4 votes ... once again demonstrating how important each and every vote can be!

Could Apple Have Finally Squashed the Longstanding “Safari Not Responding” macOS Bug?

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I am thrilled to share some potentially great news - with the upcoming release of macOS Sonoma 14.2, Apple may finally have fixed the longstanding “Safari not responding” bug that causes repeated temporary freezes for many when using VoiceOver on a Mac.

Dave Nason and Tyler Stephen Join the AppleVis Editorial Team

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We are pleased to announce that Dave Nason and Tyler Stephen have joined the AppleVis Editorial Team.

Dave and Tyler are both long-term contributors to the AppleVis community, and they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.

Detecting Accessibility Events: Apple Wants Websites to Know I’m a Screen Reader User, but How About Asking Me First

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A new feature for VoiceOver users called "Accessibility Events" was introduced in iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 without any announcement or documentation. I cannot find any info about this feature on Apple's website. Even the installed Help files say nothing about it, so far. The only information given is a short description label in the Mac Preferences and IOS settings, shown below. To the best of my knowledge, which is quite limited at this time, leaving it turned on allows webmasters and anyone else who cares to know to discover if you have VoiceOver running.

Do Blind People Need a Mood-Recognition App? I Think Not

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Interpreting peoples’ body language—particularly facial expressions—is one of those challenges that almost all blind people face. But soon, there will be an app for that.

Editorial Summary of Apple's "by Innovation Only" Event on September 10

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Intro

Apple has just concluded its annual September media event. This year's, which it titled "By Innovation Only", gave us new iPhones, the Series 5 Apple Watch, and more details on the company's new Apple Arcade and Apple TV Plus subscription services. Innovation, though, wasn't exactly the word I first thought of when I considered how to sum up the announcements. Don't get me wrong: the new iPhones have some great new features, and it will be interesting to see where the new subscription services go.