How could Apple make Fitness Plus accessible to the blind?

For those who aren't aware, Fitness+ videos include sign language, so Apple has made some effort to make them inclusive: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/12/apple-fitness-videos-include-american-sign-language/

A very interesting question Oliver. Like you, I'm not minded to be too critical of Apple here, as there isn't a simple and obvious solution. I wondered if maybe there could be an option to listen to or read a detailed description of each of the moves in a given workout, before you start its playing. I know a colleague of mine did that for me earlier this year when we were doing group workouts over Microsoft Teams. He emailed me detailed descriptions in advance.
That said, it's not always easy to explain these things in words, so you could still be doing it wrong without knowing. But I'd definitely be willing to try it.
There's also the question of the statistics about your heart rate etc. being on screen. How does it get those across to us.
Great to hear about the sign language. I wonder though is this just American Sign Language, or are the likes of British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language available too?

My understanding is that it's ASL only, and is signed by the instructors themselves. This is taken from the article I linked to above:

ASL is used at the start and beginning of the Apple Fitness+ videos, regardless of their length. And according to Apple, trainers also utilize ASL throughout workouts as well.

“The trainers even learned American Sign Language (ASL), and you will see them use sign language in every workout as greetings, encouragement, and motivational cues. They appear in each other’s videos to add motivation, show modifications that can make the movement easier or more intense, and build enthusiasm.”

I agree with Oliver’s thoughts on this. The thing I’m concerned about is while they did include the deaf, I need to be able to know what the form is supposed to be for HIT (high intensity training), and I don’t have a treadmill or bike, we have no room for that stuff. Please, apple folks, if you are reading, I think it should be duly noted that 95% of blind folks don’t get the exercise they need, according to statistics. I don’t want to die of a heart attack or stroke or injure myself during exercise. So proper form is so important. Has anyone tried the yoga things? I love yoga.
As for the HIT training, I would need this because I want to do cardio workouts that do indeed pump my heart rate up, and all that’s needed is a bit of description to make it friendly for blind people. Apple should know that since so much of fitness doesn’t get to the blind, we need it more than ever now, especially this year.

Overall, the descriptiveness could be worse. I've found that vague descriptions are provided for most exercises, meaning that if you have a general idea about fitness you should be able to follow along. It's not perfect, and of course they could improve. For fun the other day I tried a Yoga workout because I have almost no knowledge of Yoga and was still able to mostly figure out what was happening.

To improve, though, They could start with basic things like making sure that the trainers clearly name each exercise they're doing, which they don't consistently do. If nothing else, that lets you google the exercise if you really can't figure it out. Even as someone who's done most of the HIIT and strength exercises at some point, though, sometimes I have no idea what's going on because all the trainer says is "we're all going to do this thing, watch me."

You could also have more complex solutions like providing textual descriptions through subtitles to be read out by voice over, but this is where you tend to hit a pretty big barrier. Many blind people have no basic knowledge about exercise, and wouldn't even know where to start with some more complex motions, no matter how you describe it because you tend to assume knowledge. say the exercise was mountain climbers. Most people would describe it by telling you to start in a pushup plank, but if blind person who's never been told what that is hears that, they'll already be lost. There comes a point, too, where you dumb down the description so much that it's just not practical for anyone other than the complete beginner.

I honestly don't know what a fully workable solution is for every level. It's really easy to do exercises wrong even with textual descriptions if you've never done them in front of someone that can correct you, E.G I'd have no idea how to begin describing a clean in a way where I was sure the other blind person was doing it safely.

Also, there are usually 3 trainers per video, each doing a different modification of each exercise, some harder and some easier. If you described everything, it would take way too long.

Hi just wondering to know how accessible is the bike exercise. Also I do not have an Apple TV in the room where the bike is and just wondering to know will my iPad work instead of the Apple TV thanks

Where is this app on the iPhone? I'd like to check it out.

There's a dedicated tab for it in the fitness app.

I agree with most suggestions here. I wonder if there's a way the people who run AppleVIS could somehow get involved in making Apple aware that Fitness Plus is not currently accessible to us. Something like a campaign of the month if that's still a thing, or getting someone from Apple accessibility on an AppleVIS Extra podcast to discuss it. Something more than just hoping they read the forums here.

I do agree that modifications would have to be made, but I do think it could be done. It's disappointing that in Apple's marketing of Fitness Plus, they talk up inclusivity for everyone, yet it's not accessible for us. I think I read an article somewhere that featured some of the trainers talking about their backgrounds, and one of them is disabled. I can't find that article now though.

Completely agree. I was very disappointed when I subscribed being blind myself, but it's honestly a simple fix. They just need to have highly detailed, 2 to 5 minute vids on each move they call out in the sessions so that if, for example, the trainer says "Hinge" we know exactly what that means and can do it in the workout. Simply saying "move your hands up above your head" or similar is just not good enough, there are a million ways to do that and only one has the desired effect.

Moreover, it'd be great for the fitness app to take a look at enabled accessibility settings, and provide these videos if VoiceOver was enabled, or automatically enable sign language only versions for people who have features for the deaf enabled.

They should learn from Blind Alive / Eyes-Free Fitness! I've done several workouts from that website, including barre, which has lots of unique moves that require good form. As several people have suggested, they just have specific audio tracks describing each move. They also have those in text format, which is nice when you just need to scan quickly for a particular exercise. It would be easy to list the moves you would need to know for a particular workout, and then go learn those moves first. Yes, it takes more time than being able to watch someone, but aren't we used to that? I just got an Apple Watch SE for Christmas, and because it came from Best Buy, I get 6 months of Fitness Plus for free. I haven't activated it yet, but I'm looking forward to trying it!

Is the Fitness App or Fitness Plus inside the Health App? I couldn't find it in Settings and I even did a search on the App Store.
Side note: My favorite fitness app, so far, is Aaptiv. But unfortunately after your free trial, it's almost $100 per year.

Also too bad Blind Alive isn't around any more. I have a lot of their workouts and exercise descriptions on my Victor Reader.

Hello Everyone. I just wanted to say that any fitness app can be accessible, as long as the UI works. If I don't know how to do a particular move, I utilize the internet and/or call on a sighted friend and ask them to view the workout and describe what it is. Mostly, however, I have found that I can find out how to do a move simply by researching online. I know this isn't a foolproof method but it certainly works for me. I encourage those of you who wish to use the Fitness Plus app or any other app to engage in a little self-education and then go work up a sweat. Let's not just sit back and wait on the devs to get it right. We can do this thing on our own.