Steven Aquino, writing for Tech Crunch, first on the problem of laptops for the visually impaired:
The problem is that a laptop’s screen has always felt “far away.” Being visually impaired, I need to get as close as possible in order to see comfortably, and a laptop’s screen makes that difficult. I have to lean in to see, almost the point where my nose is touching the display. It’s not only ergonomically terrible but I look pretty silly doing it. I try to compensate for this by adjusting the position of the screen and using software tricks like increasing the size of the mouse pointer, but its benefits are nominal.
The fact of the matter is that laptops are harder for me to use because I can’t get as close to the screen as I need to work effectively. It isn’t that I can’t use laptops; it’s that using them has always felt like an uphill battle I can’t win.
And the iPad Pro?
The iPad, particularly the 12.9-inch Pro, offers a vastly different experience. It’s roughly the size of the 12-inch Retina MacBook, but the tablet’s form factor and interaction model make it so much better for accessibility.
It’s for these reasons (as well as my familiarity with iOS) that has made me a believer in using the iPad as my main computer. Unlike my old MacBook, I can hold the iPad Pro as close to my face as necessary, and I can do things simply by touching the screen.
And with iOS 10 in mind:
It would be awesome to see Apple rework iOS on the 12.9-inch model to take even better advantage of the screen real estate. Buttons and other user interface elements could be made more pronounced without requiring Display Zoom, for instance. Likewise, the insertion point, magnification loupe, and cut/copy/paste menu all sorely need a visual upgrade.
On a display as large as iPad Pro’s, these elements’ small size is untenable for the visually impaired. At the very least, iOS 10 should include an setting under Accessibility where users can adjust the size of the insertion point, similar to the mouse pointer option on the Mac.
Can you think of another mainstream consumer product line where so much thought was spent on accessibility? Think VoiceOver, too, and the fact that if you enable it in the Apple Watch app, Siri will read the time out loud. These details are no accident.
Apple also is years ahead of the competition for hearing aid / hearing impaired accessibility. Since iPhone 4s hearing impaired patients could pair their phone directly to a hearing aid to stream all audio to the aid to be amplified appropriately for their loss. And not just phone calls, but all audio (music, games, movies, etc). Same for iPads and iPods, btw.
My wife, who is legally blind and who teaches visually impaired children, has always found Apple’s products to be exceptionally helpful for her & her students. When she got her first iPad, it instantly became her favorite TV screen, not to mention games, email, Facebook, etc etc. It’s not just the internet in her hands, it’s the internet she can see, better than ever. And this doesn’t even begin to approach the magic she sees when she uses her iPad with special ed students, totally blind students, autistic students, and on and on. They all grasp it, literally and mentally, right away and they come to life with excitement when it responds to their touch.
Oh how I wish Apple would make ads about this.
We see 5min spots at their product launches and on their website. But wouldn’t it be great if there were 30sec TV spots or even bus shelter ads.
It is such an under reported thing that Apple do. I guess they’re being humble but still…
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