iTunes to be more accessible to the blind
Apple will be making iTunes more accessible to blind consumers, under an agreement reached with the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the National Federation of the Blind.
Under the agreement, Apple will make iTunes U--a portion of the iTunes Store dedicated to educational content provided by colleges and universities--fully accessible to the blind by December 31, 2008. It will then work to provide full accessibility of the iTunes application and the remainder of the iTunes Store by June 30, 2009.
The blind and visually impaired will get fuller accessibility to the Apple application and Web site for downloading and purchasing music by means of screen access software that converts on-screen information into Braille or speech.
Apple will also contribute $250,000 to the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind to help the agency buy assistive technology that can make the Internet and computer programs more approachable for the blind.
Future versions of iTunes at the time of their release will have to be fully accessible to the blind, according to the Friday announcements on the agreement.
Apple released iTunes 8 earlier this month, along with a revamped iPod Nano and updated iPod Touch.
In August, retailer Target and the National Federation of the Blind settled a class action lawsuit over the accessibility of the Target.com Web site.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
It's about time that apple should use some of it's resources to pay attention to SOME disability issues. They really have an atrocious attitude about this, as far as I'm concerned.
I've asked them on multiple occasions in online support, email, and forums if they have a hidden balance control menu item, or some kind of ADA firmware patch for the ipod so that I can listen in stereo. I'm 70% deaf in one ear, and so if I can turn the volume up or down in one ear, I can listen to music in stereo again.
Twice I got NO reply AT ALL, and twice I got a form letter saying that "the ipod is perfectely balanced" at the factory, and that I should send it in for repair if I'm having problems with it. Finally some nice customer on one of their fourm recommended an external balance control that works, but it's almost as large as my 80GB ipod, and has a 30 foot cord.
Maybe I can saw my head off and send THAT in, and have apple perfectly balance it for me.... Lord knows the ENT hasn't been able to do that yet.
Here's a great lead example to expand beyond what's mentioned in the article:
http://tinyurl.com/574bcb
Well that would solve one problen
And to aaydogan who said:
"No manufacturer should be forced to design a product to be usable by every possible.. "
I would agree with you aaydogan, but a simple balance control would fix the issue for a relatively LARGE number of users who have some degree of hearing loss in one ear, and there are also plenty of people who have varying degrees of sight loss for whom a bit of help would be very well received, and probably most of them have more acute hearing than many of the sighted, so should be able to enjoy apple's products even more.
Also, I think that the relatively small bit of engineering/development that would go into this, HAD apple done this of their own volition without having it crammed down their throat would have been really good press for apple to use to their advantage. Yet one more feel-good story to use to compare against Microsoft.
On another note. I'd still be steamed, but probalby not as much as I am with apple if they had simply had the courtesy to reply to my queries with something like: "Gosh, we're really sorry, it just doesn't do that. We'll put that in the hopper for some future possible design changes."
It's good to see that all of these independent/creative/different thinking apple supporters think so highly of people who have been injured or otherwise disadvantaged! Thanks for all of your support in this!
Last I checked, iTunes is free, and there are tons of alternatives. This is right up there with forcing people to put noise-making devices in hybrid cars because they are "too quiet." Give me a break. I'm all for people having access to technology, but no one is forcing people to use Apple's products, so I'm not exactly sure where you're going with this. Life handed some people a bad set of cards. Deal with it.
What's next? Complaining that the gov't isn't spending hundreds of millions to redesign our currency production because some people don't want to use cards and leap into the post-1980s? Oh wait.....
Kaibelf:
Two years ago, I would have rolled my eyes at this story.
I didn't realize how dehumanizing it is to be ignored and treated with hostility when simply asking if there's any help available. This kind of poor treatment forces one to act in a more agressive manner; demanding the help, which is exactly what this group did when apple ignored them and treated them badly. Had they simply stepped up and offered their help, it would have been a PR win, and probably recouped the costs simply by the increase in the number of potential customers. AND they wouldn't have needed to pay "damages" as well as pay to implement changes to their software.
I hope that you don't have to learn what it feels like to be ridiculed when you're handed a bad set of cards, Kaibelf.
- by AppleSuxLeo September 29, 2008 9:53 PM PDT
- One would have to be deaf , dumb , AND blind to use iToons.
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