June 4th, 2009
Okay, I thought a company selling styluses for the iPhone was a silly idea considering the main interface uses a touch a screen that works incredibly well.
So, why buy the stylus? Well, after finding out about a wonderful iPhone app, Brushes and seeing that artist Jorge Colombo had a piece he drew on the iPhone published on the front
cover of The New Yorker, I purchased the app.
But as with other drawing apps on the iPhone I found my stubby finger less than ideal for precision drawing.
The solution: a stylus, but not just any stylus. Other regular styluses will not work on the iPhone touch screen.
However, Ten1’s Pogo Stylus will work nicely on the iPhone’s touch screen.
You do have to press firmly when using the stylus, but when I used it on Brushes the smaller footprint on the screen allowed me to see what I was drawing instead of the end of my fingertip.
Right now, Ten1 is having an Art Challenge for users of their app to show off what can be done creatively on it whether you use your finger or Pogo Stylus.
Tags: iPhone
Posted in iPhone | No Comments »
June 4th, 2009
What a better way to show off your pride in one of the best blogging systems out there by applying this WordPress skin on your iPhone.
There are other goodies such as t-shirts and mugs from the WordPress shop for those who love and use WordPress.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 29th, 2009
VoiceOver is a feature which provides visually impaired users with easer access to their Macintosh computer via keyboard and speech.
The current version in Mac OS X Leopard includes several voices, support for braille displays, and built in tutorial for first time users.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Web Accessibility
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May 28th, 2009
I’m not a professional writer, but they say one of the best tips for writing is to read the work out loud when editing.
Staring at the computer screen all day you can sometimes overlook mistakes visually.
When you hear the rhythm of a person’s voice speaking you can pick up problems that you couldn’t see visually in your writing.
I have to admit that I feel strange hearing my own voice reading my blog post out loud in a quiet room.
So I found another solution on my MacBook Pro by activating the VoiceOver feature using Universal Access in the System Preferences.
Under the “Seeing” tab for Universal Access, you can find the VoiceOver feature and customize the sound of the voice reading your material.
Selecting the “Open VoiceOver Utility” button, a dialog window will open up providing you with many options in speech. You can change voice, rate, pitch, and volume.
I found the default voice of Alex perfect for reading my blog posts out loud during editing.
The shortcut key is Command + F5, which will toggle VoiceOver on and off. This allows you to quickly go from writing to editing with the sound of someone reading your work out loud.
Tags: Blogging
Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »
May 25th, 2009
The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
-Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
Web accessibility deals with how users with abilities and various disabilities can use and interact with your website.
Disabilities with visual, hearing, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological, multiple disabilities, and age related conditions can become barriers for users of websites.
How websites themselves are designed and built can become barriers for users with disabilities. An example is people with blindness using a screen reader would have difficulty with images on a website page that do not have alternative text.
My first experience to the importance of breaking down barriers to the web was on a photo assignment for a newspaper where I was photographing a blind user on the computer for a feature story. His desk and computer cables were all a tangled mess. I think it was due to not being able to see visually where things go on his desk. His access to the web was through a screen reader that read out loud the contents of the website one piece at a time.
If there were barriers such as alternative text for images not being used on the page it would make it difficult to interpret and use the content on the page the same way a user without disabilities would.
Since the web is used world wide it makes sense to have international standards for building websites, such as the
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
WAI develops guidelines, techniques, support materials, and resources for web accessibility standards. You can even follow
WAI on twitter for the latest news and updates.
Why should it be important to developers, clients, and users? When I ask this question myself, I think of other important services or structures in modern society and how they’re built.
For example, on any modern city rail and bus transit system you can find various devices such as ramps that help a physically disabled rider in a wheelchair use public transit.
It’s probably not as easy for that person in a wheelchair to use transit in the same manner as someone without disability, but there shouldn’t be barriers that keep anybody from using something as important as transit.
The web is also so important these days in society that there should not be barriers for people with disabilities in using and interacting with websites.
Web developers should be working and training to meet web accessibility guidelines, clients should be asking the developer about how their website will meet these guidelines, and users who visit websites should demand that the site be accessible to all users.
As the inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, said web accessibility is essential for the web.
But the sad truth from my personal experience, I’m not sure web accessibility is practiced everywhere. In school I was never tested or challenged to learn everything about it.
On web projects where I worked on front-end development there was usually concern with building it according to the designer’s vision or client’s requests but nothing with how can we make this site more accessible to disabled users.
My goal is to learn how I can break down the barriers to the web for disabled users and share that information with everyone.
Tags: Web Accessibility
Posted in Web Content, Web Development | No Comments »
