ATMac
Empowering Disabled Apple Users
What Is ATMac?
ATMac provides instantly useful information about all Apple and Mac products for users with a disability, chronic illness, or other impairments. It's largely written and edited by Ricky Buchanan. Read More »
Resource Desk
As well as articles we have tutorials, free downloads, bookmarks, and lots of other assistive technology resources »
iPhone, iPad, iPod News
Time-Independent Games
Most computer games get faster, relying on reflexes and coordination. Untimed games such as turn-based games rely on strategy and tactics instead, which makes them excellent if the user’s disability affects perception, thinking/memory, or movement.
Getting An iPad/iPhone/iTouch For Communication
A comprehensive list of groups that I know of who are currently accepting applications for an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to be used for AAC and communication.
iPad Keyguards Available
The American company Lasered Pics is now making keyguards available for the iPad. Keyguards for the standard iPad keyboard, Proloquo2Go, TapSpeak Choice and Speak It! are available, and custom keyguards are available on request.
Putting Bookshare.org Books On The iPad
Electronic books from Bookshare.org, especially textbooks, are invaluable for students who are blind or otherwise print impaired. The print impaired, however, can have trouble using these books on an iPad as there is little appropriate software. Here is a method for converting Bookshare books to the popular and widely supported ePub format so they can be read using Stanza or other ebook readers on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Hand-e-holder For Mounting iOS Devices
Recently I’ve stumbled upon a new holder for the iPad that I hoped would end up being the missing link I’ve been looking for in my quest to find a way to make the iPad work for me. It’s called the “Hand-e-holder” and it’s unlike any other holder I’ve seen thus far.
Mac and OS X News
Accessibility For Lion
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released today. For the first time it’s available via download instead of on DVD and comes with international voices for speech synthesis users. There’s also multi-touch gestures, auto save, and a bunch of other updates relevant to accessibility.
MovieCaptioner 4.2
Use Mac OS X’s MovieCaptioner to quickly and efficiently produce captions, subtitles, and transcripts for your iPod, iPad, DVD and Flash film and video segments. MovieCaptioner is now upgraded to version 4.2 and can also read YouTube’s captioning format so you can let YouTube try to auto-caption your video and then correct and re-upload the results.
Dragon Dictate 2.0 Review
Lisa Connor – previously a user of MacSpeech Dictate – has been using Dragon Dictate 2.0 and Growl for several weeks now. Overall, she’s glad that she upgraded, although there are still some problems with the setup.
Back To The Accessible Mac: Accessibility Implications From Apple’s 20 October Event’
There was a special Apple event in Cupertino on the 20th of October entitled “Back To The Mac”. We were treated to a plethora of Mac-related announcements which have plenty of fantastic accessibility implications. I’m going to briefly run down what each announcement was, and why it matters for Mac accessibility.
HippoRemote Replaces Your Keyboard, Mouse, and Remote Control
HippoRemote will connect to your computer and hand the reins over to you. Your iPhone is now a fully-featured multi-touch trackpad. Tap the keyboard button at the top of the screen and HippoRemote will provide you with a standard iPhone keyboard with some extra features attached. Explore further, and you will see that HippoRemote turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into an advanced media browser that lets you interact with some of the coolest media programs on your Mac
Other Apple Disability News
Ellie’s iPad Provides New Opportunities
Before the iPad, Ellie couldn’t type and used her computer only to play BlackJack. Now she’s on Twitter, contributes to an app review site, and generally considers her Apple devices more useful than her shoes!
Switch Control For iPod/iPad/iPhone Music
There are three hardware-based options of which I’m aware for accessing the music playing functions an an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, as well as customisable software programs. These won’t help you to use the programs on an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad – just to play the music, audiobooks and podcasts you’ve already put onto the device.
How Do I Use ZVRS With My iPhone or iPod Touch?
This video describes how to set up your iPhone 4 or iPod Touch with the ZVRS app and use it to call the ZVRS ASL video relay service in America.
Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0 Announced
Nuance Communications today announced the release of Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0, a paid and rebranded upgrade for MacSpeech Dictate.
Stories: iPad Users With Disabilities
There have been a plethora of stories in the mainstream news and in blogs about the iPad and the amazing positive effects it’s having for people with various disabilities. Children with autism are the subject of many of these stories, but there are plenty of others who are getting amazing results from their iPads.
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