When the iPhone 3GS was announced on the 8th of June there was much excitement in the accessibility world. The new iPhone would sport significant accessibility features, including a built in screen reader, and these features were announced on stage at MacWorld alongside the "regular" features. That's a great boost for the profile of accessibility in general, which is always a good thing.

Accessibility features for the iPhone 3GS include:

• VoiceOver screen reader localised in 21 different languages.
• Voice Control offering spoken commands, also in 21 different languages.
• Zoom on iPhone lets you magnify the entire screen up to 5 times normal size, and move around to view any portion of the screen close up. All the usual gestures such as pinch, flick, etc. will still work when the screen is zoomed.
• White On Black offers a high contrast reverse video screen display.
• Mono Audio will route both audio channels into both earbuds, for those with hearing problems.
• Speak Auto-text voices the iPhone's automatic correction and completion options so you don't have to look away from the keyboard to use them. This can be used with or without VoiceOver and Zoom.
• Assignable Ringtones let you use ringtones as an audible form of Caller ID for selected contacts.

There's also an Accessible HTML User Guide available but it's limited so you can only view it using the iPhone - any other web browser is automatically re-routed to the download location for the PDF user guide. I can't see any reason that Apple would make the HTML guide unusable for the rest of us, but it's a pity.

So the iPhone 3GS has now been in people's possession for a little while - what are the reactions?

• Mozilla guru Marco Zehe wrote My first experience using an accessible touch screen device. He was only trying out the iPhone at his local Apple store so he didn't have a huge amount of time, but I get the impression he was sad to have to leave it there!
• Mike Calvo of Serotek wrote Why is it that Apple always seems to get to the future first? which is more philosophical, but also about his new iPhone.
• Josh de Lioncourt has a great article, The Accessible iPhone 3GS, which includes lots of suggestions and tips for other users.
• The Mac-cessibility Podcast team have produced a special edition podcast: More Than Meets the iPhone
• Shane Jackson of Blind World Blog and Podcast has written three blog posts with accompanying podcasts about his iPhone excitement and adventures:
  • iPhone Podcast 1: Count-Down to iPhone!
  • iPhone Podcast 2: Trip to the AT&T store!
  • iPhone Podcast 3: The iPhone!!!

I can't find much written on the net yet by people using the Zoom, Voice Control, or other iPhone accessibility functions but what I did find seems realistically positive.

Resources for iPhone VoiceOver users are already appearing at a great rate. Holly Anderson has produced a list of VoiceOver Compatible iPhone Applications, and there's a Google Group/Mailing list for iPhone VoiceOver users which is very active.

Still wondering if the iPhone is for you? CNet's iPhone Review includes all the features, even touching on accessibility. They awarded it 4 out of a possible 5 stars, with the comment "Excellent".

Now I've written all that I'm coveting an iPhone 3GS of my own, even though I have my perfectly functional iPod Touch and don't need a mobile phone. It's tough writing blog posts, I tell you!

- Ricky Buchanan

Speech commands are one of the great new features of the iPhone 3GS. It's an accessibility feature that will help blind and mobility impaired users, and will also have significant benefit for people driving or doing other things while using their iPhone.

Here are all the speech commands I've seen people list for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. The asterisks after some commands link to the place on the internet I saw the command reported. If you're looking for something that you can print out as a memory aid, try the iPhone and iPod Touch Voice Commands Cheat Sheet page.

Starting Voice Control

Hold down the phone's home button or the middle button on your headset until the voice control feature comes up on screen and you hear a beep. This should take about 2 seconds.

Phone Commands

Obviously, these only work on the iPhone and not the iPod Touch.

Call a contact

"Call" or "dial" plus the person's name or nickname as entered into your address book. Optionally add the phone number type at the end, such as "home", "work", "mobile". For example, "Dial John Smith Work" or "Call Mum".

Call a number

"Call" or "Dial" plus the number, just as you would recite it usually. For example, "Dial 555 9592".

Make a correction

Say "not that one", "wrong", "nope", "no", or "not that".

Music Commands

These are the same for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Start music

Say "play" or "play music".

Play from a specific playlist

Say "play playlist" and the name of the playlist. For example, "Play playlist gym songs".

Play from a specific album

Say "play album" plus the name of the album. For example "Play album Dark Side Of The Moon".

Play from a specific artist

Say "play artist" plus the name of the artist. For example, "Play artist Pink Floyd". The alternate "Play songs by" plus the name of the artist has also been reported to work*.

Pause music

Say "pause" or "pause music".

Skip to next song

Say "next song". The shorter "next" has also been reported to work.*.

Go back to previous song

Say "previous song".

Shuffle the current playlist

Just say "shuffle".

Turn on Genius feature

Say "Genius", "play more like this", or "play more songs like this".

Get information about the current track

Say "what's playing", or for more specific information say "what song is this", "who sings this song", or "who is this song by".

Misc Commands

These are the same for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Ask the time

Say "what is the time" or "what time is it".

Cancel voice control

Simply say "cancel". With iOS 4 you can also say "stop".

Get help

Say "help".

Other Languages

Thanks to autrefois on the MacRumors forum I've found instructions for locating the iPhone User Guide in your language. These have the voice commands listed in chapter two. Here are the instructions:

Go to the version of Apple's website for your country/language. If you don't know it, go to http://www.apple.com/ and choose it at the bottom of the page.

Click on the "Support" tab (or whatever it's called in your language), on the top of the page by the search bar.

Finally, under iPhone, click on the link for the User's guide; it should be the first link, at least as I post this. If not, you should be able to track down that language's user guide from there.

If others are interested in providing me with the appropriate text for other languages I'd be happy to post it here - just contact me. FJB has helpfully contributed the voice commands in French - thank you!

Do you know of more commands I've missed? How are the speech commands working for you? Leave a comment and let me know.

- Ricky Buchanan

Earlier this year I purchased the MacHeist 3 bundle. It was the first bundle I ever purchased. It was just too good to pass up on. One of the included applications that intrigued me the most was the cooking application called "SousChef, by Acacia Tree Software. I wanted to add some more variety to my weekly menu, and more importantly, have some control over it. As it turns out SousChef does just that and much more.

For the most part this application does exactly what you'd expect - stores and catalogs recipes. You can manually type in your own recipes or import ones you find on the Internet. You can even add photos to the recipes. But the most convenient way to get a recipe is from the SousChef cloud. As far as I can tell any registered user of the application can upload recipes to the cloud. You can access the cloud from right within the application itself and use filters and a Google-like search box to quickly find what you need. You might not always find exactly what you're looking for in a cloud but there's a pretty decent selection. And did you find what you want it is of course already formatted for SousChef, so no need to manually type anything in or go through the importing process.

But the most useful thing about this application, and what makes it most worthwhile for me, is the ability to generate grocery lists. It will automatically generate a grocery list from any selected recipes or you can create your own grocery list from scratch. Before generating a grocery list you can adjust the serving size of any recipe and it will automatically adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly. While I use this application to generate grocery lists for recipes on occasion I've made most use of it by generating my own custom grocery list. I basically entered everything I typically buy on a weekly basis. As the week progresses and I start to get low on things I uncheck the checkboxes next to the appropriate items on my grocery list.

Then when it's time to go to the grocery store I hit the e-mail button on the bottom of the window and an e-mail is automatically generated from all the items on my grocery list whose checkboxes are unchecked. The items include amounts as well. I then send the e-mail to my helper's Blackberry and she's good to go! You can also print out a list if that works better for you. When we return from the grocery store I fill all the checkboxes again to indicate that I'm fully stocked up. As time has passed I've added things to my grocery list that I might get on occasion. There's no limit to how long your grocery list can be. You can also re-order your grocery list in any way you desire.

Before I had this application my grocery list consisted of a piece of paper stuck on my refrigerator that other people had to write on (because I am unable to write). Now with SousChef I'm the one that maintains my grocery list, which is as it should be. And all the recipe-related features, and numerous others that I didn't mention, are a bonus!

- Paul Natsch

Note: Acacia Tree Software, makers of SousChef, are also developing an iPhone version.

iConverse displays 6 different icons that represent a person's most basic needs. When activated by touch, the icons give both an auditory and visual representation of the specific need or want.

Website: iConverse

- Ricky Buchanan

MacSpeech have released a major paid upgrade for Dictate users to MacSpeech Dictate 1.5, as well as a new product Dictate Medical which has an extensive specialised vocabulary for those using MacSpeech Dictate in medical and health-related fields.

What's new in [msd] 1.5? Lots of things, including:

• Faster and more accurate speech recognition - this version of Dictate is based on the same recognition engine used in Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10, where previous versions used the engine from NaturallySpeaking version 9. The difference is most obvious on slower machines but even on my Mac Pro the difference is noticeable.
• More dialects of English are supported which also increases accuracy for many people. The full list of supported dialects is now:
  • US Spelling
    • American
    • American - Inland Northern
    • American - Southern
    • American - Teens
    • Australian
    • British
    • Indian
    • Latino
    • Southeast Asian
  • UK Spelling
    • Australian
    
    
    • British
    
    
    • Indian
    
    
    • Southeast Asian

  I'm hoping that the spelling and accent type will be unlinked in future versions - your accent is generally formed by where you're brought up, whereas spelling depends on where you currently live. There are plenty of Americans living in England, for example, and they aren't currently supported by the spelling options.

• A vocabulary editor has finally been added. This means that you can add, delete, and train words for a profile's vocabulary, as well as customise a word's behaviour such as setting capitalisation for words, word spacing, and pronunciation.
• There's a "Save Profile" menu option so users have the ability to save the current profile before quitting Dictate. For those who have problems with Dictate quitting unexpectedly on occasion, this is very helpful. I have been periodically saving my profile even though I don't have problems with Dictate crashing - it's reassuring to know my corrections won't be lost if something happens!
• Available Commands Window has been reorganised. The commands are now grouped into smaller logical groups to make finding a command easier. As this window is essentially one's "on-the-go help", seeing the available commands with less scrolling is a great assistance. Some command names have also been changed to make them more logical, although not all of the inconsistencies have been ironed out yet.

There are other smaller changes too, and there's been a maintenance upgrade to version 1.5.1 to fix some bugs in the meantime. There's a full set of release notes available for those who are interested in the changes.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical runs from the same code but has a much wider vocabulary suitable for dictation in medical disciplines. Here's a list of the wide range of disciplines covered:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Anesthesiology
• Cardiology
• Dentistry
• Dermatology
• Emergency Medicine
• Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
• ENT
• Epidemiology
• Family Medicine
• Fetal Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• General Medical
• Geriatric Medicine
• Hematology
• Infectious Disease
• Internal Medicine
• Medical Education & Writing
• Midwifery
• Neonatal & Perinatal Medicine
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Nursing
• Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Oncology
• Ophthalmology
• Osteopathy
• Pain Medicine
• Pathology
• Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Dentistry, Pediatric Gastroenterology
• Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (US Only)
• Podiatry
• Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Pulmonary Disease
• Radiology, Radiation Therapy, Vascular & Interventional Radiology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Lab
• Speech & Language Pathology (US Only)
• Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Colon and Rectal Surgery, Hand Surgery, Neurosurgery, Oral & Facial Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery
• Urology

MacSpeech Dictate Medical also supports standard profiles for dictation of general work not related to medicine.

MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 retails for US$199 including a high quality noise-concelling microphone. Upgrades from MacSpeech Dictate 1.3 and below are US$54.95.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical currently retails for US$595 including a high quality noise-cancelling microphone. MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 customers can crossgrade for US$345, and customers with previous MacSpeech Dictate for US$395.

Website: [msd]

- Ricky Buchanan

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