Accessibility for Snow Leopard

By Ricky Buchanan • July 22, 2009

Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6, is due to ship in September 2009. The upgrade is being billed by Apple as being a smaller upgrade than the jump from Tiger to Leopard, as reflected by the US$29 price tag. Snow Leopard’s changes will be mostly “behind the scenes”; things which make the operating system run more efficiently and open up technical possibilities for the future. So does this mean that there won’t be many enhancements for Universal Access users in Snow Leopard?

With the usual caveats that anything may be altered before shipping - which does occasionally happen - these are the advances in Universal Access that Apple is currently announcing for Snow Leopard:

The Trackpad Is The Screen: For VoiceOver users using a MacBook with a MultiTouch capable trackpad, this makes the trackpad work similarly to the screen of the iPhone 3GS with VoiceOver. The trackpad surface represents the active window on the computer; touch to hear the item under your finger, drag to hear items continuously as you move your finger, and flick with one finger to move to the next or previous item. Jump directly to an item just by touching the corresponding location on the trackpad.
More Braille Devices: Drivers will be included for over 40 models of Braille displays, including wireless bluetooth displays.
Braille Mirroring: Braille Mirroring allows more than one USB braille output device to be connected to the same computer. It’s aimed at classroom settings where a teacher can lead the class through a lesson even when the students are using different models of braille displays.
Improved Web Browsing: VoiceOver users will be able to fully browse HTML tables without dropping into a ‘table’ or ‘forms’ mode, using the same keystrokes as VoiceOver always uses. There are also other improments for web browsing including customisable summaries of pages and VoiceOver automatically starting to read new pages when they load.
The Rotor: This is a new gesture available on multitouch trackpads again, a movement of finger and thumb as if you were twisting an imaginary circular dial on the trackpad. It seems to have several different uses in different VoiceOver contexts including switching between text settings and navigating web pages.
New VoiceOver Quick Start Tutorial: This tutorial automatically starts the first time you use VoiceOver on a new computer. It teaches the keys on the keyboard, basic VoiceOver commands, and gestures, and it provides an environment where you can learn at your own pace and practice your skills.

All of these advertised accessibility features are for VoiceOver users, but the general Snow Leopard advances will also help those with disabilities. For example, iChat will have a higher resolution mode and be more reliable - great for those using iChat for sign language conversations; easier PDF text selection will aid those who use digitised documents instead of physical print; faster wake from sleep will be great for those who use laptops for AAC or other situations when they need their device available quickly at any time.

For accessibility at Apple, it seems that recently almost all of the news is good! What are you most looking forward to with Snow Leopard?

- Ricky Buchanan

Categories: Information, OS X, Upgraded software, Users, VoiceOver
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About the Author

Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan is 34 years old and the founder and main writer for ATMac. She's bedridden with severe CFS/ME or perhaps a primary mitochondrial disorder - the doctors are not sure. When she's not working on ATMac or her other websites she composes music, listens to audio books, does other disability advocacy, watches TV with her flatmate, and enjoys her cat.

22 Comments For “Accessibility for Snow Leopard”

Accessibility for Snow Leopard « AccessTech News Jul 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 pm

[...] Accessibility for Snow Leopard [...]
Accessibility for Snow Leopard « The BAT Channel Jul 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 pm

[...] Accessibility for Snow Leopard [...]
Simon Strandgaard Jul 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am

Great write up. Thats some very significant accessibility improvements.

64bit and OpenCL ftw.
Maria Jul 27th, 2009 at 5:39 am

Thanks for the post. Very very nice. The install process is pretty much unchanged from Leopard as far as I could tell, with some nice little touches like identifying immediately that the key did not use GUID style partitions so I needed to fix that before installing. Once into the OS, I noticed a little alert icon on the battery and it was advising me that my battery probably need to be replaced which is very true and has been on my to do list for a couple of months as the retained charge is way down. The usual post-install grind where mdworker/Spotlight index the entire hard drive (which is kind of painful on a USB key).
sprungmarkers Jul 22nd, 2009 at 5:55 pm

Accessibility for Snow Leopard http://url.ie/23l1

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
atmacjournal Jul 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm

New ATMac post: Accessibility for Snow Leopard http://is.gd/1HsVQ

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
kazuhito Jul 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm

Accessibility for Snow Leopard | ATMac http://ff.im/-5yECp

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
SandiWassmer Jul 23rd, 2009 at 1:51 am

RT @SteveALeeMac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
vick08 Jul 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 am

RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
osx_topsy Jul 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 am

Accessibility for Snow Leopard | ATMac http://is.gd/1HsVQ #snowleopard (via @sprungmarkers)

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
sriniworld Jul 23rd, 2009 at 2:58 am

rt @vick08: RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
getmobilized Jul 23rd, 2009 at 3:02 am

RT @SandiWassmer: RT @SteveALeeMac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
ahiggi Jul 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 am

RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
debugon Jul 23rd, 2009 at 4:01 am

interesting RT:RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw (via @vick08)

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
AbilityNet Jul 23rd, 2009 at 4:41 am

RT @ahiggi: RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
bealjk Jul 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 am

atmacjournalNew ATMac post: Accessibility for Snow Leopard http://is.gd/1HsVQ

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
bealjk Jul 23rd, 2009 at 4:54 am

AMAZING! Too bad I have the white macbook sans trackpad RT: @atmacjournal New ATMac post: Accessibility for Snow Leopard http://is.gd/1HsVQ

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
EADraffan Jul 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 am

Accessibility for Snow Leopard - news from ATMac http://bit.ly/psBnB

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
toratorax Jul 23rd, 2009 at 7:21 am

CF: http://bit.ly/psBnB

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
atmacjournal Jul 23rd, 2009 at 8:38 am

ATMac writes about Accessibility in Snow Leopard http://is.gd/1HsVQ #a11y

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
neoneye Jul 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 am

seems like many improvements in 10.6 RT @atmacjournal ATMac writes about Accessibility in Snow Leopard http://is.gd/1HsVQ #a11y

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
usa2day Jul 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 pm

RT @ahiggi: RT @SteveALee Mac OS-X #accessibility features in next release (snow Leopard) http://is.gd/1HJgw

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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