ATMac

Users are the people with a disability. Most posts will have the users as the intended audience!

OneThingToday looks like a great task manager to help you focus on what’s important today. Once you’ve used the calendar view to input your tasks, switch to the “Today” view to get a single box (optionally transparent) which floats on top of your workspace, constantly reminding you of what you’re working on.

A PDF to Word converter will only work on text-based PDFs, not image-based ones, but it’s very useful if there is a PDF that you need to convert back to a document format so you can edit it. AnyBizSoft is giving away free licenses via their Facebook page until August 8, 2010.

Amongst updates to the iMac series of computers, Apple yesterday announced an external bluetooth trackpad. This works exactly like the MacBook’s built-in multi-touch trackpad but has a working area of approximately 4.3 by 4.3 inches (11cm by 11cm). A full set of gestures, including the VoiceOver “trackpad as screen” gesture control are available.

Digit-Eyes uses your printer to print barcode labels which you can then associate with text or audio recordings. To read the labels back, you photograph the labels with your iPhone camera and then the iPhone will read the text or replay the audio for you.

Jane Farrall has constructed a great table listing all the important features about all the known assistive/adaptive communication (AAC) applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. She’s actively updating the table in response to feedback, this is a great resource for those looking for information about AAC out there.

New tutorials are available for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad AAC program Proloquo2Go. These cover an introduction to P2G, customising the appearance and content of Proloquo2Go, and some special topics such as making backups, modifying pronunciation, and customising the voices used.

Switching to the Dvorak keyboard layout doesn’t cost anything and can help you type more easily once you learn to use the layout. Here’s how to go about it using Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Yes, it’s true, I now have an iPad of my very own, courtesy of internet marketer Jeff Walker. If you want the whole story, and even the pictures, you’ll just have to keep reading… I think the good fairies have been sitting on my shoulder on this one!

So the WWDC for 2010 is a bit behind us now, there’s time to take a breath and think of the accessibility implications of the things that were announced at the conference and since then. The iPhone 4, iOS 4, Safari 5, and new Mac Minis are just some of the announcements and releases.

Web designer Jamie Knight explains how he uses his iPhone and MacBook to help manage the difficulties that his autism causes. He talks about communication, organisation, and managing problem areas in his life.