Quite often on Apple's Universal Access forums there are questions from users who have found that their computer's suddenly started talking to them, and putting a black box around whatever they're working on.

Here's what the black box looks like in the Finder when I have the "User Guides And Information" folder highlighted:

What's happened here is that the user has accidentally triggered VoiceOver by pressing command-F5.

You can turn it off again by pressing command-F5, which works as a toggle.

Note that if you have a MacBook you might have to also hold down the "Fn" key at the same time, depending on how you have your laptop set up. Try it both with and without the "Fn" key and one of them should work!

- Ricky Buchanan

Nuance Communications today announced the release of Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0, a paid and rebranded upgrade for MacSpeech Dictate.

This is a major upgrade, bringing Dictate much closer to the Windows based Dragon NaturallySpeaking product. Major features include:

• Uses the same speech recognition engine as the new Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11
• Mouse movement with voice commands using a 3 by 3 grid system is now built in.
• Mouse clicking with voice commands including clicks with modifiers, double clicking, etc., is now built in.
• Proofreading documents with the Mac's built in text-to-speech commands is now also included.
• More than one microphone can now be attached to a single profile.
• New editing commands have been added so they match the commands that will be familiar to Windows Naturally Speaking users.

This sounds like it could now function as a complete keyboard replacement for disabled Mac users, which is great news!

Unfortunately my computer is still off being fixed (the first fix only worked for a few days), so I haven't had the chance to try this new version. As soon as is humanly possible, I will be getting myself a copy and testing it out. Meanwhile, Dan Cohen at GearDiary has reviewed Dragon Dictate and declares it 'awesome' - not a bad start!

Dragon Dictate for Mac costs US$199 including a basic microphone. The upgrade costs US$49 for a downloadable version, more if you need the upgrade on CD or want to purchase a new microphone at the same time.

If you use this banner to purchase your upgrade online I will get a small portion of your upgrade price, which will help support me and ATMac:

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Have you upgraded yet? Are you planning to upgrade soon, or later, or not at all? And what new feature are you most excited about?

- Ricky Buchanan

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 too.

I haven't been able to keep up with all the stories, but here's a round-up of some of them. If you know of more, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post:

The Wall Street Journal itself has written about the iPad for people with disabilities: Using the iPad to Connect: Parents, Therapists Use Apple Tablet to Communicate With Special Needs Kids is a great article and includes quotes from Steve Jobs and also a video showing some use of the iPad:

Making weird cool - Robert Rummel-Hudson talks about why he thinks the iPad is a game-changer for AAC and why it's important to have devices that don't say "I have a disability!" as soon as you walk into a room with one.

Zach's A Mac - Zach is a 3 1/2 year old boy with cerebral palsy who's learning to use an iPad.

The iPad: a Near-Miracle for My Son With Autism - Shannon Des Roches Rosa writes about her son Leo and how the iPad has helped him.

iHelp for Autism by the SF Weekly is a long and well balanced story which explains some of the iPads possibilities as well as its limitations, talking to teachers and other experts as well as parents of kids with autism. This article also includes sections about Leo and Des Roches.

Opinion: Why The iPad Isn??t For Me - Paul has quadriplegia and is an ardent iPod Touch user but for him the iPad would be a step backwards in terms of accessibility. In this article he explains why.

Karen Janowski has written Why I Love the iPad for Education: Initial Observations. Karen is an assistive and educational technology consultant who writes excellently and makes many good points.

The Muscular Dystrophy's Magazine, Quest, has published Barbara Twardowski's The iPad: A Disability Friendly Device? which evaluates the iPad for people with various types of disabilities. It's a balanced look at the pros and cons of the device, and lists ATMac as a website useful for people using an iPad so it must be a good article ;).

From the wonderful Katilea, an adult AAC user, we have several great posts about her new iPad:

• Proloquo2Go and iPad: A Marriage made in Heaven!
• Physical Accessibility on iPad in General, for People with Fine Motor Difficulties
• AAC: Mainstream V Dedicated Devices
• iPad useful for Ataxians?

N0thingbuteverything has written several articles about the iPad as used by her 5 year old son, 'S', who has cerebral palsy:

• Proloquo2go and the iPad Review - a detailed review of Proloquo2Go and the iPad
• Proloquo2go?what I learnt next - More reviewing of Proloquo2Go, as well as a wish list of things she'd like to see in future upgrades.

Kate Ahern from Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs has written iPossibilities for Those with Significant Special Needs and their Teams listing many apps suitable for those at the more severe end of the 'special needs' spectrum.

Caleigh's Mum writes about her daughter's use of the iPad with Proloquo2Go for communicating. Caleigh has cerebral palsy and there are several videos of her using the iPad included too:

• Caleigh's Communication Part 4 - iPad
• iPad + Proloquo2Go, 1 Month Update
• Caleigh's Communication - The Review

Heidi has established a whole blog - Junior's Voice - about her son's journey with the iPad as a communications device. He uses the iPad via eyegaze with a helper holding the iPad to "read" the eyegaze and physically touch the screen in the right places.

Finally one of my favourite bloggers, Glenda Watson Hyatt, who has cerebral palsy also got herself an iPad and has been surprised by its usefulness:

• The iPad as an Affordable Communicator: Initial Review
• The iPad as an Affordable Communicator: A Follow-up Review
• Writing Under the Stars: A Follow-Up iPad Review

In personal news, I have just got my own Mac back after it spent two weeks out of action after the video card, so I had only the iPad and my iPod Touch to keep me occupied. I learned a lot about using the iPad which I'm going to show you in future posts. Unfortunately I also got tendonitis in my hands from using them too much, and I have a hernia repair operation scheduled in a week's time, so I'll be at least partially out of action for a few more weeks and ATMac will be slow. Please be patient with me while I work on healing!

Hope you enjoyed the stories above - what other iPad disability-related stories have you seen?

- Ricky Buchanan

This DAISY player includes text highlighting, not currently available in the free Olearia player and also reads more formats than Olearia can.

The new features come at a steep price though: ReadHear Mac does have a 30 day trial version available, but at US$119 the cost may be more than most users are willing (or able) to pay.

ReadHear™ Mac is the first ever fully-featured Digital Talking Book player for the Mac! The great accessibility features available in the gh PLAYER™ are no longer limited to the PC. ReadHear Mac provides excellent benefits to those who enjoy and appreciate learning and listening to all types of books, articles, and documents.

• Support for MathML, NIMAS 1.1., & DAISY/ NISO 2005. ReadHear Mac is the first DAISY DTB player that supports all updated specifications on the Macintosh.
• Bookshare, RFB&D AudioPlus, Educational Publishers, e-Pub, & DRM Supported soon!
• Keyboard shortcuts can be used for quicker access to menu items and functions. Text highlighting is also used to help the reader follow along as the book is being read. The Library feature organizes and stores all of your books for future use and will even find books that are already on your Mac.
• Use the Sidebar to quickly jump to parts of a book by selecting Headings, Pages, Bookmarks, and Search. Additional audio navigation methods include: heading, page, sentence, and word mode. Add a bookmark whenever you like in the book and include your own additional notes.

ReadHear Mac automatically checks for updates to ensure you always have the most up-to-date version. Once a book is opened, playback automatically starts. You can then choose to pause, go forward, go backwards, or repeat content. ReadHear Mac uses the voices that come standard with your Macintosh. Built-in spelling and dictionary features augment your reading and comprehension experience. Additionally, ReadHear Mac has been well-tested for use with VoiceOver.

- Ricky Buchanan

"I could not live without my iPhone"

How many times have you heard someone say that? Or something similar about a gadget, whether it's an Apple device or otherwise? Well, for me, thats pretty much true. Welcome to the work of autism and assistive technology.

So, first up I am going to take a slight step away from my statement and one extra word: "I could not live (independently) without my iPhone".

Now for a bit of background. My name is Jamie Knight, and I am an autistic front end web developer from the UK. In this article I am going to explore how Apple technology fundamentally changes my life, and enriches the lives of others.

Disabilities, differences, call them what you will, have for a long time been a great area for technology to help. From the first white canes to the latest assistive and augmentative communication aids, there are a range of needs out there which technology is able to fulfil.

For this article I would like to focus on 3 areas: communication, organisation and management. These are the ways in which my autism affects me and where technology helps the most.

Communication

Communication is hard; with or without autism. But once you start limiting the ways you can communicate it starts getting harder. My biggest issue with communication is speech. When stressed I am unable to talk, word simply won't come out. Back when I was younger this would mean going back to PECS (a big books of pictures) or sign language (assuming someone else can sign). Both methods are slow, or difficult to use without some specialist know-how. What if technology could give me a voice? Well, using a few choice pieces of software it can.

Back a couple of years ago, I lost the ability to speak for almost 7 months; this was while I was at college and the stress levels were high. However I still had to communicate in class, communicate outside of lessons and with my peers. My saviour was a little Mac app that is called Quicksilver. Quicksilver has two features of interest, the first is the large type function. It's very simple - you type a message, then hit enter and the message is displayed in large white text on the screen. Coupled with my trusty 13" MacBook this was my primary form of communication. For times when people were unable to see my screen, I had set up the shortcut ctrl + s to operate the wonderful Apple inbuilt speech engine. This tool was my primary form of communication everywhere for months, without it, I would have been unable to do functions as simple as attending lessons, or buying food.

At the same time I was using a mobile phone (the irony, a device for talking while walking, used for speaking while standing still!) with a keyboard (a Nokia E61). My only way to use it was to type message in the text app, and then show it to people.

A couple of years later and my choice of phone has changed - I am now an avid iPhone user - and the apps for my needs have grown in sophistication and power. Proloquo2Go is my current app of choice for communicating. It goes beyond the old Nokia in that after building up a phrase or sentence with a quick tap, it reads the sentence to whoever I need to talk to.

In my pocket, every day, I have a voice for when I am unable to speak. This has changed my life, empowering me to go into situations which would have been daunting just a few short years ago. Providing confidence, providing communication.

Organisation

Apart from living independently with minimal support I also run my own business. This is another big challenge for me, and key area where Apple products have changed my life.

I live most days by a rough timetable, a routine as you would. I use a number of Apps on my Mac and my iPhone to make sure I am where I need to be, when I need to be there.

On both my iPhone and Mac I use the iCal calendar application, hooked up to a Google apps account for synchronising the two. iCal has all of my events in it, from what I should be doing in the morning (and importantly the correct order for doing them - no getting dressed before getting in the shower!) through to any meetings through the day. Each morning starts with a glance at iCal to know what the day will bring. I also make use of iCal alarms for things such as reminding to eat, or reminding me of when I should be locking doors or ensuring the cooker is off.

Sometimes iCal is not the right tool for the job, at these times I fall back on the wonderful app Things. Things is a "to do list" type of app which helps you get stuff done. It syncs between my MacBook and my iPhone and give me the extra detail. This combined with iCal, and Task Paper give me the organisation I need to get out and do things calmly and productively.

Managing Trouble

A big part of maintaining my independence is by managing the areas in which I struggle. These areas can be wide and diverse, from worrying and obsessing, through to panic or knowing when I need to get help. Worrying and obsessing on issues is part of how my autism affects me. Everyone worries, but for me they can become debilitating and take over all my mental processes. The iPhone once again comes to the for here, the ability to pull up instructions on how to make coffee, or turning to Google or chat-rooms when trying to fix things around the house (like fuses tripping etc) is vital. By allowing me instant access to the information I need, I can manage my worries. I can check that I am doing things in the correct order, or the correct way.

Apple technology helps me to manage my world. My iPhone, is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. Without it, I would struggle to function. For me, technology really is my life. I could not live without my iPhone.

- Jamie Knight

Jamie Knight is a UK based autistic web designer/developer never seen far from his plushie friend Lion. Jamie runs his own web design studio and accessibility consultancy alongside presenting and training on autism and advocacy. Jamie has worked with a range of clients from universities and national charities through to international broadcasters. When not working, Jamie enjoy mountain biking, reading about design and user interfaces, and occasionally plays a game of Warhammer or two. Lion enjoys smarties and planning how to catch that next antelope.

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