If you’ve tried to access ATMac recently you may have got an error message instead of your regular page showing up.
I just want to let you know that I’m aware of the problem, and there are two of us working behind the scenes to make sure ATMac’s back to its regular reliability as soon as possible.
In the mean time, if you see an error please just try waiting a minute and then see if you can view the page again – the errors are coming and going at this point so it’s worth another try.
In between the technical glitches and a nasty dose of gastro I haven’t managed any articles this week, but Maccessibility have published some very useful ones that I recommend you read:
- iPhone OS 4.0 Features Unveiled discusses the new features you’ll have available when the new iPhone OS 4 is released, probably around mid-year.
- A First Look At The iPad discusses the iPad from a general perspective and more specifically for blind users. There’s also a more in-depth review of iPad’s Mail application with a similar perspective
These are both well worth a read for anybody interested in accessibility, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on iPhone OS 4 and how it might affect accessibility, and I’d especially love to hear from from anybody here who’s got their hands on an iPad this quickly – what do you think of it?
- Ricky Buchanan
atmacjournal April 10, 2010 at 3:34 pm
New ATMac post: Weekend Wrap-Up: Errors, iPhone OS 4, and iPads http://bit.ly/au4zBM
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
rickybuchanan April 11, 2010 at 3:41 pm
RT @atmacjournal New ATMac post: Weekend Wrap-Up: Errors, iPhone OS 4, and iPads http://bit.ly/au4zBM
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Jane Vincent April 12, 2010 at 2:26 am
Hi Ricky:
I haven’t seen an actual iPad yet, but we’ve been tracking the accessibility implications:
Environmental control: http://www.accessonmainstreet.net/2010/04/09/ipad-your-pad/
Access to Project Gutenberg e-texts: http://www.accessonmainstreet.net/2010/03/29/guten-nuff/
Powerful gesture interface: http://www.accessonmainstreet.net/2010/01/31/ipad-gives-users-more-than-one-finger/
Ricky Buchanan April 18, 2010 at 1:04 pm
@Jane: Thanks for those article links, they’re all useful. I worry about iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone access for those who can only use a single finger or need a pointer, too.
Brian Payst April 27, 2010 at 3:53 am
I’ve posted our initial assessments of the iPad and some of the accessibility features:
http://www.unc.edu/~payst/?p=105
http://www.unc.edu/~payst/?p=98
We’re pretty impressed so far. Definitely a very strong first effort that shows a lot of thought and planning went into making the device usable.
.-= Brian Payst’s last blog: iPad accessibility – round 2 =-.
Ricky Buchanan May 11, 2010 at 11:41 am
@Brian: Thanks for the information and for writing about the accessibility features of the iPad! I’ll include your articles in the iPad Accessibility Round-Up I’m writing just now
Lisa July 21, 2010 at 1:17 am
I could’ve sworn I posted a comment on this article and hit “Email me follow up comments”. My comment seems to not be here. I’ve developed a habit lately of writing stuff, forgetting to hit “post”, navigating away from the page and losing what I wrote. I hope I didn’t do that.
Basically I said that I’m hoping to get funding for an iPad for reading books. But the woman who authorizes the funding is quite stubborn so I’ll need to bombard her with loads of evidence as to why an iPad would make my life so much easier than trying to hold a textbook. I’ll need endless details about how I can convert scanned textbooks or files from Bookshare into iBooks format. The Lioncourt article linked to in this post says that you *can* convert other files into epub but not *how*, and I’ll really need to explain that in my application. And the Lioncourt article can’t be commented on so I can’t ask the author of that directly. But seeing as how you guys here are the ultimate knowledge source of Mac access I was hoping that maybe you guys would know?
Ricky Buchanan August 3, 2010 at 9:29 pm
@Lisa: There are several programs which will convert files to the iBooks format – the format is known as “epub” so if you search for that you’ll have the most luck. One I know of which is free and reads many formats is a program called Calibre, but I suggest you check MacUpdate with a search for the word “epub” and see what suits you best.
Lisa July 21, 2010 at 1:18 am
Well, that time I definitely hit “post”, but completely messed up my html. I think it’s nap time.
Ricky Buchanan August 3, 2010 at 9:18 pm
@Lisa: No worries, I fixed your HTML