I’m excited to announce the release of my audio documentary, “36 Seconds That Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk.” “36 Seconds” tells the story of how the iPhone went from being utterly inaccessible to people with disabilities, to the leading mobile device for people who are blind, have a hearing loss, or experience a motor disability. The story is largely told from the point of view of people who were left out when…
Tag: accessability
Here’s Episode 159 of The Maccessibility Roundtable Podcast.
My Podcast Smorgasbord
Posted in Pods and Presos
In the course of promoting my book, iOS Access for All, I’ve been invited onto several podcasts. For the most part, these are new opportunities for me, though a few invites came from old friends. I’ll link you to all the shows, but I want to give you reasons to listen to specific ones, since they’re so different. Also, if you just can’t get enough of my yammering, subscribe to the All Shelly, All The…
Less Than or Equal Guest Shot: My Beef with Tech Journalism
Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, and Pods and Presos
I was honored to join Aleen Sims on episode #89 of her podcast, Less Than or Equal. It’s a great show, where you will meet a wide range of people, many of whom are not among the usual suspects of podcast guests (present company excepted, I guess.) We talked about the reasons accessibility is often invisible in the mainstream tech world, and why I get grumpy when I read (or don’t read) about accessibility in…
Is Apple TV Truly Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired Viewers?
Posted in Announcements, and New Media and Tech
I tackled the question of Apple TV accessibility for AccessWorld, the monthly magazine of the American Federation for the Blind.
Hey, I’m Writing for AccessWorld
Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, and New Media and Tech
I’m very excited to let you know that I’ve signed on as a contributor to the American Foundation for the Blind’s highly-regarded technology magazine, AccessWorld. My beats include tech products for low-vision users, and mobile stuff for both Android and iOS. My first piece is a review of the Revolution 22’, a hybrid consisting of a video magnifier and an Android tablet. It’s so much fun to be doing product reviews again!
My friends at Apple, for I must surely call any organization that has taken so much of my money in exchanged for shiny objects a friend, announced a lot of new shiny objects this week. And so, I podcasted about them on my own show, on a show where I’m a regular, and as a guest on someone else’s show. Minimum show length? 1 hour. That’s the one I produced and edited. You’re welcome! But…
Back in the Saddle: Check Out My New Podcast
Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, New Media and Tech, and Pods and Presos
Lately, I’ve been rediscovering my love of podcasting. For those of you who don’t know, and that includes a surprising number of friends and colleagues, I produced my first podcast in 2004, and continued to make shows on the regular for the better part of the next nine years. I have guested on many podcasts, and was active in the first wave podcasting community; the enthusiasts and semi-pros who congregated at the first few New…
The Face We Show the World
Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech
This morning, I retweeted a USA Today column by James Alan Fox, a legally blind professor. Because low-vision! Mainstream media outlet! Yay! He writes about the experience of using airports as a visually impaired person. As I read, I ticked off each point he made, recognizing them as my own travel frustrations. I felt much more connected to this guy’s experience than I do to the usual gripes about flight delays and TSA policies. The…
Apple’s Trust Dividend
Posted in Access and Disability
If I were asked to summarize the attitude of enthusiasts toward Apple Watch accessibility, this would be my pull-quote: “It was kind of weird for awhile, and I’m still not 100 percent sure what to expect, but everything will be awesome!” (By the way, that’s less than 140 characters, leaving plenty of room for breathless hashtags.) The chain of events leading to next week’s delivery of the first Apple Watches has not been without twists…