Tag: vision impairment

iPhone in Braille

Kristy Viers is sitting in a T shirt and shorts with an iPhone in her hands.How does Braille work with an iPhone? Easy when you know how. A short video by Kristy Viers shows sighted people how a blind person uses the Braille facility on an iPhone. Fascinating. If only more product and building designers were so inventive. 

In the FastCompany article there is a second video showing how Viers uses an iPad to do more complex things. Note that the text to speech is relayed at a speed similar to a sighted person reading. Viers has launched a YouTube channel with more information. 

Instead of trying to use the tiny keyboard, she can flip the phone and type with the six dots of Braille. So much faster for her.

Developers responded with thanks to her Twitter posts which offer informal education. The videos are filmed by her boyfriend and uploaded as a single, unedited take. The title of the FastCompany article is, Meet the YouTuber who’s schooling developers on how blind people really use tech. 

 

Do your pictures tell a story?

A screenshot of the Vision Australia screen and logo.Making images and graphs accessible is something we can all do. Once you get into the habit it’s simple. The process is called “Alt -text” or alternative text. It provides a text alternative to documents, slide shows and web pages. The WebAIM blog site gives more detail about applying text to images. In short, it does three key things:

  • It is read by screen readers so it’s accessible to people who are blind or have certain cognitive disabilities.
  • On websites it is displayed in place of the image if the image file is not loaded or when the user has chosen not to view images.
  • The text description can be read by search engines.

Even if you are not in charge of your organisation’s website, any pictures you provide for web content should have your description and not be left to someone else to interpret. They might get the picture out of context. The article explains more about context. 

For specific information on Word and PowerPoint images, the University of Minnisota has some instructions. Twitter also has instructions on picture descriptions for tweets. Media Access Australia has information on this topic, as well as Captcha options.

From the Editor: I describe all pictures and images on this website. This is not the same as having a caption. Two tips: No need to start the description with “A picture of…” because the screen reader knows it is a picture or graphic and announces it. End the description with a full stop. It makes the screen reader use a tone that ends the sentence rather than sounding as if it is cut off in the middle. Also, avoid “download here” or “click here” and put the link in the actual text so the screen reader and user knows what it is referring to. 

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