Apple promotes Accessibility Apps
Type on your touchscreen with braille. Hear what your camera sees. Learn to sign.
Apple products are already simple, intuitive, and easy to use. They also have accessibility features built in – for people with special needs. And with third party assistive technologies, Apple helps even more people do more in more ways. Learn about the company’s accessibility features in OS X (for Mac) and iOS (for iPhone, iPad & iPod touch).
This article highlights some of the third party apps that Apple is promoting and concludes with a short list of related articles on mHealthTalk.
Vision
BrailleTouch lets you type using braille right on your iPhone or iPod touch screen. Use a unique split keyboard based on the traditional six-key braille keyboard, and type text messages and email more quickly and accurately.
Color Identifier speaks the colors of everything around you. Just point the camera of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, and the app says the name of the color it sees, from sky blue to natural gray.
Light Detector tells a blind person if the lights are on, shades are drawn, or how dark it is outside. Point your iOS device’s camera, and hear a higher or lower sound depending on the intensity of the light it’s seeing.
Hearing
Sign 4 Me teaches American Sign Language (ASL). Just type a word, phrase, or sentence, and a 3D animated character signs it from a library of over 11,500 words. You can rotate the figure to see the gestures from every angle.
Z5 Mobile makes it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people to make calls, even connecting hearing people through a video relay service (VRS). The app integrates with Contacts and even features video voicemail.
Physical & Motor Skills
Abilipad lets you make custom keyboards for iPad, to help those with motor challenges type more easily. You can assign each key a letter, word, or even sentence or picture. Or merge cells to form larger keys that are easier to tap.
Dexteria is filled with fun activities that help develop fine motor skills and handwriting readiness. The app takes full advantage of the Multi-Touch screen to help build strength, control, and dexterity. Trace a letter, tap a button, pinch an object.
Griffin MouthStick Stylus helps you type, tap, and scroll on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Its length is adjustable and it comes with two Velcro straps so you can position the stylus in a number of ways to help you control your iOS device.
Learning & Literacy
BrainPOP makes education entertaining. Watch an engaging animated movie, then take an interactive quiz to test your knowledge on what you’ve learned. Access a wide range of subjects from math and science to arts and music.
ArtikPix is a flashcard and memory game to practice pronouncing words and sentences. Cards are organized by sound group and can be shuffled. Record what you say, and ArtikPix will tell you how you scored.
Injini: Child Development is a collection of fun and interactive learning games, where frogs, balloons, and spaceships abound. Develop cognitive, literacy, and fine motor skills without even knowing it.
Speech
Proloquo2Go is a powerful augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that speaks for you. Access a library of more than 14,000 word symbols to create custom communication boards. Tap pictures or type to hear your device speak, and choose from a variety of natural-sounding voices, including children’s voices.
Verbally Premium is a full-featured AAC app that uses text (rather than pictures) to speak for you. Use a customizable keyboard, quickly access commonly used words and phrases, and even modify the voice’s pitch and speed to better match your own.
Related Articles
- Accessibility and Assistive Technology
- Accessible iPhone Apps
- Apple iPad helps autistic people communicate
- Lifted by the Cloud – a vision of cloud based accessibility
- Study: Vision Loss and Assistive Technologies Vary Widely
- The Need for an Accessibility Profession
