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iFidget, an app to help blind people stop rocking, good idea or bad?
My mouth dropped open in disbelief when a friend, Grace, told me about an app designed to help the blind stop rocking back and forth, something that many blind people do. There’s lots of reasons for the rocking that I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say it’s one of those habits that parents, educators and other adults try to curb in children in an effort to help them be more “socially acceptable.” Well move over parents, educators and other adults, because as Apple would say, “there’s an app for that.”
Brought to us by the New Mexico Commission for the Blind:
iFidget is an app designed to help people with a range of habits from rocking back and forth to restless leg syndrome or even just constant fidgeting. It has an incredibly simple design, but it has a very big future.
iFidget is designed to be used while you’re sitting. It can be set to vibrate or play a sound when it detects that you aren’t sitting still. iFidget attempts to tell the difference between somebody who is rocking, fidgeting or moving constantly vs somebody who is just shifting their weight at a table.
The description goes on from there describing how the app can be a “therapeutic tool” that can help people who subconsciously engage in this behavior and wish to stop. So how does it work? Basically, the app runs on an iOS device and when motion is detected, it vibrates to provide the user with a subtle reminder, presumably to be still. The app can also play a sound effect if vibration isn’t an option or isn’t desired. In addition, the app’s sensitivity can be adjusted to ensure that a greater or lesser amount of motion is needed to trigger the alert. But wait, that’s not all. iFidget also gives the user – or someone working with the user – the ability to see a graph showing just how much rockin' is happenin'.
As a long time hard-core rocker myself, I had mixed feelings when I heard about iFidget, the first one being absolute horror that kids could potentially be forced to use this app in school settings “for their own good.” Would a child see this as a gentle reminder or a means of negative reinforcement? And what about the potential humiliation of needing to share the graph with an educator or therapist of some kind? Second, the app just doesn’t seem very practical to me. I’ve been using it throughout the day and initially found that the app alerted me to any motion including when I’d engage in such socially unacceptable tasks as reaching for my coffee cup. Adjusting the sensitivity helped with this, however, the app would still alert me to major motion such as my standing up to walk into another room. In fact, I got quite the massage walking from my basement office to my upstairs kitchen. The app also doesn’t run in the background and can’t be configured to run when the iOS device starts up. Oh yes and if the device’s screen locks, the app stops working as well. One other discovery I made is that if I put the device in my pants pocket, I could rock with my upper body all I wanted – how long before kids figure that one out?
I posted a link to the app on Twitter and the response was swift and immediate.
The tweets go on and on and on … the above is just a small sampling … clearly this is an emotionally charged issue. While I’m certainly not opposed to apps that help people self-improve, I remain concerned about the potential long-term effects this could have on blind kids if forced to used this app. Oh and one more thing, while the description may claim that this app “has a very big future,” the app itself hasn’t been updated since November 20, 2014. So, positive or negative, what do you think?
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Glad I'm not 16 and looking for my first job
Now that Markus has turned 16, he’s wanting to find a job, after all, what 16-year-old can’t use some extra money? :). Back in my day, this was an exciting time and there was never a shortage of things a 16-year-old could do: papers needed delivering, restaurants needed servers, stores needed folks to stock shelves, and fast food places needed people for just about everything. While many of these jobs still exist, actually applying for them is nowhere near as easy as it used to be. “Go online” they say, “fill out our online application.” While the going online part is easy for kids of just about any age, figuring out how to complete the forms just so they’ll be excepted by the online job systems can be a real challenge. For example, the applications are designed to capture education/experience/previous jobs and so forth, but if you’re just starting out, what to actually fill in? Unfortunately, leaving many of these fields blank is not always an option meaning that without filling something in, the form can’t actually be submitted.
I certainly don’t envy today’s kids just trying to get a start. While the challenge used to be getting up the nerve to approach a potential employer and asking for a job, the challenge today’s kids have is figuring out how to successfully navigate the complex and impersonal online job applications, which are not at all geared toward helping someone get a Fresh start, in the hopes that their information will be routed to a human somehow somewhere. I definitely wish Markus and all of today’s kids the best of luck.
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Demonstrating iReg, an app that allows recording on the Apple Watch
Earlier this morning, I heard of iReg, an app that allows one to make audio recordings on the Apple Watch. In this brief episode, I provide a brief overview of the app. Darren Duff, @Darren_Duff on Twitter, has done a far more in-depth demo for those wishing to learn more.
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How the W3C Text Alternative Computation Works - SSB BART Group
This is a rather technical article, but if you’ve ever wondered why screen readers sometimes read one type of information, such as a label on a form field and sometimes another, such as a description, this may help explain.
The Text Alternative Computation Over the years, there has been a lot of confusion about the W3C Text Alternative Computation and how this works, especially when influenced by the addition of CSS and ARIA attributes. As a bit of forewarning, this article is not primarily meant for general web developers, though having an understanding of ...Read more
Source: How the W3C Text Alternative Computation Works - SSB BART Group
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Thank you, MNsure, for giving me one more reason to hate ARIA
As a member of the accessibility community, I have the pleasure of getting to work with a wide variety of folks, all of whom approach accessibility with a somewhat different mindset. There are those, for example, who feel that accessibility is more of a technical challenge, an exercise in ensuring mechanisms exist for technologies like screen readers to understand what’s happening on any given web page. Others approach accessibility from a more user-centric standpoint, can users of all abilities understand and control the page? Most though, including myself, fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. As I write this today, however, I’m approaching accessibility from the perspective of an extremely frustrated blind guy who just wants to get something done and can’t.
The problem
Like many Americans, I'm opting to change my health insurance coverage due to rate increases with my current plan. My state, Minnesota, has a resource, a marketplace, called MNsure which allows people in my situation to search for and compare plans. Health insurance is pretty overwhelming, what with the myriad of options out there, and so I was excited to give this resource a try. Unfortunately, the more important aspects of the site are virtually unusable by screen reader users, a situation ironically caused by poor implementation of standards that were designed to help sites like this be more accessible in the first place.A super non-techie explanation of ARIA and why it matters here
According to the W3C, the folks that make the standards that enable us to have a World Wide Web, ARIA is:WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. Currently certain functionality used in Web sites is not available to some users with disabilities, especially people who rely on screen readers and people who cannot use a mouse. WAI-ARIA addresses these accessibility challenges, for example, by defining new ways for functionality to be provided to assistive technology. With WAI-ARIA, developers can make advanced Web applications accessible and usable to people with disabilities.
To put this in plainer language, this means that ARIA provides a way for developers to take really complex webpages, such as those with constantly updating information, and make them more understandable to screen reader users without sacrificing visual design or functionality. Pretty cool right? One of the more powerful aspects of ARIA gives developers the ability to force a screen reader to output specific information immediately, even if the screen reader is currently in the process of reading something else on the page. While this might come in handy in certain cases, such as a chat or messaging application, it can have a serious impact on a user’s ability to read page content since the screen reader will interrupt whatever it’s doing in order to read whatever information the developer wants to force through. Getting back to MNsure (remember MNsure?), they are using an ARIA technique to provide extra information about links and form fields throughout the site. Examples include
- "enter date in mm/dd/yyyy format"
- "you can limit the number of plan listings"
- "You can view more features about this plan",
- "clicking this link will take you to the provider's web site where you can search for a provider".
While all of these messages provide additional information and context, MNsure has implemented this in such a way that this additional text immediately interrupts the screen reader when encountered. This means that when reading through a page, I hear things like “You can view more features and details about this plan” but I have no idea what plan it’s actually talking about. The reason for this is that while the screen reader would normally read the link correctly, ARIA is being used to interrupt the screen reader from reading the link, so that it can read the descriptive messaging in its place. “Enter date in mm/dd/yyyy format” is helpful to know, but not when it’s done in such a way that prevents the screen reader from telling me what kind of date it wants in the first place – does it want my birth date? Coverage date? Today’s date?
What we have here is a situation where something that was developed to enhance accessibility, was used inappropriately and has wound up totally degrading it. Unfortunately, as the end-user, I don’t have a way to prevent this from happening. Put another way, even though it’s my screen reader, the developer has more control over it than I do .
Where to go from here
When things like this happen, and they sadly happen more often than one might think, it's hard to figure out where to go, or what to do. When I mentioned this particular situation to a friend, their response was, "why don't you submit feedback, so that the issue can be fixed?" That's a great idea and normally I love submitting feedback and doing what I can to help make the web a more accessible destination, however right now, I'm needing to shop for insurance and I really don't want to get side tracked by trying to figure out how to submit feedback. Put another way, yes I can do this but right now, this isn't going to help me complete the task that brought me to the site in the first place. So I call, and I wait on hold because as much as my call might be important to them, I can't help but feel that my experience as a blind user of their site is certainly not.I mention in the title of this post that this gives me one more reason to hate ARIA. As I write this, I realize that it’s not ARIA that I truly hate, but the hap-hazard way it’s often implemented. When I think of ARIA, I think of an extremely sharp knife. When used properly, it can be a fantastic aid, but when used incorrectly, it can cause incredible harm. ARIA has the potential to give screen reader users access to all kinds of dynamic information. If used incorrectly though, it can cause incredible harm as evidenced by my particular experience. If you’re a screen reader user, I would encourage you to learn more about ARIA and the kind of control it allows developers to wield over your interaction with web applications. Maybe not an in-depth technical understanding, but enough to possibly know what’s going on when things aren’t behaving the way you might expect – maybe I should do a blog series on this? If you’re a developer, please please please be careful with ARIA. Yes it can provide fantastic solutions to complex accessibility problems, but it can also create complex accessibility problems where simple solutions would suffice. Understand the impact of what you’re doing, there’s plenty of resources out there to help with this including many kind folks who use the technology every day and can sey “hey, this isn’t working the way I expect it to.” So please ask, learn, grow and help make whatever experiences you’re creating on the web usable and enjoyable by all.
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The web accessibility basics – Marco's Accessibility Blog
If you’re not familiar with Marco Zehe, you definitely should be. Marco, @MarcoInEnglish on Twitter, has done an incredible amount to ensure that Mozilla products and services are accessible. In whatever free time he has left over from that, he writes an informative blog often discussing the challenges faced in accessibility. In his most recent post, he discusses the basic things that all web developers should know when it comes to accessibility. Even if you’re not a developer, this is worth a read as it may provide you with terminology and a resource should you ever be in contact with one.
I’ve been asked again and again over the years what the absolute basics of web accessibility are. And while I always thought that it is not so difficult to find resources about these basics, …
Source: The web accessibility basics – Marco's Accessibility Blog -
Testing the Mobile Podcaster app
In this brief recording, I test an app, Mobile Podcaster which allows one to record a podcast episode directly on an iOS device, specify a description and publish. Since the app hasn't been updated since 2013, I'm not sure if it'll even work. With fingers crossed, I shall hit the botton to bublish and see what happens.
[powerpress][www.steves.life.dream.website/wp-conten...](https://www.steves.life.dream.website/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/9c82e-testing-the-mobile-podcaster-app.m4a)[/powerpress]
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Review: One for the Money
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Light-hearted and extremely humorous, this book about a female bounty hunter who is successful more by luck than skill had me chuckling right from page one. I’m now on the 16TH book in the series and am loving it just as much as I did the first. If you want light-hearted and humorous suspense, this series is for you.
View all my reviews -
The amazing kitchen gadget that is the OptiGrill
The OptiGrill is an amazing kitchen gadget that, with its audible alerts, is very accessible. This demo is repodcasted courtesy of Accessible Devices.
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Looking for accessibility resources on the Apple Watch? David Woodbridge has you covered
Like many, I had so many questions about the Apple Watch: what would its accessibility be like? Could we actually use all the watch’s features? And most important to me anyway, what’d it sound like? David Woodbridge has been tirelessly blogging about his experience with the Apple Watch in addition to having created a fantastic series of podcasts detailing just about every watch feature using VoiceOver. In addition, David has done a fantastic job showcasing various applications that he has found accessible, or problematic. Fortunately for the world, David has consolidated all of this into a blog making it easy to find these invaluable resources in one place. If you’re thinking of purchasing the Apple Watch, or if you’re just curious about it, David’s blog is a must-read.
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Audio posts now fixed
if you have recently tried to listen to any of my audio posts, you may have had trouble finding the links to play or download the audio. Apparently I broke something when implementing a new theme, however, I was able to fix it earlier this evening. Anyway, I’m sorry for any trouble anyone might have encountered. Hopefully, everything is working out as it should.
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Wow, can I really post via MS Word?
As I gear up to begin writing new content on my blog, I've been looking at accessible tools that I might use to make the entire writing/editing/publishing process just a bit easier. Back when I was primarily a Mac user, I fell in love with MarsEdit, an absolutely fantastic application that made writing and publishing an absolute joy. Alas, I have yet to find an even remotely comparable solution on Windows.
For years, I've heard that it's possible to publish blog posts directly from Microsoft Word. Try though I might, however, I've never been able to get the Word solution working. I'm not sure if tonight's attempt will be any different, but at least fields are showing up where they should be and wonder of wonders, nothing's crashed yet. Still, as excited as I am about the possibility of being able to blog directly from Word, I'm curious what other solutions people out there might be using? Hopefully, fingers crossed, more content will be coming soon.
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iPhone Tip: Quick Way to Enter VoiceOver Practice Mode
And extremely useful tip that not many people seem to know about.
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ALL Blind People should Have a Guide Dog
I came across this extremely insightful post and thought I would reblog it. This is my first time reblogging anything, so honestly I have no idea if it will even work.
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Review: Flashback
Flashback by Dan Simmons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An absolutely incredible, yet sobering book, I could not put this down. Describing a futuristic world after the collapse of the United States and many other world powers, this book almost seems prophetic in its predictions. If you enjoy thrillers, sci-fi, political thrillers, action or books with insight, this is definitely a recommend.
View all my reviews -
Let's have a bit of weather
We’re getting freezing rain outside and as it sounded kind of neat to me, I thought I’d share it with you.
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Review: The Martian
The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t think anyone really knows what life on Mars might be like, but this book gives us a glimpse into what seems like a very real possibility. Following the plite of an astronaut stranded on Mars during a mission, this book shows many of the challenges that must be overcome before missions to Mars could become a reality.
View all my reviews
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