A presentation by Gita Mathias, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta

1. Accessibility & Apps for
Students with Vision
Impairments including Blindness

2. Accessibility &
REMEMBER: the iPad Apps for Students
with Vision
is COOL… but it‘s Impairments
NOT the only tool in
the ‗learning toolbox‘
for the student!

3. How many Apps?
• As of the Apple announcement of the
iPad 3 on March 7 (2012)…
• over 585,000 apps!
• over 25 billion downloads!

4. Accessibility &
• Hard to be an ―expert‖ on Apps for Students
apps… with Vision
• At times, too many to choose Impairments
from
• New ones always added
• Existing ones updated / improved
• Non-popular ones removed The Evolving
• Easier to be an ―expert‖ on World of Apps
the built-in features for the iPad
• Better yet, share ―expertise‖ in a
community of learners and iPhone

5. •Low vision features built
into the iPad: Accessibility &
Apps for Students
with Low Vision
• ―Zoom‖
• ―VoiceOver‖
• ―Large Text‖
• ―White on Black‖
• ―Speak Selection‖
• Reader in Safari
• Support for Braille
displays

6. Accessibility & Apps for Students with
Low Vision
Tip #1: apply a matte screen protector

7. Zoom
• activate in “Settings – General – Accessibility” or
set as default “Triple-click Home”
• activate with a 3-finger double tap then release
on the screen
• adjust zoom level with a 3-finger double tap and
hold on the screen, followed by sliding 3-fingers
up or down (to enlarge or reduce respectively)
• navigate with a 3-finger single tap and hold, then
move around the screen
• this feature works well in the Home Screen as the
fonts there cannot be enlarged otherwise

8. VoiceOver built-in TTS feature on the iPad:
Accessibility &
• Turn on and set up in Settings
• Flick or slide moves from one item to Apps for Students
another who
• Double tap opens or activates links are Blind
• 2 finger flick up reads from top of page
• 2 finger flick down reads from current
position
• 2 finger tap pauses reading
• 2 finger tap restarts the reading
• VoiceOver on iPad also gives you
information about your device —
including battery level, network signal
level, and time of day. It even lets you
know when the display changes to
landscape or portrait orientation and
when the screen is locked or unlocked.
• PLUS MANY MORE… SEE iPad
MANUAL

9. “Large Text”
• maximum size is 56 point
• only works on some built-in apps (such as
Notes, Calendar, etc.)
―White on Black‖
• not actually black and white contract, but
rather a reversal of all colours

10. “Speak Selection”
• Text highlighted in most apps can be read
aloud (e.g. Safari)
“Safari Reader”
• When you navigate to an article, "Reader”
appears in the address bar. Tap it, and an e-
reader-style interface will appear, giving a
simplified version of the text with no ads and
no distracting links and the option to adjust
the font size.
ALL THE BUILT-IN ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES CAN BE ACTIVATED IN
“SETTINGS – GENERAL – ACCESSIBILITY

11. Accessibility &
Rotors & Keyboarding Apps for Students
• Typing with VoiceOver enabled and who
the on-screen keyboard, the default is are Blind
a double-tap on each letter
• Using the ‗Rotor‘ feature of
VoiceOver, ―touch‖ typing can be
enabled (let go of the desired letter)
• 2 fingers in a rotating motion (e.g.
one‘s thumb and forefinger opening a
bottle top)
• Each rotor setting can be toggled with
a flick up or down

12. •External keyboards:
Accessibility &
Apps for Students
with Vision
•―Apple Keyboard Dock‖ – Impairments
limited to portrait orientation
•BlueTooth keyboards:
•USB keyboards?
• via "Apple Camera
Connection Kit"

13. Accessibility &
Apps for Students
with Low Vision
•External
keyboards:
•USB keyboards!
• E.g. Crayola (at right)
• via "Apple Camera
Connection Kit"

14. BRAILLE DISPLAYS
• iOS 5.1 (released March 7, 2012) is supposed
to work with all current braille displays via
Bluetooth
• Brailliant (by Humanware)
• Focus 40 Blue (by Freedom Scientific)
• etc.
• Settings… General…
• Accessibility… VoiceOver… Braille… (requires Bluetooth on)

15. Accessibility & Apps
for Students who are Vision
Impaired
• Third-party iTunes APPS

16. GAMES using VoiceOver
• Papa Sangre… Text Twirl!... Bop It!™ for iPad… Zany
Touch… Arcade Hoops Basketball… Stem Stumper…
Additional ones from AppleVis website:
• Blindshoot
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindshoot/id498792267?m
t=8
• Moxie, and Moxie 2 (word games)
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/moxie-free-
edition/id309662269?mt=8
• King of Dragon Pass http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/king-
of-dragon-pass/id335545504?mt=8

17. iPads & Interactive Whiteboards/
Data Projectors
But which app does this best? And what else is needed?

18. •How to share the teacher‘s Accessibility &
electronic presentation on the Apps for Students
iPad for the student with low
vision…
with Low Vision
One of many solutions: • iPads & Interactive
Join Me (free) Whiteboards
AirDisplay ($ cost $)

19. iPads & Interactive Whiteboards/
Data Projectors
Join Me

20. RECORDING & AUDIO
• Voice Memos (built-in… iPhone only)
• List Recorder
• Dragon Dictation (free)
• Note: new to iPad3 is the Dictation feature built into the
onscreen keyboard – useful in almost every app!
• VLingo (iPhone app)
• AudioNote Lite (free)
• Hound (free) & others similar to it

21. WORD PROCESSING
• Notes (built in)
• PlainText (free)
• Pages ($9.99)
• Quickoffice® Pro HD ($14.99)
• EverNote (free)

22. BOOK APPS
• Print book readers:
• iBooks
• available as a free download
• download, organize, and read ebooks.
• fully compatible with VoiceOver.
• books read aloud in any of 33 languages.
• iBooks can be tailored to suit the way you read.
• portrait or landscape orientation.
• larger font sizes or different fonts.
• It also works with the white-on-black text setting
• Use VO to browse iBookstore
• Kindle: VO friendly

23. PDF APPS
Zoom
2-finger pinch Speak Selection
• iBooks
• kobo
• GoodReader for
iPad
• pdf-notes for
iPad
• Adobe Reader
• Perfect Reader built-in speech

24. PDF APPS cont‘d
• VoiceOver friendly:
• iBooks (free)
• NOT VoiceOver friendly:
• Kobo
• GoodReader for iPad
• pdf-notes for iPad
• Adobe Reader
• Perfect Reader

25. DAISY APPS
• VOD Lite ―voice of DAISY‖ (free; full version is
$25.99)
• DaisyWorm (99¢)
• inDAISY ($19.99)
• Possibly the very 1st DAISY app…
• Read2Go ($19.99) – for BookShare books

26. UTILITIES
• Calculators (iPhone‘s built-in is VoiceOver ‗friendly‘)
• BrailleTouch texting (iPhone)
• TypeInBraille
• Periodic Table of the Elements (by Kevin Neelands)
is VoiceOver friendly!
• Qwiki encyclopedia
• Dictionary.com HD

27. UTILITIES cont‘d
• iPad calculators: many options for low vision!
• E.g ―Jumbo Calculator‖
• Large Dice
• Dice aloud
• Educreation

28. UTILITIES cont‘d
• Dropbox! Benefits:
• One user account…
• Load onto the iPhone and/or iPad
• Also installs on PC or Mac
computers
• Files transferred easily between
the above
• Files and folders can be shared
between multiple users*
• There‘s even a public access
folder for anyone to access a file*
* iCloud can‘t do these!

29. WEB RESOURCES
Feeling disconnected? • iPad & iPhone user guides:
http://manuals.info.apple.com
• Accessibility:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ip
ad/vision.html
• Accessible apps, guides &
discussion for blind and vision-
impaired users: www.applevis.com
• Accessible fun apps:
http://appadvice.com/applists/show/fun
-apps-for-blind-and-visually-impaired
Acknowledgement: This Presentation has been put together from
several sources including- http://www.vision.alberta.ca/