Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Accessible iPad - the best apps are web apps

I'm getting to the end of configuring Grandma's iPad, but I'll call out one finding early.

For someone with low vision, Safari is the killer app. It has full screen reader support, and you can expand many (but not all) web pages with a pinch expand (spread apart).

This isn't true of all standalone apps.  For example, the pretty but limited NYT Editors' Choice for iPad doesn't seem to work with the screen reader and you can't change the small font. The NYT web site though, is a pleasure to navigate using Safari.

Alas, not all web sites are Safari zoom friendly. The iPad optimized Gmail site can't be zoomed, so it ends up being relatively inaccessible.

As I configure her device I'm adding several web sites that are pinch-zoom friendly. Ironically, these have to be generic sites. iPad optimized sites are much less low vision friendly.

4 comments:

  1. I'd be interested when you are finished in a list of what you considered to be good site for Grandma.
    And any other lessons learned in a follow up post.

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  2. My f/u post with lessons learned is online at:
    http://tech.kateva.org/2010/07/grandmas-ipad-user-guide-and-review.html

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  3. All websites for ipad are accessible if you use the included zoom feature. Go to settings, general, accessibllity and under voiceover is zoom. The gesturing is different but it will zoom EVERYTHIBNG including the icons on the screen.

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  4. I've tried the baseline zoom, but the zoomed image quality is poor.

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