National Library Service's BARD iOS App

By Matthew Bullis

Near the same time iOS7 was released, the National Library Service released its talking book reading app--BARD--for the line of i-devices. BARD stands for Braille and Audio Reading Download. Prior to this application’s release, users of the digital talking book program had to order cartridges through the mail, or download desired books from the BARD site to thumb drives for use in the player. Now it is possible (once you sign up for an account) to access content solely through the iPhone. Everything provided through this interface is free, and the app is well-designed. Because of the population it serves, which is U.S. visually-impaired residents, there is an extensive help file which is always accessible from within the app. It’s recommended that users read this through as they may learn tips and tricks for a better experience. More talking books are being added daily, both new titles, as well as older conversions from cassettes. These books are unique to the blind population, as many of the narrators read exclusively for the talking book program. Since contracted braille files (instead of "letter-for-letter" uncontracted braille) are also part of the collection, users with a connectable braille display can enjoy these titles as well. VoiceOver cannot read contracted braille, so users without a display will be limited to the talking books. This first version is quite robust and the NLS team are committed to making sure that problems are fixed, and that updates are forthcoming.

Which VoiceOver Tutorial Should You Use to Get Started?

By Matthew Bullis

At this writing, there are three ways you can learn about how to use VoiceOver on the I device of your choice. Apple has a built-in practice gesture area, where you can make a gesture and find out what it’s supposed to do. This also works if you’ve paired a braille display and need to know what combinations of keys do. Then came VOStarter at the end of 2012. This app presented a menu of choices where you could either progress through the tutorial, learning about different gestures, or practice the ones you’re not too sure of. Now LookTel, who released a great money identifier and a bar code scanner/item identifier, releases VOTutorial, which is a screen by screen test with long descriptions of how to perform needed gestures. It even includes two games for gesture practice, basketball and crack the safe. With all of these app choices, and with only one of them, VOStarter, costing a dollar, you’d do well to use all three applications. Each one has something that none of the others do. Apple’s practice screen lets you find out a gesture the other way round, after you make it, and the games are enjoyable for more than one play inside of VOTutorial, and VOStarter has screens on more advanced gestures that VOTutorial doesn’t cover. With all three applications, there are multiple ways to absorb the material and the learning curve of VoiceOver itself.

Sendero GPS LookAround

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Sendero Group, LLC

Price:  $4.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.  Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Description:  This $5 app is aptly named, as it’s not actually a complete GPS solution. It will tell you where you are, and you can ascertain the nearest cross street, but you cannot get step-by-step directions to where you want to go. Simply shake the phone and get localized information, sorted by category if you like. You’ll not be able to input an address and find the distance to that point though. LookAround is just what it does, so that you can apply what the app tells you to your surroundings. Use this as one of several tools in your mobility arsenal. You’ll probably want a more robust solution if you’re doing a lot of navigating to unfamiliar places.

Sendero GPS LookAround is compatible for blind, low vision, and sighted.

Pros

• Low price of $5 to get information about your surroundings
• Accessibility will always be built in, since Sendero is a blindness-specific company

Cons

• Not a complete GPS solution
• Does not include turn-by-turn navigation
• Unable to put in an address and be directed to it

Review of V O Starter for the Iphone

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Michael Doise

Price:  $0.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generation), and iPad.  Requires iOS 5.0 or later.  This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description:  This $.99 app, pronounced V O Starter, available in the App Store, lets new users to the VoiceOver interface get to know how VoiceOver changes the way you interact with the screen. With a step-by-step user wizard, plus a menu interface to alternatively let you choose the practice session you wish, you can learn how to use different gestures to make the most of your IPhone or I device experience. This app is what really should be included in Apple’s Practice Gestures part of the operating system, since the existing practice area necessitates you knowing something about gestures already, in order to get into that screen.

If you’re relatively comfortable with the use of VoiceOver, perhaps you’ve not come across pickers or switches before. VOStarter has a screen for those features to let you test those out. You get a challenge when you’re using the entering text screen, since VoiceOver doesn’t speak the exact thing you’re supposed to type in, including the space character and the exclamation point, but you do get the hang of learning how to type and select characters. Apart from this small stumbling block, you learn quite a lot about how to control your I device with VoiceOver, and there’s not too much else to say, except that this app teaches you well and quickly, so you can continue on and be productive in other ways.

VOStarter is compatible for blind and low vision.

Pros

• Covers the use of a few gestures that the Looktel app does not

Cons

• Not free like Apple's gesture screen or the Looktel app
• Trouble with the typing screen for new users
• No games to test your practice

LookTel VoiceOver Tutorial

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  IPPLEX

Price:  Free

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description:  This free app from LookTel gives a different slant to the tutorials of VoiceOver which have come before it. This tutorial is straightforward with its screens, and it even has two games built in, to test your use of its gestures. Each screen is filled with detailed descriptions of how to use each gesture, and you can go back and practice with these, should you have questions. It remains to be seen whether LookTel will add more gesture practice screens, but the two games, basketball and crack the safe, make this app one which has good replay value.

LookTel is compatible for blind, low vision, and sighted.

Pros

• Two games to test your gesture knowledge
• A free way to learn how to use VoiceOver

Cons

• Not at this time

Numbers

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Apple Inc.

Price:  $9.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description:  This ten dollar app from the productivity category in the app store lets you navigate Excel spreadsheets. You pretty much need to use a Bluetooth keyboard for this app. However, with VoiceOver, this app is a challenge. It lets you navigate across the columns but not down the rows. I’m not sure what’s gone on there, but these issues have been reported to Apple by other users. Other suggestions have also been sent. Without the ability to review the whole worksheet, it doesn’t really help me, and I need to use the Windows version. It’s not as simple as just sliding down the cells with your finger. VoiceOver uses the downward motion of your finger to change the rotor settings, a feature which is unique to the VoiceOver feature set. You can’t disable the rotor, and nor would you want to, since that’s how you navigate by words, characters, links on a web page, and so on. I look forward to a creative solution from an app update in the future, should that become available.

Numbers is compatible for blind, low vision, and sighted.

Cons

• VoiceOver use with this app is a challenge, able to use Excel on a Windows platform much easier

Pages

By Matthew Bullis

App Details

By:  Apple Inc.

Price:  $9.99

Devices:  Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generation) and iPad.  Requires iOS 5.1 or later.  This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description:   This ten dollar word processing app is good for what it does, but for the following reasons, it just doesn’t get it for me. As a user of Windows with the Jaws screen reading package for over fifteen years, and with a typing speed in excess of fifty words a minute, the Pages app will help me to produce documents on the IPhone with a Bluetooth keyboard, but these tasks can be accomplished by me more easily on Windows. When you’re typing along, it’s just fine, but when editing using VoiceOver, you have to rely on its feedback. This involves turning on and off the QuickNav feature, and using the rotor gesture to select the navigation unit, whether it be by characters or words. It’s several keystrokes that a sighted user doesn’t have to use, since they can touch right where they want to make the edit. Also, you can’t simply use the toggle commands to underline or bold like you can in Microsoft Word. It also takes a few navigational elements in order to get to the canvas area where you can start editing. If I need to quickly write down something, and if my Windows computer is running, I can start typing in a blank document in about two seconds, and for my speed of productivity, it’s to Windows I’ll go, though this Pages app is good within its own platform, extra keystrokes and all.

Pages is compatible for blind, low vision, and sighted.

Pros

• Ability to access your documents in a mobile setting

Cons

• Not as speedy as working with documents on Windows platform