AFB Blog

iOS 7.1 is experiencing an issue that affects all VoiceOver users who are using a Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard. Apple is aware of the issue, and is presumably working on a bug fix. The problem stems from using the control key. After pressing the control key, it acts as if the control key is “sticking,” and all subsequent keyboard actions act as if the control key is being held down. This has a significantly detrimental effect on all iOS apps, but particularly impacts AccessNote users. If you are…

Stopping at booths in the CSUN exhibit hall last week, I saw a lot of innovative problem-solving. One of the problems I saw companies trying to solve was, simply put, how to make smart phones more usable for people who are not really users of technology, and who are blind or visually impaired. These solutions, in the exhibit hall this year at least, mainly centered around the use of the Android, with suites of applications "on top" of the usual operating system. Some of these solutions…

On March 20, 2014, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) took an important step to make web content and applications more accessible to people with disabilities by publishing Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. WAI-ARIA defines ways that developers of browsers, media players, mobile devices and assistive technologies, as well as content developers, can achieve greater cross-platform accessibility. Learn more about WAI-…

Most years, there's a trend in the exhibit hall. A few years ago it was iOS — apps, hardware accessories, our old product now works with the iPhone, and so on. Last year it was STEM—science, technology, engineering, math (I know you knew that already) and every other booth had a solution — product, website, program, or new feature. This year — tablets, tablets, it's raining tablets. There's a different tablet for every attendee. I would exaggerate if I said every booth showed tablets, but…

You may have recently read the Wall Street Journal article by Lauren Weber about bosses asking employees to disclose whether they have a disability. Ms. Weber frames the issue pretty accurately, and I loved the comments included overall. Starting next week, all federal contractors (i.e., companies that do contract work for or with the U.S. federal government) will have to 1) ask whether their employees are disabled and 2) employ a minimum of 7% disabled workers or demonstrate that they are…

We're at CSUN! What is it? It's the huge Technology and People with Disabilities conference in San Diego. AccessWorld magazine always has a full highlights article after the conference has ended, but here I'll tell you about a few things I've seen. It's a little random, as I've spent most of my time in the exhibit hall, and I've skipped some booths because they were too crowded. Cool Designs, Fashionable Looks in Assistive Technology When did assistive technology start to get cool-looking?…

Migel winners Oral Miller, Keller Johnson-Thompson (great grandniece of Helen Keller), and James Kesteloot pose with AFB President and CEO Carl Augusto. Did you attend AFB’s 2014 Leadership Conference? If so, we want to hear from you! Please take a minute to fill out this survey so we can make future conferences even better. For those of you who weren’t able to join us, imagine getting first-hand information from communications giants such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and IBM, about…

Each year, after the AFB Leadership Conference, I like to put together a list of my top 10 favorite things I learned or experienced. This year, I knew 10 wouldn’t cut it—it took some effort, but I managed to whittle the list to 11. This was the largest and most well-attended conference since our first, nearly 30 years ago. We had some 440 attendees, and from what I could tell, they enjoyed it as much as I did. 11) The Thursday summits were a new feature this year and they proved to be…

A blind skier and his guide Hello everyone, Since it's Winter Olympics time again, I figured I would do a follow-up to my previous blog post that I had written about my skiing experiences as a blind person. I wanted to give you all an update, and share some more adaptations, ones that proved extremely useful during my recent ski trips. For example, I utilized my accessible GPS software's "breadcrumb" and "point of interest" features to map out the trails; I have used Mobile Geo and the…