At this point it’s no secret that I’m a diehard Apple fan. My family bought the very first Macintosh in the mid 1980′s, and I’ve never been without one since.

I’ve blogged before about accessibility features that Apple has put into their products, from their operating systems to the iPhone. While it’ll forever be a debate if they’ve gone “far enough” with their considerations for those with disabilities, the point I continue to maintain is that they seem to take it seriously enough to continue adding enhancements.

We’re on the cusp of another Mac OS update, with Lion roaring in any day now. I for one can’t wait to get my paws on it, especially at its ridiculously reasonable price of $29.99. They’re touting that it’s littered with over 250 enhancements.

Here’s a rundown of some of the touted new accessibility features:

• Addition of picture-in-picture zoom – to enhance the zooming experience and providing greater overall context of how what you’re focusing on fits in with the overall page/screen.
• Support for 80+ Braille tables across multiple languages
• Greater control over how and how much information comes across via a refreshable Braille device
• Greater precision in the appearance of the pointer when viewed at larger zoom levels
• Greater customization of VoiceOver, enabling it to perform in different manners for different activities
• Screen sharing – enabling users to assist other users directly

You can find out about all the new features of Lion at Apple’s OS X Lion Features.

As always, we’ll have to see these features in action to gauge whether they truly make disabled Mac users’ lives easier. Hopefully by the end of this month, we’ll start finding out.

Further reference:

• Current Mac OS X accessibility features
• Apple’s accessibility statement

Tags: apple, braille, lion, mac os x, refreshable braille, VoiceOver, zoom

This past week, Apple released Safari 4.0 beta. With touted speed enhancements that put it ahead of the competition, the beta reportedly has even pushed Safari’s market share over the 10% hump.

As touched on in “The iPhone and Accessibility“, Apple openly demonstrates a commitment to accessibility in its products. How much they succeed will always be open for debate, but it’s certain that they treat the subject seriously.

Even though alphabetizing has more to do with it than anything else, front and center on their 150 Features page for Safari 4 is Accessibility.

New to Safari 4, according to Apple, is support of Accessible Rich Internet Applications, or ARIA. On the heels of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 becoming a Recommendation this past December, just last week WAI-ARIA was published as a Last Call Working Draft. WAI-ARIA takes web accessibility considerations to the next level, helping establish guidelines for dynamic content using more advanced technologies like Ajax and JavaScript. ARIA opens the door for utilizing such coding to interact with assistive technologies.

Also improved with Safari’s new beta are greater Zoom features — combining keyboard commands, Multi-Touch, and a Zoom button that can easily be added to the toolbar. The user can zoom in and out while text and imagery scale accordingly and keep the layout intact.

These, paired with Apple’s already-integrated VoiceOver screen reading feature, keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to create or download custom stylesheets for desired viewing states, make Safari 4.0 — while certainly not a perfect accessibility experience just yet — appear to be progressing respectably.

Tags: accessible rich internet applications, apple, aria, multi-touch, os x, safari, safari 4 beta, VoiceOver, W3C, wai-aria, web browsers, zoom

Admittedly, I have been and always will be an Apple devotee. With that disclaimer aside, during one of my many ventures through the Web looking for interesting web accessibility topics, I came across extensive coverage of the topic of accessibility on Apple’s website.

To cover the highlights briefly, Apple claims the iPhone has these accessibility features:

For the Visually Impaired:

• Physical buttons for commands such as sleep, ringer and home
• Zoom ability for viewing content
• Font size increasing for Mail
• Alert and ringtone customization based on audio, visual or vibration

For the Hearing Impaired:

• Support for open and closed captioning, as well as subtitles
• Using Safari, ability to use web-based instant messaging services such as Meebo
• SMS texting
• Headset options including hearing-aid induction ear loop
• Visual Voicemail feature
• TTY support (with a separate iPhone TTY Adapter)

They similarly point out some of these features — like the tactile buttons, voice dialing, and assignable ringtones — as being accessible to those with physical disabilities as well.

Furthermore, AT&T has a Text Accessibility Plan for iPhone, which offers unlimited messaging and data usage and pay-per-use voice and Visual Voicemail.

There are conflicting views, not surprisingly, on how successful Apple’s accessibility efforts with the iPhone are. Some laud Apple and AT&T for considering those with disabilities and providing growing options. Others feel that these features aren’t enough.

For example, Touchscreens, from the inability to feel buttons to supplying multiple levels of menuing, provide significant problems for those unable to see. See TechNewsWorld article “Is Technology Accessibility the New Green?.”

Again, like website accessibility, it is not always practical and feasible to make something for absolute everybody? The challenge is continuing to push the technology envelope in making cool and useful new innovations, while doing as much as possible to enable those with disabilities to enjoy the experience as well.

Does the iPhone have further to go? The answer seems to be yes, but I would say that Apple at least appears to take the subject of accessibility seriously, and all signs point to them doing better with future releases.

A sampling of differing viewpoints in the blogging world:

• Forget the iPhone: accessibility trumps trendiness from Computing Unplugged Magazine
• iPhone Accessibility: But Not For Me from ShellyBlog
• AT&T Intros iPhone Text Accessibility Plan; Phone Still Not Accessible to Blind Customers from Disability Nation

Tags: accessibility statement, apple, iphone, safari, sms, tactile buttons, text telephone, touchscreens, TTY, zoom