As is well known by now all products produced by Apple / Macintosh are accessible for people with disabilities right out of the box. Apple understands the concept of Universal Design. Just as new buildings and public facilities are equipped with wider doorways, accessible bathrooms, ramps, and curb cuts from day one, Mac computers, iphones, and other Apple / Mac products are equipped with screen magnification, voice over, text to speech, and other accessible features right out of the box. No extra charge for these features that enable people with low vision or blindness, motor impairments, or other disabilities to access the features of the Apple / Mac products. This is only fair and extremely liberating for those of us who are tired of paying extra just because we happen to have a disability.
I was so intrigued by this I had to break down and buy an iphone. Even though I already had a family plan with Verizon including 4 phones I wanted to be able to actually see what I was doing on my phone without having to pay extra. The screen magnification feature of the iphone is simple to use (it took me about 5 minutes to master it)and the voice over feature with touch screen reading is ingenious.
Once I got the hang of the voice over and the slightly altered gesture system I sat down with one of my students who is blind and in less than 15 minutes, I had her making calls and texting with relative ease. Another one of my students who is blind went out and bought a Mac book and I am working with her on using the voice over. This is a little more challenging for me because I have always been an "IBMer", But from what I've seen so far, my next computer WILL be a Mac.
Hats off to Apple Macintosh!!
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