[HN Gopher] Previews of software updates designed for people wit...
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Previews of software updates designed for people with disabilities
Author : ArmandGrillet
Score : 326 points
Date : 2021-05-19 17:19 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
| vitorfebraga wrote:
| Hello friends, I created a startup project to get jobs for people
| with mental disabilities, with him I was able to be interviewed
| by two of the largest universities in the world, I am striving to
| improve my English, the project is constantly updated, if you are
| interested https://bit.ly/3oFyJ63,Instagram: vitorfebraga
| victor106 wrote:
| i just to say Apple is one of the only companies that I know of
| is super serious about providing first class features to people
| with disabilities. Other companies do provide some of them but
| they are not as well thought out as Apple
| vitorfebraga wrote:
| Hello friends, I created a startup project to get jobs for people
| with mental disabilities, with him I was able to be interviewed
| by two of the largest universities in the world, I am striving to
| improve my English, the project is constantly updated, if you are
| interested https : //bit.ly/3oFyJ63, Instagram: vitorfebraga
| api wrote:
| I'm impressed and also a bit disturbed by the vast and widening
| gulf between commercial OS UI/UX ( _especially_ Apple) and
| anything remotely FOSS. At this point I 'd say FOSS UI/UX is at
| least 20 years behind Apple.
| pkaye wrote:
| I don't have an iPhone myself but do use hearing aids. I'm glad
| the big tech companies are paying attention to such details.
| There are a lot of little details of the hearing aid bluetooth
| experience that could be improved by all manufacturers. I just
| want instantaneous switching between multiple bluetooth devices.
| nkjoep wrote:
| That's something Apple is doing already with their bluetooth W1
| chip. Unfortunately only among their devices.
|
| I wish this feature would be adopted by many other
| manufacturers. And that generally, the bluetooth pairing was
| faster.
| pkaye wrote:
| I've been hearing about Bluetooth LE Audio standard which
| should help a lot but its just started to be offered in
| hearing aids. Right now you have to choose between the Apple
| approach, Google approach or standard bluetooth each with
| their own limitations.
| sjnair96 wrote:
| It does not work as you'd imagine. It doesn't work for anyone
| - particularly switching from ios to macos as the currently
| playing device. It works the other way around fine, and even
| between iOS and iPadOS. But not iOS to macOS. Other headsets
| that simply support connecting to multiple devices at a time
| end up providing a better experience since you can switch
| between devices easier than with Airpods switching. I'm
| unsure about how the Airpods Max performs but I'm willing to
| bet it's the same way.
| machello13 wrote:
| I think you're referring to automatic switching, which is a
| much newer feature. That indeed is broken iOS to macOS.
|
| But the instantaneous switching works fine in my experience
| and has since the original AirPods.
| sethhochberg wrote:
| As far as I understand, Apple laptops still mostly (all?)
| use Broadcom chipsets for Bluetooth, instead of Apple's
| own W1 chipset that includes the enhanced connectivity
| features.
|
| I'm not sure why, instant handoff between a laptop and a
| phone seems like such a natural workflow for anyone who
| does a mix of phone calls and videoconferencing.
| crazygringo wrote:
| > _Everyday sounds can be distracting, discomforting, or
| overwhelming, and in support of neurodiversity, Apple is
| introducing new background sounds to help minimize distractions
| and help users focus, stay calm, or rest. Balanced, bright, or
| dark noise, as well as ocean, rain, or stream sounds continuously
| play in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external
| noise, and the sounds mix into or duck under other audio and
| system sounds._
|
| Wow, I never thought of background sounds as something connected
| to neurodiversity, but TIL.
|
| I definitely never expected Apple to get into the business of
| white noise apps, but here they are.
|
| I wonder what the quality of these sounds will be, how long
| they'll loop for? And if all the background noise apps that
| already exist will continue to operate as they do now, or if
| they'll be able to integrate with this in order to take advantage
| of the new mixing/ducking features.
| tdstein wrote:
| As someone with tinnitus (constant ringing in ears), this
| sounds amazing! :)
| masklinn wrote:
| Ditto. Well my tinnitus is not constant, but of course it
| tends to ramp up when trying to do things where it's really
| inconvenient, like sleeping.
|
| I wonder if these sounds will be available as part of the
| bedtime application (thereby sherlocking most existing
| applications) as that's by far my biggest requirement for
| covering sounds, the combination of insomnia and tinnitus
| makes it rather hard to fall asleep without some sort of rain
| sound, but short or glitchy rain loops create extremely
| recognisable patterns my brain latches on to have something
| to do, which keeps me from sleeping.
| atommclain wrote:
| A decade ago I remember reading that if you're in the jungle
| and an apex predator is spotted, it gets relatively quiet, so
| from an evolutionary perspective quiet signals danger and
| induces stress. Sounds reasonable to me, can't speak to how
| valid it is though.
| tantalor wrote:
| That's the opposite of what happens in video games like
| Subnautica, the dramatic music starts playing when the big
| baddy is about to attack!
| user-the-name wrote:
| Seems like gradually making the game quieter would be far
| better for building tension.
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| I'm trying to thing of cases where it gets quieter when
| there's more danger but the only one I can think of is The
| Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. When you enter the boss
| chamber in a dungeon the music is stopped until you perform
| an action to trigger the boss appearance.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > A decade ago I remember reading that if you're in the
| jungle and an apex predator is spotted, it gets relatively
| quiet, so from an evolutionary perspective quiet signals
| danger and induces stress. Sounds reasonable to me, can't
| speak to how valid it is though.
|
| Many animals will make alarm calls [0] when they sense a
| predator, sometimes in multi-species groups. A few animals
| have alarm calls specific to different types of predator such
| as leopards, snakes and eagles [0]. In my own garden, I can
| often tell when a cat has entered by the alarm calls emitted
| by blackbirds and sometimes even squirrels.
|
| So I'm not sure about this quiet jungle thing.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarm_signal#Vervet_monkeys
| tzs wrote:
| > Many animals will make alarm calls [0] when they sense a
| predator, sometimes in multi-species groups.
|
| Some animals have learned that other animals will respond
| to their alarm calls, and they can use this to scare away
| those other animals. Here's a bird doing that to get
| meerkats to run away, leaving the food they just dug up for
| the bird to take [0].
|
| That isn't the only trick animals play on others with
| sound. Here's a Steller's jay mimicking the sound of a
| hawk, the scare other birds away from a feeder [2].
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYCjJqr21A
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_lEBQtW46o
| silicon2401 wrote:
| I'm not sure what exactly they mean by neurodiversity here but
| as a misanthrope I definitely hate background noise. Before the
| pandemic I would frequently get distracted by getting irritated
| at other people nearby talking, chewing, walking, just being
| around me at all. I also found it helpful to listen to things
| like forest sounds, rain, and so on sometimes. It does get
| pretty depressing though when you step back and realize you're
| listening to artificial nature sounds while staring at a screen
| under office lights.
| danaris wrote:
| > Before the pandemic I would frequently get distracted by
| getting irritated at other people nearby talking, chewing,
| walking, just being around me at all.
|
| That sounds like it could point to some form of undiagnosed
| (possibly mild) sensory processing issues--which are exactly
| the kind of neurodiversity they are likely referring to.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| That could be; as I said in another comment I don't self-
| diagnose stuff but I could imagine it being the case.
| Regarding the OP topic, I definitely prefer not to be
| around, see, or hear other humans unless they're loved
| ones, so I'll take whatever helps me pretend nobody's
| around me.
| dagmx wrote:
| Do you potentially have Misophonia?
|
| https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
| shots/2019/03/18/7027840...
| silicon2401 wrote:
| I wouldn't rule it out, though I would also be cautious not
| to self-diagnose things as a non-medical person. I don't
| generally mind noise in places where I expect it like cafes
| or clubs.
| dagmx wrote:
| My colleagues with Misophonia are very sensitive to only
| specific sounds, and not in all contexts.
|
| I'm not sure there's anything to do even if you were
| diagnosed with it by a professional. I don't know if
| there's any treatment, and generally they use the
| workarounds you alluded to initially in playing noise to
| mitigate the effects.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I find myself both calmer and more productive with deep brown
| noise pumped into headphones. That used to mean pulling up
| simplynoise.com until they started monetizing it (and the
| legacy site died with Flash). Now I go to something like
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3sWyjDFC5Y
|
| Apple has a great record for sound quality, but not so much for
| configurability. I'm guessing that I'd be a candidate for their
| "dark noise" setting, but worry somewhat about their frequency
| selections. I'd rather have an equalizer interface for the
| noise options.
| edwcross wrote:
| Did you try https://mynoise.net ? It has a lot of selections,
| including some "colored noises" that maybe match the one you
| want. Most of it is still free, I think, although a small
| donation towards the author is very welcome (if you use it
| enough and think it's worth).
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| I think I might have looked at it. But I just want noise in
| my ears, not noise in my life, and that website is _very_
| noisy. I don't want to wade through a sales pitch or an "as
| seen in" section or someone's life story or testimonials or
| recommendations or animations or calibrations. I don't want
| to have to watch video tutorials to learn how to use it. I
| don't care how much carbon it offsets.
| anticristi wrote:
| > These next-generation technologies showcase Apple's belief that
| accessibility is a human right and advance the company's long
| history of delivering industry-leading features that make Apple
| products customizable for all users.
|
| I read this more like: We saturated the laptop market. Then we
| saturated the smartphone market. Then we saturated the smart
| watch market. So how the heck are we supposed to grow revenue? So
| someone smart came up with the idea: Disabled people!
|
| I sure applaud that they eventually cared, but I don't think
| their PR is honest.
| alwillis wrote:
| Apple certainly doesn't have the dominant marketshare with
| desktops or laptops; even in the US, they're about 40-45%.
|
| Apple's been advocating for accessibility for decades; this
| isn't new.
| notatoad wrote:
| i'm not hard of hearing so maybe i'm just missing something, but
| what's the point of the signtime service? wouldn't a text chat be
| a whole lot easier?
| websites420 wrote:
| Written English is quite different from ASL. For a person who
| was born deaf and learned to sign from the start, text chat
| would not be easier.
|
| This is an acknowledgment that sign is a distinct language and,
| the same way that Apple Stores are localized in different
| countries, this localizes the Apple Store experience for DHH
| folks
| Jemaclus wrote:
| In addition to what you just said, it's significantly faster
| to sign than it is to type/text, not to mention the nuances
| of face-to-face communication that can get lost in a text-
| based world!
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| That's interesting. Since I type far quicker than I can
| speak, I would have definitely expected typing to be
| quicker than signing.
| kyralis wrote:
| Do you really? Average conversational WPM is 150, from a
| quick search. I don't believe many people can type "far
| quicker" than that; most people likely can't even hit
| half that.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Im in the ~90s, but as I wrote in other comment, it feels
| like I can convey information quicker via text.
| b3morales wrote:
| You might be unaware that it's not spelling out
| individual words letter by letter. It's closer to a
| "pictographic" language (likely there's a better term,
| please correct me) where a sign will stand for a concept,
| and also have a flexible interpretation depending on the
| context, including the signs you use preceding/following
| it.
|
| Its depth is quite fascinating -- ASL truly is its own
| language, not just "English with your fingers". (Though I
| should add I don't know it myself, this is just based on
| discussion with an interpreter friend.)
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| That makes sense! It's not a topic I'm familiar with, but
| seems like it would be interesting to delve into.
| Toutouxc wrote:
| > I type far quicker than I can speak
|
| Are you sure about that? People hold (enthusiastic)
| conversations at 160 WPM, and the the fastest typists in
| the world average around 180 WPM.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Maybe? I based my conclusion on the experiences of
| sitting in a room together with other people, but being
| able to converse with them quicker via instant message on
| our laptops.
|
| Now that I think more about it, maybe the raw speed is
| not quicker, but the quantity of ideas conveyed per unit
| of time is higher due to being able to scroll back and
| forth in text for the listener, as opposed to wasting
| time clarifying mumblings or repeating what one said.
| Especially in a group setting where you do not have to
| take turns speaking.
| [deleted]
| escapologybb wrote:
| My money doesn't seem to fit in any of the slots on my
| computer...
|
| Apple just keeps knocking it out of the park and into a
| completely new sports metaphor assistive technology provision,
| they really do. Any measure, I'm a massive nerd/geek/hacker and I
| really have looked into alternatives both in the open source and
| proprietary basis and nobody at all is assistive technology as
| well as at all right now.
|
| It really is as simple as whenever I have a new iShiny, I pounds
| on the nearest able-bodied monkey and get them to take total box
| and connected to Wi-Fi and then it's all me. From then on I don't
| need any more able-bodied assistance whatsoever with setting up
| the new device, it's awesome. And whilst it's been a few months,
| the last time I looked known of the other major players were able
| to come anywhere close to this level of frictionless setup for
| quadriplegics like me.
|
| ALSO! ALSO! Let's not forget that this isn't some crappy subset
| of functions that quadriplegics have to settle for whilst
| everybody else gets the full fat version of the software. Nope,
| with very few exceptions pretty much anything an able-bodied
| person can do with their iShiny I'll be able to do as well. Just
| a little slower.
|
| Apple, and specifically their approach to accessibility is only
| one of many reasons I'm able to work, see my family and generally
| engage with society as well as I currently do.
|
| Also, I quite like the term cripple, differently abled or on a
| good day Stuart. WTF cares what label you give me, I am much more
| interested in whether this laptop enables me to do the shopping
| independently and see my Nieces without having to check with an
| able-bodied person first.
| shade wrote:
| There's a lot of good stuff here, but I have to say I'm
| disappointed that they still haven't added anything along the
| lines of Android's Live Captions feature as a system-wide thing
| for iOS/macOS.
|
| I generally prefer Apple for their strongly pro-privacy stance,
| but this is something they're dropping the ball on. After living
| with this feature in Chrome for a while, it's such a big quality
| of life improvement that for the first time in years, I'm
| thinking about jumping to Android even though it would incur some
| extra costs to do so[1].
|
| I can use Loopback to feed audio into the iOS or web version of
| Otter.ai on my MBP to fill in some of the gaps where Chrome isn't
| an option (i.e., FaceTime calls with family and friends), but it
| increasingly feels like a janky solution and I'd rather have
| something built in.
|
| [1] - I like having a smartwatch so as not to miss notifications
| so I'd need to find a good enough solution for that, plus my
| current hearing aid needs an additional supporting device to
| stream from an Android phone, so that would run up some
| additional costs.
| joshstrange wrote:
| > I can use Loopback to feed audio into the iOS or web version
| of Otter.ai on my MBP
|
| I'm assuming you are doing iOS->macOS(w/loopback)->Otter.ai web
| right? Or can you have loopback feed into iOS and then use
| Mobile Safari+Otter.ai? I currently use a similar setup with
| Loopback and otter.ai to transcribe YouTube live videos and
| then do manual touch up before release. I never expected that
| other people were using Loopback+Otter.ai, I figured I was a
| fringe/edge case, but after some googling it looks like it's
| far from an obscure solution.
| shade wrote:
| Sort of, yeah. My personal laptop is an M1 MBP, so I can run
| the iOS version of Otter on it, have the system default audio
| point to LoopBack with the headphone jack as a monitor (which
| goes to a device that streams to my hearing aid). Then in my
| video conference software I set up the system default audio
| as the sound output and my Logitech C920 webcam as the
| microphone input. Conference software gets what I'm saying,
| Otter gets what everyone else is saying, I get captions.
|
| Work is a Windows laptop; I could (and do, on my personal
| Windows desktop) use VoiceMeeter to accomplish the same
| general approach as described above. But rather than have my
| security team at work asking me annoying questions, it's
| easier to run Otter on my iPad and use a TRS-to-TRRS patch
| cable (I use the Movo CFP-1 from Amazon) to feed that into my
| iPad... plus using my iPad to display the captions frees up
| my displays for meeting-related things.
|
| In pre-pandemic times I would also use it for some meetings
| at work, and meetups.
|
| I think Otter has a fairly significant user base of people
| using it for accessibility and not just meeting notes, and is
| seemingly aware of it because they've added features geared
| to that use case, like the full screen text option with
| adjustable font sizes.
| joshstrange wrote:
| Very cool! I didn't even think about running iOS apps on
| the M1, my brain jumped to a physical iOS device but that
| makes total sense. It probably solves the annoyance of
| burning a whole browser (by setting it's mic to the fake
| input from loopback) when you redirect it to app running on
| the M1. I have Google Chrome Beta installed as my "Otter.ai
| client" so that I don't have to mess with it on my main
| Chrome instance. Thanks for sharing your setup, it's very
| interesting!
| snyp wrote:
| Doesn't Voice Over do that?
| chris37879 wrote:
| Nope, voice over does the exact opposite of that, it takes
| written text and converts it to speech. Live captions take in
| audio and output text of the speech in that audio.
| nailer wrote:
| Apple putting disability support into consumption devices is
| excellent. The current approach of trying to boil the ocean - by
| modifying the world rather than helping disabled people handle it
| better - is a massive waste of resources and results in a poorer
| world for disabled people.
| slver wrote:
| It's really odd sometimes how much they focus on disability
| features, while also completely ignoring localization in entire
| countries.
| saagarjha wrote:
| My guess is that they aren't comfortable shipping any
| localization unless they can make it perfect, and they don't
| have that yet.
| slver wrote:
| What kind of a nonsense reason is this. If they actually did
| the work it'd be just as good as any other locale they do
| support.
|
| Why can Microsoft and Google offer excellent localization
| virtually everywhere, and Apple can't? Apple too poor, can't
| hire enough people? No. So what is it?
| rsfinn wrote:
| 1) I wonder if it's a cost-benefit analysis regarding relative
| market sizes?
|
| 2) I'm genuinely curious which countries you perceive as having
| been "ignored" -- I find 39 different .lproj folders in the
| /System/Library/CoreServices/Resources folder. (Of course
| that's on macOS and not the iPhone.)
| slver wrote:
| Counting .lproj files tells you nothing. I technically have a
| keyboard layout for my country (although it supports no
| autocomplete or swipe). No translated UI, no dictation, no
| Siri, no nothing. But I'm sure that keyboard layout gets me
| an .lproj file.
| kstrauser wrote:
| > With VoiceOver, users can explore more details about an image
| with descriptions, such as "Slight right profile of a person's
| face with curly brown hair smiling."
|
| I'm imagining some older family members, whose sight isn't so
| great anymore, listening to descriptions of old photos being read
| to them. That's stunning. Wow.
| [deleted]
| jordanmorgan10 wrote:
| That is a whole other level. Impressive - the watch stuff kinda
| reminds me of the rotor control in a way where you can activate
| system actions and swipes.
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| For a moment I misread the headline here as "Apple prevents
| powerful software updates designed for people with disabilities,"
| and thought, "Oh for Christ's sake, how did App Store review go
| off the rails _this_ time ".
| zepto wrote:
| "Nothing here that can't be done on Linux, with better
| customization."
|
| I get that there are reasons why people would want nothing to do
| with any of this and just objects to Apple because the desktop
| doesn't ship with a tiling window manager.
|
| But to me this stuff illustrates why we actually need companies
| like Apple.
| Retr0spectrum wrote:
| Who are you quoting?
| zepto wrote:
| A common archetype.
| rado wrote:
| Fix keyboard accessibility first, instead of releasing PR bullet
| points.
| joemi wrote:
| A good addition is still a good addition.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| A few years back I tried to set up Android's TalkBack for my 90
| year old blind grandmother, but unfortunately it was impossible
| to use. Even as someone who's very familiar with the Android UI
| (and can see what I'm doing) I found it very difficult. I've
| heard iPhones are a million times better for blind users, but is
| their accessibility technology good enough that I could teach my
| grandmother to use them?
|
| The problem is that she has very little tech experience, so
| things are confusing. Imagine being 90 and blind and feeling your
| way around a brand new user interface, full of acronyms and words
| you don't understand. What's a SIM or a VPN or a JPG? Then again,
| all she needs to do is send texts, Google things, and make calls.
| Taking pictures would also be nice.
|
| If anyone here has a similar experience helping an old blind
| person with tech, I'd love to hear it.
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| One time I broke my iPhone screen but the digitizer was still
| working so I used it like a blind person would for a few weeks.
| It's definitely far ahead of android or anything else in that
| regard.
|
| Check out the older videos of Tommy Edison on youtube
| (https://www.youtube.com/c/TommyEdisonXP). He's been blind
| since birth and put out a few videos many years ago on how he
| uses an iPhone.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _If anyone here has a similar experience helping an old blind
| person with tech, I'd love to hear it._
|
| I'm afraid I don't, but you might find this helpful:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrUMYePxzfM
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| An Alexa or similar device might be a good option. I got one
| for my nearly blind grandma and she got some use out of it.
| There's a learning curve but I think it's a lot less steep than
| using a phone OS.
| rbinv wrote:
| Wow, I did not expect the Apple Watch to be able to detect those
| gestures shown in the video. Impressive.
| janekm wrote:
| It mentions using the heart rate sensor. I can imagine it went
| a little like this: A: "People clenching their fists keeps
| messing up the heart rate readings!" B: "I wonder if..."
| ratww wrote:
| Reminds me of the old hack someone did using the
| accelerometer in a Macbook hard drive to switch between
| Spaces:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvQTTPr9Rw
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| I don't think there would be that spontaneous of heart rate
| change due to clenching a fist but I would expect the sensors
| to get a large jump from baseline due to skin, veins, etc.
| deforming from clenching.
| ngcazz wrote:
| Seconded, and I can't wait to try these out - case in point
| that accessibility options really are for everybody!
| codyb wrote:
| Yea that's really neat. Thanks to GP I actually went and
| checked out the video. Clenching and pinching, if that
| smooth, seem like they'd be less error prone than trying to
| use the tiny touch screen on the Apple Watch half the time.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| Exactly accessibility really benefits everyone. I currently
| use the floating home button on my iPhone even though I have
| no physical problems with using the volume and power buttons
| to take a screenshot, I like using the home button better.
|
| The watch gestures seem useful whenever you have a handful of
| groceries and need to answer a call.
| neither_color wrote:
| I always felt that single arm control of Apple watch was the
| future because the way it ties up both hands felt
| anachronistic(the hand your watch is on is doing nothing and is
| constrained while your other hand interacts with the watch,
| making it less liberating than a phone) but couldn't imagine
| how this would be solved. Bravo Apple on this brilliant
| solution.
| tW4r wrote:
| There's a startup [1] that I don't think has shipped yet, but
| they have a great idea about using nerve conductance sensors
| to use hand gestures to control the watch. Looks pretty
| exciting
|
| [1] https://www.mudra-band.com/
| WalterBright wrote:
| This is really good stuff, even for abled people. For example,
| being able the use the watch one-handed is great if your other
| hand is occupied, like carrying something.
|
| (The reason I still wear a watch at all is so I can see the time
| without having to dig the phone out of my pocket and turn it on,
| which is hopeless while driving.)
|
| Just like although I can hear, I use closed-captioning when I
| don't wish to disturb others, or when watching a show at high
| speed (I can read faster than I can understand speech).
| fao_ wrote:
| > For example, being able the use the watch one-handed is great
| if your other hand is occupied, like carrying something.
|
| Surely... it's a requirement to use a watch while one-handed
| anyway? I'm not familiar with the Apple Watch but I am not sure
| how you would use a watch with two hands anyway? Can someone
| explain?
| [deleted]
| chrisshroba wrote:
| See the "AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch" section of the
| linked post. This allows you to use the watch with the same
| hand that is wearing the watch.
| WalterBright wrote:
| My watch has a button on it for the backlight.
| ratww wrote:
| The Apple Watch is a smart watch with a touchscreen, it's not
| just for seeing the hour.
| dylan604 wrote:
| >(I can read faster than I can understand speech).
|
| Is this really true, or can you just read faster than most
| people talk?
| macintux wrote:
| For me, at least, reading offers significant advantages to
| listening when it comes to intake speed. I can trivially
| rewind if I need to, I can more readily skim content that I
| understand, fewer comprehension failures due to
| accent/pronunciation issues, etc.
| vineyardmike wrote:
| its true for me.
|
| I have trouble focusing on speech, so i often end up
| responding with "what?" then a few seconds later, it makes
| sense and i can respond. Writing is easy to injest at the
| rate your brain wants it.
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| I often notice that I read transcripts significantly faster
| than the audio time...
| dylan604 wrote:
| That's only natural. That audio time is based on the speed
| of the speaker's cadence. If it's a live presentation,
| there tends to be pauses, ums, uhs, deliberate pauses and
| what nots while the speaker gathers their thoughts or
| allows a statement to sink in before continuing. If you
| were to speak at the same pace you were reading, the
| audience would probably not be able to follow.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Captions appear at the same average rate as the speech
| they're captioning.
| [deleted]
| silicon2401 wrote:
| Agreed. As a huge customization fan, accessibility features
| oftentimes are the only way to get customization options that
| aren't exposed otherwise. One that comes to mind is setting
| your display to black and white, disabling animations, etc.
| Thankfully I don't have any disabilities, but I hate animations
| and other things like that, so I'm also a huge fan of
| accessibility features.
| meristohm wrote:
| A friend who can only see degrees of light turned me onto text-
| to-speech for listening to epubs. Android's default was good
| enough, and Librera, for example, allows for custom
| pronunciation. Listening by TTS is a way to keep reading while
| walking to work, for example, and be able to stop and highlight
| or make notes (which can be done by voice, I just haven't
| switched from using my eyes and hands for that).
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I accidentally discovered this a year ago. I found that
| listening to the audiobook and reading along with the ePub
| was a great way to ingest the material even when in a tired
| state (since the audiobook keeps playing. Having the ePub
| also meant I could highlight and export my highlights as
| usual.
|
| I did try this with iOS built-in TTS but found it was worth
| the effort to find the audiobook when possible.
| krrrh wrote:
| This is also a nice way to get used to the rhythm of a
| second language. Kindle will highlight sync with some
| audible books (in some markets, not including Canada for
| some reason!). Reading Kafka in German this way helped me a
| lot with comprehension since the tone of voice communicates
| a lot of connotative information.
| Nition wrote:
| > The reason I still wear a watch at all is so I can see the
| time without having to dig the phone out of my pocket and turn
| it on, which is hopeless while driving.
|
| I also wear a watch, but almost every car has a built-in clock
| in the dashboard.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > almost every car has a built-in clock in the dashboard
|
| So do mine, but they always show the wrong time.
| thebean11 wrote:
| Super excited to be able to scroll my grocery list on the watch
| while holding the basket in the other hand!
| robin_reala wrote:
| Actually, that's an important point. A person with an occupied
| hand is still disabled, but it's a situational disability
| rather than a temporary or permanent one. Disability is
| society's inability to cater to specific needs, rather than a
| physical state.
| tolbish wrote:
| I'm not sure how much that definition holds water. Am I
| disabled if I'm temporarily not able to do cognitive work?
| shadowoflight wrote:
| Yes, and if we as a society were more accepting of these
| types of situational disabilities, workplaces would be much
| healthier.
| tolbish wrote:
| All situational disabilities? Should workplaces cater to
| people who are emotionally disabled in some way? Not that
| I completely disagree with you, I just want to understand
| what we are defining.
|
| edit - Yes, workplaces should cater to legal
| disabilities. The question here is if employers should in
| any way cater to functional disabilities, not
| disabilities as diagnosed in the DSM. See elsewhere in
| this thread.
| [deleted]
| heavyset_go wrote:
| > _Should workplaces cater to people who are emotionally
| disabled in some way?_
|
| If they don't want to violate the ADA, yes. For example,
| major depression can be a disability, and employers are
| bound by the ADA to not discriminate against people with
| that disability and to provide them reasonable
| accommodations.
| tolbish wrote:
| I think we are confusing the casual term disabled with
| the legal term disabled. Of course employers should work
| with legal disabilities. We are talking completely about
| "functionally disabled" such as your arm being
| temporarily occupied, or you having a foggy brain and
| can't to math that day.
| macintux wrote:
| > Should workplaces cater to people who are emotionally
| disabled in some way?
|
| Not the person you're replying to, but certainly if you
| e.g. lose a child, your workplace should be sensitive to
| that and not fire you because you're unable to show up to
| work that day.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Maybe impaired is the better word? Similar to you are not
| driving while disabled from drinking, but you are driving
| impaired?
| tolbish wrote:
| That would be a more accurate term.
| bruce343434 wrote:
| not able = _dis_ abled
| dkonofalski wrote:
| Yes, you would be. I don't understand what the importance
| of the distinction is in terms of being able to use a
| device like an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.
| zepto wrote:
| Yes?
| philipyoungg wrote:
| You take the word "disabled" literally.
|
| And yes, it's situational. That's what we learned in
| experience design.
|
| Another example: a parent holding their baby. They "lost"
| one arm in that situation.
| tolbish wrote:
| We are in agreement on being technically disabled. But
| having a disability also has a legal meaning that is
| separate from that. For instance, we as a society don't
| call someone disabled for not being good at math, unless
| something else has been diagnosed that causes that. If
| you created technology that assists with mental math, we
| wouldn't call it "a tool for the mathematically
| disabled".
| [deleted]
| pseudalopex wrote:
| It's called dyscalculia when severe enough.
| tolbish wrote:
| So someone who doesn't have dyscalculia, but is just
| having a bad day and isn't doing math well...we wouldn't
| say they are still disabled, and we wouldn't call it a
| situational disability.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| We wouldn't call them not good at math either.
|
| Most people wouldn't call it a situational disability
| because they don't know the term. But it's a common term
| in relevant fields.
| tolbish wrote:
| I have seen multiple people throughout my life say "I
| can't do math today" while referring to their work and
| then avoid doing computationally-heavy tasks for the day.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| "Can't do math today" and "not good at math" are
| different.
| tolbish wrote:
| It's "temporarily being not good at math", which is the
| point.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27213499
| kristofferR wrote:
| Exactly. I'm sitting on the couch now with my laptop on
| my lap, so I can't walk right now, but I'm not leg
| disabled.
|
| I'm not partially blind just because I can't see with my
| eyelids closed.
| tolbish wrote:
| Perhaps I should have led with those examples.
| akiselev wrote:
| _> For instance, we as a society don 't call someone
| disabled for not being good at math, unless something
| else has been diagnosed that causes that._
|
| It is part of the definition for intellectual
| disabilities though. From [1]:
|
| _> An individual is generally diagnosed as having an
| intellectual disability when: (1) the person 's
| intellectual functioning level (IQ) is below 70-75; (2)
| the person has significant limitations in adaptive skill
| areas as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical
| skills; and (3) the disability originated before the age
| of 18. "Adaptive skill areas" refer to basic skills
| needed for everyday life. They include communication,
| self care, home living, social skills, leisure, health
| and safety, self direction, functional academics
| (reading, writing, basic math), and work._
|
| Being bad enough at math that it impedes day to day life
| is not sufficient to qualify for intellectual disability
| under the ADA but it's one of the major factors.
|
| I think the point is that even capable humans are often
| in situations where they are functionally disabled - like
| when they're really exhausted or inebriated or
| mentally/physically overloaded - and all of these
| accessibility technologies are helpful in those
| situations. It's not about the ADA definition but humans
| in practice.
|
| [1] https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/persons-
| intellectual-disa...
| tolbish wrote:
| We are just talking about being bad at math temporarily.
| Let's take a physicist who is having brain fog for a day.
| In this case, it would be weird to say they are
| situationally disabled or disabled at all. I think your
| term "mentally/physically overloaded" would be closer to
| what I am speaking of. Not sure about "functionally
| disabled".
| mynameisvlad wrote:
| You're talking about the legal term "disabled". Some have
| opted to refer to it as a "situational limitation" or
| "situational impairment" to distance from the legal term
| which can have additional implications.
|
| Going back to your point, though, would you say someone
| with a concussion is situationally disabled? I suffered
| from a pretty bad concussion last year which definitely
| caused a lot of brain fog for weeks. At the beginning I
| could barely _think_ for a few hours. Would you not call
| this a situational or temporary disability? It's
| certainly more than "brain fog for a day".
| KittenInABox wrote:
| I think it's fair. That's what temp disability is for,
| workers comp, etc? If I strain my back and I'm bedridden
| for a few days I think I'm pretty disabled. Similarly, if
| a vaccine knocks me flat on my butt for a day, people get
| it, I'm disabled for that day and I need accomodation.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| The technical meaning of disability is broader than the
| legal meaning. The legal meaning is broader than most
| people would define it.
|
| Using a wrist mounted touch screen is hard if you can't
| use the other hand. It doesn't matter if it's because the
| other hand is missing, in a cast, or just holding
| something. So people in relevant fields talk about
| permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities.
|
| You don't have to like or use the term. But arguing with
| people who do won't be productive.
| b3morales wrote:
| As a thought experiment we could consider whether the
| legal specifications would be necessary if this awareness
| of situational and widespread ability differences was
| more established in our culture. What if all doors,
| everywhere, were easily opened by anyone regardless of
| whether they were standing, around a certain height, and
| had free use of their arms?
|
| I think likely we would still need some kind of formal
| recognition, but it's interesting to ponder.
| anticristi wrote:
| Trust me, I got super powers during parental leave. Some
| days I wondered why we need a second hand at all!
| [deleted]
| wittyreference wrote:
| Yes.
|
| As a physician, I wish more folks appreciated that
| "disability" is a property of the relationship between a
| person and their environment, and can emerge (or disappear)
| based on changes in that persons capability as well as
| changes in their environment.
|
| For an obvious example: a patient with reversible heart
| failure can't walk without severe shortness of breath
| today, but they can in three months. Today they need
| disabled parking; three months from now they do not.
| tolbish wrote:
| Can we apply "disability" to all abilities, like being
| hungover and therefore temporarily sensitive to light and
| sound, or should it apply to specific ones, like being
| injured and therefore temporarily sensitive to light and
| sound?
| _jal wrote:
| I don't know what a doctor would say here. Just noting
| that medical jargon sometimes carries moral or legal
| tones independent of any actual medical distinction.
|
| For instance if you're taking a legal drug that
| habituates you, they don't like calling you an addict, so
| you're experiencing cessation syndrome. A change in legal
| status of the drug would presumably lead to a terminology
| change.
|
| And I'm not going to revisit DSM fights, but suffice to
| say, a number of changes made to certain diagnoses over
| time reveal more about sociopolitical changes than
| anything having to do with psychiatry.
| nkmnz wrote:
| Your statement regarding legal status of a drug and
| addiction is wrong. Alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs
| and you can not only evolve a dependency on them, but if
| your addicted you'll be called an addict. The same is
| true for other legal drugs used as medication, e.g.
| benzodiazepines or opioids. If you've developed physical
| and/or psychological dependence on such a drug, you might
| suffer from withdrawal, which is not a different thing
| than discontinuation, but rather a special case thereof.
| Addiction and withdrawal compare to dependency and
| discontinuation like a hoarder compares to someone who
| relies on the service of a cleaning lady.
| _jal wrote:
| I won't argue the point, it very much is not my area. But
| that is not the understanding I left with when I quizzed
| my doctor on the topic.
| Judgmentality wrote:
| You are really hung up on trying to reconcile that
| 'disability' has a different meaning in an English
| dictionary as from a court of law. In different contexts,
| the word will mean different things. When in doubt,
| provide additional details to alleviate any confusion -
| this will vary on a case by case basis.
| tolbish wrote:
| The meaning of words will always depend on the context
| they are used in. Even outside of a court of law, there
| are still people here who disagree that a person with an
| occupied hand is still disabled.
|
| That seems like something that will shift towards one or
| the other as society talks more openly about
| disabilities.
| [deleted]
| villasv wrote:
| In the language of product design and experience, yes you
| can apply to all abilities. More specifically, all
| abilities required by your product.
| sethjgore wrote:
| Exactly! I am deaf and when I'm in an environment that's
| fully signed, I cease to be disabled. Truly! And those
| who aren't signing-aware in such environments become
| disabled language-wise.
| noneeeed wrote:
| That reminds me of a time I went to the pub with friends
| after work. I was sat at the table with my back to the
| rest of the pub. After a while I though "wow it's really
| quite in here tonight" at which point I turned around to
| find that the pub was packed, but with deaf people all
| signing to each other. Turns out it was a monthly deaf
| meetup at the pub.
|
| It really demonstrated your point. I was quite jealous of
| their ability to hold a conversation with people all the
| way across the pub :)
| myth_drannon wrote:
| Eye-Tracking Support for iPad. I hope with Apple's track record
| of usability it will be an improvement over the existing
| solutions. I used Dynavox camera bolted on Microsoft Surface and
| their proprietary software and it's painful. Using browser is an
| impossible task.
| kingsuper20 wrote:
| In an ideal world, it seems to me like everyone needs a different
| interface with a computer, whether it's a website or an
| application (remember those?).
|
| Waving a wand, I'd take something like a banking website (let's
| say Bank of America as an example) and strip out all the cruft. A
| text-only interface that (maybe) just looks like a simple early-
| version-of-Windows application. I'll grant that Amazon and eBay
| require the ability to put up images, Vanguard and Fidelity most
| certainly do not.
|
| What you could do then is to make them all alike, it's not like
| these sites are particularly different. Maybe the equivalent of
| an RSS feed app could run the lot.
|
| The thing is, a deaf or blind person could ask for the same thing
| just with their own particular abilities in mind.
|
| /oldmanrant
| sergiotapia wrote:
| Q: Why do they call it "limb differences" instead of what I
| learned it a decade ago as "disabilities". Is "disabilities"
| considered offensive?
| duskwuff wrote:
| No; "disabilities" is insufficiently specific. The features
| that Apple is adding to Apple Watch wouldn't help a blind user,
| for example -- they're specifically targeted at users with limb
| differences (like a missing or abnormally formed arm) which
| would prevent them from touching one wrist with the opposite
| hand.
| saagarjha wrote:
| Some people don't like being labeled as "disabled", because
| that may have the connotation that they're not able to do as
| much as an "abled" person.
| [deleted]
| pilsetnieks wrote:
| The page is literally titled "Apple previews powerful software
| updates designed for people with disabilities."
|
| I assume this is simply being more specific.
| punnerud wrote:
| Ironic; in Norway this introduction of eye tracing on iPad could
| be bad for those who has severe disabilities, because when it is
| easily accessible in normal stores you will no longer get them
| funded as a helping aid, and you then have to pay from your own
| pocket. This forward the burden on the families and dividing the
| society.
| sitkack wrote:
| The whole UI should be in a transparent hierarchical structure
| (the DOM? XML? Lisp?) and I should be able to apply any
| projection or operation on it. Context sensitive bold, or make
| click targets larger, or script things.
|
| The extensions that the vendor makes, anyone else should be able
| to make. I'd like to put a soft border around whatever element
| currently has focus. I'd like to configure my own tab order. I'd
| like click-lock, drag, unlock, drop so that stuff doesn't
| magically disappear during a botched drag-and-drop operation.
|
| The desktop UI was a nice hack-demo, but it really isn't that
| good, anywhere.
| user-the-name wrote:
| This is not possible to do while also having a UI that is
| pleasant to use and looks good. Nor will it get you a UI that
| is easy to use for disabled people.
|
| What you get is a UI that is average-bad for everyone.
| Ar-Curunir wrote:
| > What you get is a UI that is average-bad for everyone.
|
| I.e., every Linux UI ever. I say that as someone who has used
| Linux exclusively for ~10 years, for all of the time that I
| have had my own computer.
| mrkramer wrote:
| Good updates for accessibility.
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