I just appeared on the excellent show Access Unlimited, an award-winning show on KPFK in Las Angeles. I talked about my first experiences with computers, the first time I used an iPhone, and even text adventures. Jolie Mason, one of the show’s hosts, contacted me and we had a great chat. I knew we would have a great interview. Stella Violano from AppAdvice and Thomas Domville from Applevis also participated. I met Stella when she contact me to help her make her excellent list of apps for the blind, and her follow-up list of games for the blind. It felt good to get us all on the same program.

You can listen to it or download it. Enjoy!

The Philadelphia regional chapter of thePennsylvania Council of the Blind partnered with Apple to put on the first VoiceOver event in this area. The event took place at the Philadelphia Apple store, 1607 Walnut St. The Pier Apple store in Atlantic City, New Jersey also helped organize the event. It took place on Sunday March 11th from 07:00-09:00 PM.

My friend Angie and I gathered earlier in the day and relaxed. We ate sushi, drank jasmine green tea, and thought of Steve Jobs. I ordered a cab to pick us up at 05:45. They never asked me for my number, and called my landline when I had gone outside, so we missed them on the first go around. I called and they tersely told me that they would come back. The cabby asked for the address several times. When he said we had arrived, i asked my friend if I should check my GPS. We decided not to, since we figured how could someone miss a big Apple store? I should have checked. He had dropped us off at a random location! We had to get strangers to help us to our destination.

We stepped inside the store feeling relieved. A cool guy told us to wait for the event to start. He brought us over to a high table and brought us stools. That helped. We got our MacBook Airs ready for the event, and just sort of mingled and had fun hanging out.

Even before it started, we could feel the amazing energy. I have never come to the Philly Apple store before. I felt welcome, and this felt like quite a way to spend a first time in one. While just listening to our surroundings, we heard people come up near us. They said the entire agenda, and the different groups they would offer. We would pick a product to focus on: iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and they would divide us up into groups. It sounded like they would have a presentation, then let us play with equipment. We talked about how much you can hear if you just listen. Sure enough, soon after they came around and asked us our name, basic info, and which product we wanted to learn about. I didn’t even think about that, but Angie answered Mac so I figured I’d just say mac also and go with her. We both had our Macs and it seemed like the most hardcore choice.

The time had finally come for the event. They moved us one group at a time. A girl even brought over my MacBook Air. How nice! We found ourselves at the Mac table with MacBook Pros scattered around. We got out our Macs and felt right at home. I put on my Aftershokz and prepared myself. I said hi to a few people and showed one how to turn on VoiceOver. They asked us to quiet down and the event began.

A few people spoke, including Lynne Mayleaf from the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind, and a few Apple trainers. This event had 80 attendees, and involved 20-30 Apple employees. Consider what this means. Companies that just make equipment for the blind have to go to a convention to get 80 attendees, and Apple just had an event at a local store open to the public. They even had a waiting list. Steve Jobs would feel proud.

Linda described this event as her dream. When she wanted to know more about Mac, she went to an Apple store and met a trainer named Bobby. He said that everybody knows somebody that Apple products can touch. We did a lot of clapping and building enthusiasm. They announced that the ACB/PCB offers discounts. More clapping.

Bobby has a blind father, so this meant a lot to him. He wanted to help people have that wow moment like his father had. He gets it. This seemed like the theme. It felt more like an exciting show and less like a boring tech event.

A Keynote presentation about Voiceover followed. It showed the different products including Macs, the iPad, the iPhone, and an iPod Touch. They went around each of he three groups and had the trainers introduce themselves. I really tried to project a lot of enthusiasm for the Mac group. Better to be a pirate than to join the navy! It became clear that the iPhone group had the most people. The iPhone got me back into Apple products. I originally wrote that it changed my universe as soon as it entered it. That still holds true. My enthusiasm has not waned. I felt so glad to consider all the people considering this wonderful technology. Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone considering going from Windows to Mac.

Our two trainers gave a nice introduction to VoiceOver. I felt impressed. When I first tried to buy a Mac at an Apple store, the employees knew nothing about how to use VoiceOver. This delayed my purchase for a day and that bothered me. Seeing employes with more of a practical knowledge about VoiceOver shows Apple’s continuing commitment to accessibility. My friend and I already knew this stuff of course, so we just enjoyed the experience.

Our trainers knew this and periodically came up to us and asked if we needed anything. One told us that she first found out about VoiceOver when she accidentally turned it on and had to take it to an Apple store to get it turned off. That sparked her curiosity and now she does basic training. She asked if we knew that when we type a password, clicks happen to indicate hidden characters. We said we did. “Yeah, and it randomly clicks so someone listening doesn’t know how many characters you’ve typed.” said Angie. “Really? I always thought that was a bug.” I said. Then Angie and I said the old programmer’s saying at the same time: “It’s not a bug it’s a feature.” The trainer told me what I’ve heard from a few other employees: “You should work at Apple.”

I do have one suggestion for the introduction to the Mac. They need to at least introduce the concept of interacting. You have to understanding interacting to use VoiceOver on a Mac. Other than that, they did a great job getting everyone going. I hope it will convince some JAWS for Windows users to take the plunge.

After the demonstration, they had a question and answer session. This included a demonstration of Siri. They had a few people speak about their experiences. Everyone seemed interested in learning more. I hope they do.

They ended it with something nice. Steve Jobs always liked to have one more thing. And one more thing: ACB members get product discounts. The Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation will give a $1000 lone to buy APple products at 0% interest. This went over well. They also let people keep their Apple earbuds. The event ended on a high note. It reminded me of the ice mint mango drops I had purchased for the event, the mango providing a sophisticated balance to the coolness of the mint.

Given my experience with the cabby on the way up, I sort of dreaded the journey back. As they concluded they said that they would help us with anything we might need, such as finding the restroom or getting a cab. I needed to do both. One of the Mac trainers named Lindsay said she’d help. We walked into the bowels of the Apple store. I had never gone here and it felt exciting. We took an elevator up to the second floor and she showed me the door. I went to the bathroom then we went back downstairs. Another trainer named Ashley if I remember right hailed me a cab and the two of them walked me over. Leave it to Apple to take their of their customers until the end.

They will have more of these VoiceOver events in Philadelphia, so stay tuned. Lynne wants to start having them on a national level, so you never know where one might pop up. I would recommend going, you have nothing to lose and so much to gain. No other consumer electronics company has done what Apple has done for the blind.

I have recently gotten AirPlay working to prepare for a move. As I wrote, I got an Airport Express and an Apple TV. At the time of writing I had to wait to get the Apple TV working. Now I have, and I love it. The whole model of content distribution needs to mature, and Apple will lead the way.

I ordered my Apple TV and it arrived within twenty-four hours. I felt amazed just examining the box and its contents. The Apple TV looks like a little square with a few ports on the back and rounded edges. The remote looks like the coolest remote I’ve ever seen, just a thin rectangle with convex surfaces and round corners. The remote has a button with the four arrows and enter in the center, plus a Menu/Back button and a Play/Pause button below it. It reflects a zen minimalism perfectly.

I couldn’t wait to get it working. Things worked out very nicely actually. For Christmas my Mom gave me a little lightweight TV to bring with me on the move, as compared with the bulky one I bought when I bought the house in 2002. It amazed me how in ten years media and the technology around it has totally changed. The old one didn’t even have an HDMI port, something Apple TV needs. I had a friend come over and haul the old one outside with a FREE sign on it. In my excitement I had tried hooking up the Apple TV to the new TV, but hit the wrong button on the new TV’s remote, putting it in a perpetual menu and making it silent and useless. I really hope APple really does come out with a full TV which talks! Imagine that, no more inaccessible menus.

My friend got the new TV working with Apple TV just fine. Hitting the lower right button (Play/Pause) three times during the initial setup will enable VoiceOver. Once we got it off the ground I could operate everything with Apple TV’s remote, plus a few buttons on the other remote my friend taught me. I could now try to evaluate this thing.

Apple TV has a simple menu structure. Going left and right goes through the different categories of things (movies, TV shows, etc.) and going up and down goes through the options in that category. In this way you can rent movies, watch TV shows, listen to music in your iTunes library, subscribe to podcasts, watch Youtube videos, and lots of other fascinating things. For the first time I can lounge in my recliner with a remote and browse on-demand content and have it talk to me, something sighted people have enjoyed for years. I love it!

First I looked at hot movies. Apple has a notorious anti-pornography stance, so it seemed interesting to see the fascinating documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule in the top ten independent films. You can’t have sex, but smoke all the DMT you want! I also saw a documentary about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, one of my heroes. I plan to rent both.

Next I looked at TV shows. I added some favorites to my list. I watched the latest episode of the Simpsons just to try it. The episode parodied Glen Beck and the tea party movement, and I enjoyed it. It felt cool to see all the different networks and shows. It just has on-demand content, nothing live. As soon as they start streaming live content we can cut the cable forever, and I look forward to that day.

Then I wandered over to the internet category. I watched a Ron Paul video on YouTube, and subscribed to a few podcasts, including the very funny Radio Free Oz. I really like listening to podcasts on my Apple TV from the comfort of my living room. I could really get more into podcasts this way. I also browsed my iTunes library, very cool. And of course, Apple TV acts as an AirPlay device, so I can hear anything I want over it as long as I can stream it.

All and all, I love Apple TV, but the current generation represents a stepping stone. I think that things need to mature so we can enjoy live TV. People have become tired of paying insane amounts of money to watch their favorite two or three channels on cable. In his biography, Steve Jobs said that he has cracked the secret to an easy high definition television. I hope he has, because I welcome a full Apple TV. Should you get one? If you like watching on-demand content or have a large iTunes library then I would say yes. If you don’t know then you might want to wait to see how the rumors play out. Either way, I have found my Zen TV.

Twitter has had an official app for a while. Now it has become less accessible, and it has also become integrated into iOS. Twitter must make the same commitment to accessibility which Apple has.

Accessibility refers to making something usable by everyone. In this case it refers to making an application work well with VoiceOver so that the blind can use it. Sites like Applevis post accessibility ratings for different apps. If an app does not play nicely with VoiceOver then the blind cannot use it and it may as well not exist for us.

This can seem very annoying, as you can imagine. For example, several friends have asked me to play Words with Friends. As you can read, everything works except for the game board, a rather important feature. I played a lot of Scrabble as a kid and would really enjoy playing again. The official Facebook app also sucks, and many have found alternatives. App developers can choose to improve accessibility, and many do. Many apps also work with little or no modification. All well and good, and normally I wouldn’t write a blog post about this.

The Twitter app falls into a special category however. Apple has chosen to integrate it very heavily into iOS 5. The Twitter settings has a link to easily download the official app, and iOS accesses it if using its built-in Twitter integration. This puts the app in a special circumstance. If a blind person wants to use iOS’s Twitter integration, they have to use the app. Because of its unique position, Twitter must care about accessibility.

Since it came out, Twitter has provided a clutter-free social network which the blind have enjoyed. I know many of us prefer it to Facebook for that reason. And don’t even get me started about Google+! Twitter must recognize this and continue along these lines.

Apple has become the leader in accessibility. Every Apple device talks out of the box. This includes the iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Apple TV, and Macs. No other company has done this. The blind have come to expect that anything Apple does will have accessibility in mind. Turning over their Twitter integration to a third party means that third party must have the same commitment. If they don’t it makes Apple look bad. Apple must recognize this and demand appropriate action.

In summary, the blind have come to know Apple as the leader of accessibility. Steve Jobs insisted that Apple’s devices should have universal accessibility. Having a Twitter app with less than full accessibility goes against this philosophy. Twitter must fix their official Twitter app as long as iOS depends on it. The Me tab has serious issues and unlabeled buttons. Oh well, back to using Tweetlist Pro!

Steve Jobs has died at age 56. Family said he passed peacefully in his sleep. This has sent shockwaves around the net, and I thought I’d throw in my own little tribute.

I became blind at birth. I always loved technology and done well with math. My parents used computers for their business, and could see their potential. They wanted me to have an advantage, so got an Apple II/e as soon as they learned that a blind person could use one. I think this happened while in the second grade, which would have made me seven years old.

Mom still remembers our trip to the Apple store. They hadn’t even unpacked yet. I remember the smell of boxes and new computers. I’ve always loved the smell of new computers, Apple products especially. I also remember some of the computers had puffy paper apples on top of them. I wanted to buy the computer with the paper apple just because I liked it. I also remembered feeling glad that the computers didn’t make any noise, something Steve Jobs insisted upon.

We took the thing home. I remember the family trying the discs which came with the computer, something called Apple Presents. I think it came with some games too. My brother and I enjoyed playing the simple games. But it couldn’t talk yet.

One Saturday, Mom and our friend Kristen put in the card. This meant opening up the computer, inserting a card, plugging in a speaker, probably connecting some jumpers, and who knows what else. They also had some beer, which seems to go well with hardware work. I didn’t know what to do, so just kept encouraging them. By the end of the day they had done it! They felt exhausted and I felt ecstatic. I knew something awesome had just happened! I could use a computer!

At first, I only knew a few commands. CATALOG gave a catalog of files on the disc. RUN would run a file with an A in front of it. I learned that stood for Applesoft BASIC. BRUN would run a file with a B in front of it, meaning binary, machine language. And with that I began my journey.

For a while I had fun running programs on the games discs, trying various demos, and I may have tried to use a word processor. I remember one or two games would not work. I couldn’t understand why. I thought computers just did things. My parents explained to me that computers don’t actually think, they just follow instructions, a program. I thought I understood, but didn’t know how to fix the problems, so felt frustrated. I wanted to play the games. Why won’t they work?

One day, I remember playing the classic Eliza program. This program has existed for years, and simulates a conversation with a psychiatrist. It does very primitive textual analysis to try to come up with the proper response, and sometimes it does quite well. Other times it doesn’t. Still it intrigued me.

Afterward, I sat and thought. I wondered about commands I might not know. I felt something more. I have no idea where this thought came from, or why I thought of it, but I thought to type the command LIST. I remember thinking it must list something, maybe a short list of files, or who knows. But I figured since computers deal with lists maybe it will do something. Sure enough it did.

The LIST command lists the code of the currently loaded program, Eliza in this case. I saw line numbers and print statements. Suddenly I understood perfectly. You type in these instructions and the computer follows them. I knew then and there exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up.

Since then, I have always loved computers, programming, anything like that. It all started with that moment. I remember feeling so proud when I fixed a problem in one of the games. I wrote tons of little programs of my own. I had endless hours of fun with that machine.

Time passed. The PC became popular and I reluctantly moved over. I felt very sad to say good bye to my Apples, but also excited about the future. Still I will always treasure those first days. MSDOS came and gave way to Windows. I just couldn’t take it so switched to Linux. I loved its open nature. You can explore anything and learn so much. The text shell makes a natural interface for a blind user. Still, I always had to find ways to do the things sighted users enjoyed. I got by as best I could, and had a nicely tweaked netbook as a notetaker.

Then last June I got an iPhone and my universe changed forever. It can do so many things, thanks to the endless selection of apps. I can identify currency and household items, check news, stocks, the weather, Twitter, even listen to the changing colors of a sunset. I cannot imagine life without my iPhone. I upgraded to the iPhone 4 when it came out, and loved the combination of glass and metal. Just so cool! After falling in love, I heard the call of the Apple family once again. I knew I had to get a Mac.

I went to the Apple store and had an exciting adventure. It certainly had changed since the first time we had gone. Now it had become a bustling marketplace. I told everyone there I wanted to buy a Mac, that I started on a II/e (which they probably didn’t understand), and that I felt overjoyed to rejoin the Apple family. The manager of the store told me that the accessibility didn’t start until Steve Jobs had returned. I thanked Steve silently.

I got my iMac last September, just in time for something amazing. My iPhone article went viral. I receive so much awesome feedback and attention from it. My Mac quickly proved itself, functioning beautifully within this chaos. It seemed so stable. Plus, it runs on top of a flavor of BSD, so I consider it two computers for the price of one. I just could not believe this new experience, a graphical user interface I could actually use. For the first time I could actually use a trackpad, something the sighted have enjoyed for years. I knew that Apple had created the cutting edge accessibility experience.

I felt very impressed. So impressed that I bought a MacBook Air as soon as they came out. I love my MacBook Air so much. It makes a perfect notetaker. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Plus, it has a tactile glowing Apple on the back! Sometimes I find myself just feeling the apple and admiring the form of the machine. The same holds true for the stunningly beautiful iPad 2.

Yesterday Apple announced the iPhone 4S. It will have the Siri assistant. As I wrote, this introduces the next paradigm of the artificially intelligent smartphone. Very soon, people will have conversations with their computers, just like on Star Trek! Apple has helped bring that perfect future closer.

Now I sit here surrounded by all of this incredible Apple technology. It amazes me that one man could help bring all this about. I feel especially appreciative. Steve had a vision of a computer which anyone could use. Apple Building accessibility into all of their devices means that a blind person can purchase a device from a store and use it immediately. We have never had this before. For the first time we can use the same devices as our sighted friends, family, and coworkers. Apple’s line of accessibility technology has opened the world up to the blind. No other corporation has done what Apple has done.

Thank you Steve. You have changed my world forever. You have changed the world of the blind forever. You have changed the world forever. May you live forever through your works.