jebsblog

For the past several months I have been the proud owner of an Apple iPod Touch. As you know from reading this blog, I am far from being an “applefanboi” and have tended towards the “I’m a PC” side of things. But I have been dutifully impressed by this device and the technology behind it.

Perhaps what has impressed me most is the “touch screen” that is the main user interface. Like the move from the keyboard to the mouse – which Apple also perfected more than 25 years ago – the touch screen, I believe, is the way we will interact with computers in the future. I probably should expand that to include the fantastical 3D user interface that Tom Cruise’s character used in The Minority Report even though in that futuristic fantasy the interaction is between hands and holograms as opposed to actually touching a screen. But the concepts are the same – a more direct connection between human physical movement and the actions of a computer.

I think what I like best about the touch screen is how, almost intuitively (and I hate to even admit this), I was able to navigate the device. Being the typical red-blooded-American-male, I didn’t bother to read the directions until after I had given the device a good spin. I found it easy to navigate and move between apps and generally work the browser. The less intuitive stuff related to moving the badges around on the home screen or how to remove them from the device (I still don’t know how to do that on the Mac OS), I had to study to learn. But even these make sense if you think of it (unlike ejecting a CD by dragging it to the trash can – huh?).

The movement of dragging documents around on the screen to view them, squeezing and stretching them to zoom in and out and even the “flick of the finger” action of moving between pages is very close to the “feel” of hands and paper.

Well, it seems everyone has gotten into the “touch screen act” these days and yes things are getting ratcheted up dramatically with the recent release of the new Palm Pre – another touch screen dependent smart phone - in addition to the pending release of the Apple iPhone 3G S. Add to this is Microsoft’s announcement that touch screen capacity has been added into Window 7 (additional hardware required), and it is pretty clear that within a couple of years we will see more and more people engaging their technology “by touch” rather than using a clunky piece of hardware like a mouse or keyboard. Or will we?

Of course all of this creates many new challenges for people with disabilities. How does this new technology work with people who cannot see?

I am sensing that solutions to some of these issues may already be on the drawing board – well at the very least, on Apple’s drawing board. We’ll have to wait and see if the solutions become widespread.

Apple’s solution is the inclusion of the native VoiceOver screenreader into the new iPhone O/S. By the way, I was a little miffed by Apple’s insistence that the iPhone O/S is actually a version of Mac O/S X – bit of stretch if you ask me, Cupertino.

In addition to VoiceOver – which at this point apparently only works with the iPhone’s Safari browser and “native” apps – the new iPhone has Voice Control which will make dialing calls, choosing music and even announcing music titles accessible to people with visual impairments. As demonstrated, Voice Control is a universally designed feature which give heads-up control to all users and allows those who cannot see the device better ability to engage it.

But the clincher may come with the issue of the touch keyboard. If people who are blind or have visual impairments want to use the iPhone 3G S to send text messages or otherwise input text into the device, they are going to have to learn how to “touch type” in a whole new way. And the success of that remains to be seen – sorry no pun intended.

Of course, the next iteration of the iPhone (4G?) might have voice-to-text built in, but since we haven’t mastered that on desktop computers, it might not be that soon. But those Apple people are crafty.

It’s only been 48 hours since Apple made their big announcements at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference – WWDC (which I affectionately have referred to as the “Apple-Love-In”). It is clearly too early to gauge how this new iPhone will work with folks with disabilities. So, I am waiting patiently for the final verdict from my screenreading colleagues who just can’t wait to get their hands on the new toys when they are release to the public next week. I am assuming that Apple live tested these new accessibility features extensively before now – at least I hope they have – but I want to hear from my friends about what they really think about these tools when the phone is released and in the hands of real users.

So to answer my own question, it is pretty apparent that touch screens are the next big thing in personal technology, but maybe just a temporary thing.

Your thoughts?

~j