Like the iPhone, the iPad contains a number of accessibility features for people with disabilities who want to do things like use the web, send e-mail, listen to music and read e-books.
Accessibility features include the VoiceOver screen reader, zoom, adjustable colour contrast, captioned video and the ability to output the audio to one ear.
To make the drumming component of Rock Band work for gamers who are blind or vision impaired, Sri Kurniawan, an assistant professor in computer engineering, used vibrations and sounds to convey the information needed to play the game. Gamers have small devices strapped to their upper and lower arms to deliver vibrations that represent the drumhead cues, and strapped to their ankle to represent the kick drum cues. Auditory information is used to provide feedback on correct and timely hits (with various drumming sounds) or errors (with a click sound).
As the popularity of games continues to soar, interest in game accessibility also grows. For the third year in a row, Game Accessibility Day will give people a chance to share research and development and practical experience in game accessibility, and network with others whose passion lies in this area.
VitalSource Bookshelf is primarily for the education sector, providing access to the best-known higher education textbooks, study guides and classics. The release, which makes the application more usable for students with disabilities, contains extensive internal feature and function enhancements, as well as support for third-party screen-reader applications.
