Mobility

Samsung Galaxy S4 accessibility

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Samsung’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S4, was launched on Friday with Samsung claiming the device would “bury” its biggest rival, the iPhone 5. Samsung announced a suite of new features, including some that have benefits for people with a disability such as eye-tracking, enhanced gestures and improvements to the voice-activated assistant, S Voice.

Samsung is yet to release a list of the phone’s key specifications, including which assistive technologies it includes. The Galaxy S4 runs on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system which comes with a screen magnifier, screen reader and gesture mode by default. However, as Android is open source, manufacturers such as Samsung can pick and choose which features they include. This explains the wide inconsistencies in levels of accessibility across Android smartphones and tables.

Taxonomy:

General

Blind or vision impaired

Mobility

Digital technology

News

Digital media and technology:

Android

Mobile operating systems

News alert taxonomy:

Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

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Voice Search added to Google TV

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A new feature added to Google TV called Voice Search could improve how blind, vision impaired or mobility impaired people interact with the device. While Voice Search has already been released on some Android smartphones, the technology has just been introduced to Google TV, allowing people to use voice prompts to access content.

Google TV is a digital media receiver, similar to Apple TV. It runs on the Android operating system and allows you to stream media from the web to a connected TV. This means you can listen to music, watch videos on YouTube, watch TV shows and movies, download media from Google Play, check your email and surf the web on your TV.

Taxonomy:

General

Blind or vision impaired

Mobility

Digital technology

News

News alert taxonomy:

Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

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Australian banks reviewed for web accessibility

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Australia’s top banking websites have been tested by independent experts who found that many do not meet the needs of users with disability. The results of the study will be presented at the Edge of the Web conference this week by accessibility consultant Vivienne Conway and Media Access Australia’s Dr Scott Hollier.

Seven online banking services, including ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth, Westpac and St George were looked at. The results varied widely with the best, NAB, scoring an overall 8/10 while the worst, Police & Nurses, scored just 2/10.

Taxonomy:

General

Blind or vision impaired

Mobility

Web

News

Practical web accessibility

News alert taxonomy:

Deaf/hearing impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Practical Web Accessibility news

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If we had Glass: the access potential for Google Glass

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Google released a promotional website for its Project Glass last week, a device worn as glasses which integrates smartphone technology. Among much social media fanfare, Google was quick to sell the device on its potential, inviting Twitter and Google+ users to submit their ideas for how they’d use Glass.

Google has developed Glass as a mainstream technology without its potential as an assistive technology in mind. The magic of the device lies in how third party app developers will take it and apply it to the disability market.

Below are our ideas for how Glass could enhance the lives of people with disability in the future.

Taxonomy:

General

Captions

Blind or vision impaired

Deaf or hearing impaired

News alert taxonomy:

Deaf/hearing impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news