Apple Watch's first month: access features, device compatibility, Apple Store assistance

Transcript

31 May 2015

Roberta: One month after the release of Apple's flagship smartwatch, Dr Scott Hollier joins us to discuss Apple Watch accessibility, including an overview of available features, iOS device compatibility and a first-person experience receiving help with device accessibility from an Apple Store. Welcome Scott.

Scott: Thanks Roberta, it's great to be back.

Roberta: Now, what is the Apple Watch for those who may not have heard about it?

Scott: Well the Apple Watch is Apple's first entry into the smartwatch market, so it's proving to be quite popular and basically it's like having a computer on your wrist. So in addition to doing normal watch things, like telling the time, it also has the ability to connect with other Apple devices, like an iPhone, so you can send messages and things like that. And it also has a fitness app, so you can monitor how fast you can walk, and burning calories, and all that sort of stuff. So it's sort of the latest of the wearable technologies and it's proving quite interesting.

Roberta: That's all very well and good Scott, but is it accessible?

Scott: Well this is the key question. I'm happy to say, for the most part, yes. For people who are blind and vision impaired it does come with the VoiceOver screenreader, it has zoom, it also has some high contrast themes and some big text watch faces, which is really useful for people with low vision. So, for the most part, it is quite accessible and this is really encouraging to see a first generation product having accessibility built-in out of the box, so credit to Apple that they have thought of accessibility right from the word 'go'.

Roberta: So, do I need to own other Apple devices to make it work?

Scott: Unfortunately, yes, and one of the things we have noticed is the downside to the Apple Watch, is that, unfortunately, a lot of the accessibility features are reliant on having that other device kicking around. So the way the Apple Watch works is that you have to have an iPhone 5 or later to be able to use the features of the Apple Watch, and accessibility is very closely tied-in to having that paired device. So if you don't have the iPhone 5 or later model, then it's probably not worth looking at an Apple Watch in terms of accessibility, unfortunately.

Roberta: You mentioned iPhone 5?

Scott: Yes, so we're up to the iPhone 6 now...

Roberta: Oh no!

Scott: Yes, it just goes so fast! One of the downsides to the Apple Watch is that people who do have an older iPhone, say an iPhone 4, can't pair their phone with the Apple Watch so there's been some issues in terms of people wanting to get the Apple Watch, but they have too old an iPhone to be able to use it. And with accessibility it's unfortunately very closely related that you have to have a very recent iPhone to be able to use the Apple Watch.

Roberta: Well that's probably the reason that it works, actually.

Scott: Well yeah, I mean the bluetooth connection between the two devices, it does connect quite well in that regard.

Roberta: And I think this is a big question, can you get accessibility help from an Apple Store?

Scott: Well we've been doing a bit of research in this area and we had a student named Elizabeth, who as part of her Duke of Edinburgh award has done some volunteer work with us, and she went to an Apple Store to find out just how easy it was to get information about Apple Watch accessibility, and interestingly, it took four people before she actually got to someone who did know about accessibility! So, we can look at this from two points of view. On one hand it's very disappointing that it took four people to get to someone who knew about accessibility, but the flip side is that they were extremely helpful and they were very eager to keep finding staff until they found someone that actually knew about accessibility; but, I think the message for your listeners is that it's probably good to do your homework about the accessibility features of Apple products before you get to an Apple Store, because the staff on the ground who know about accessibility seem to be few and far between, unfortunately.

Roberta: Yeah, but sometimes you know, you go into a shoe store to get fitted for shoes and there might only be only one or two practicioners in there that can actually successfully do that; the rest are sales assistants, so it might be the same sort of thing in the Apple Store.

Scott: I think it is. I mean, on one side, it was a bit disappointing that a brand new product that everyone is quite excited about, they didn't know much about accessibility, but the other side of that is that apparently, they were extremely eager and helpful to try and get information for the student. In fariness to Apple, at least they tried very hard and didn't just dismiss the request.

Roberta: Oh, well that's very pleasing and it can only get better from there.

Scott: Absolutely.

Roberta: For information on accessible media and wearable technology, you can call Media Access Australia on 02 9212 6242, or email info@mediaaccess.org.au. You can also visit the website, which is amazing to navigate, mediaaccess.org.au. Thank you Scott for all of that today, and I know we'll be talking again soon.

Scott: Abosolutely, thanks again Roberta!

Roberta: I've been speaking with Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia, and Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.

Go back to Apple Watch's first month: access features, device compatibility, Apple Store assistance page