Transcript for Accessibility in new task management app

20 May 2012

Roberta: Today we have Digital Media and Technology Content Producer Clarizza Fernandez from Media Access Australia. She’s here to tell us about the Remember the Milk app. The organisation’s testing of the app on the iPad and iPhone has found it to be one of the most accessible task management apps on the market. Welcome Clarizza.

Clarizza: Hi Roberta.

Roberta: Now what is Remember the Milk?

Clarizza: Remember the Milk is a task management app or application for your smartphone or mobile device. It works like an inbox for all your tasks so you can organise your tasks into lists and set priorities to each of your tasks. They appear in your inbox as a reminder to complete tasks so when the time comes you can receive alerts so that you can complete your task. You're required to create an online account so that you can sync your tasks between each mobile device.

So if you've got an iPhone and iPad and with your own computer create your account, all your tasks can be synched with each other. You're able to download the apps through iTunes, it's free to download from that, and you get one free sync per day. However if you'd like to sync your tasks more frequently throughout the day you can purchase a pro account for $25 per year.

Roberta: So the app is accessible on Apple devices?

Clarizza: Yes, it works with the in-built accessibility tools in Apple devices. So for the iPhone it works with VoiceOver screen reader and Zoom. The most exciting part is that it works with Siri on the iPhone 4S. Siri is a voice recognition software that lets you perform tasks on your phone. When you use Siri you can set task reminders and ‘pushmes’ to your Remember the Milk inbox which you can access through an app or on a desktop computer.

Roberta: So what is a task management app and how will it benefit people with a disability?

Clarizza: Task management apps can vary between each other but their function is to help you perform tasks. They can also help you organise tasks. So the point of the task management app is to help you do things. So different task management apps focus on different things.

For people with a disability a task management app can help them perform a task in many different ways. For example if you can set a task management app to send reminders it can help someone with a disability remember that particular task.

Remember the Milk is a great app for people with disabilities because you can use Siri to set tasks which means you can use voice commands to set tasks. It takes a lot of work off people who are blind or vision impaired because it means they can take less steps in using this app.

Roberta: Can you just talk us through how this works?

Clarizza: Remember the Milk is sort of like your email program. You have an inbox for all your tasks and you can assign your tasks to different types of inboxes which relate to what type of tasks they are. The best way to create a task with this app is to use the voice activation software Siri and through Siri you can push tasks to your inbox. Then you can also attach priority levels to each task and set a date and a time to each of those tasks and depending on the date and time you can also create alerts which act as reminders for you.

Roberta: That sounds wonderful.

Clarizza: It is wonderful. You can even use the GPS service on the app which usually comes with the iPhone but what it is it’s short for the geolocation services and it means that if you add an address to a task, so if you add an associated location to a task and you've thrown to text that you need the location it will prompt you to complete that task.

So for example if I set a task for myself to pick up milk from a corner shop that's just down the road from my work, if I'm walking past that corner shop the GPS location will pick this location up and will prompt me to complete that task to buy milk. That's why it's such a great piece of technology.

Roberta: I think we better find out where we can get more information about this.

Clarizza: We've got a full app review on the Media Access Australia website so you can find out more from there. But you can also visit their website at www.rememberthemilk.com

Roberta: Oh that's simple enough isn't it, www.rememberthemilk.com. Thank you Clarizza for that today, that's really good news.

Clarizza: Thank you.

Roberta: I've been speaking with Digital Media and Technology Content Producer Clarizza Fernandez and there are loads more accessible app reviews like that for both Apple and Android smartphones at www.mediaaccess.org.au. And Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.