Next Stop SoHo

Good things come to those who wait.

Apple SoHo is about to host it's own accessibility event.

What: Accessibility Out of the Box
Where: 72 Greene Street, New York City, NY 10012
When: Tuesday, November 29th at 4pm - 5:30pm


I'll be there and I will be joining two other speakers to share some of the ways we use Apple's Accessibility in our daily life.

See you there!

It’s Not You George, It’s Me

George pointed out to me earlier this week that the formatting of my blog looked strange to him. He mentioned something about a “style sheet” and ‘word wrap,”but I do not know what he is talking about. I call a colleague and ask him what this means and he tells me to tell George it’s not my blog, it’s his browser. As I am about to relieve myself of all responsibility, my colleague calls back to say there is indeed something funky about the way my last blog post (Out of the Box Again) looks. He thinks I may have posted it inside a table.

I dread the thought of even looking at it, so I don’t. I go through Blogger instead and attempt to edit it. Easier said then done. Copying and pasting does not work, only a few sentences come through. I go back to the original draft and copy it to repost, but this one wipes out all of my carefully embedded hyperlinks. While trying to restore the links I hit the enter key and somehow accidentally publish the messy draft.

The erroneous posting is published with no links and with my notes exposed at the end. Each time I edit a post it gets posted to Facebook (and maybe Twitter) over and over again and I have no clue how to stop it.

I decided to give it one more go and fixed the post and published it. I hope you'll forgive me George, it still looks different and I'm just going to have to let it be.

Does this have to be so difficult -- really?

Out of the Box Again (Again)

Good things deserve repeating. That’s why Apple West 14th Street last night hosted “Accessibility Out of the Box“ for the second time. This time I was invited to take part in a panel discussion along with Dan Etra, Rethink Autism and Leslie Schect, District 75.

In August I wrote the first “Out of the Box” post, moved by the experience and hoping that the attention to accessibility would continue and grow. It has. I’ve heard from Apple SoHo that they too are getting in on this good thing and will soon be offering Accessibility Workshops (stay tuned).

I see this attention to the needs of special people happening at Apple Stores around the globe. You can help move the process along – go to your friendly neighborhood Apple and ask them to do the same. Get involved in a movement! (No sleeping in tents – I promise.)

This is way too good to keep quiet!

Thank You Steve Jobs

When I got home tonight and clicked on to CNN I learned that Steve Jobs died today. I felt the loss of a friend. I certainly didn’t know him personally -- yet it seemed I did. The reports of his health issues prevailed, but I chose to believe he would live forever.

He said, “No one wants to die, and yet death is the destination we all share.” I recently watched the video of his 2005 commencement address at Stanford on my iPad. My love for Apple began with the iPod, then I became intimately involved with the iPhone. It all synched seamlessly with my iMac, creating my first perfectly integrated relationship.

None of this is so different from the relationship anyone had with Steve Jobs or with Apple. That is the beauty of it. My experience was like the experience of everyone else...except I could not see the words on the screens of any of these devices. Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple did something no one else had the guts to do -- they gave text the ability to speak with Voice Over.

He revolutionized a culture and he allowed everyone around him to think of everyone around them. And, I have no doubt that this legacy of inclusion will continue and his powerful spirit will continue to change the world.

In realizing his dreams he also realized mine.

Thanks Steve -- you changed my life!

Out of the Box

My conversion to Apple has been something of a religious experience, and this week my faith was elevated to a whole new level. It happened as I attended “Accessibility Out of the Box” at Apple 14 Street in New York. This event, the first of its kind as far as I know, brought my favorite topic --Universal Access -- front and center.

As I listened to the speakers and looked around at the audience I could not help reflecting on how far we have come. Just a few years ago there was not one big mainstream technology product that was fully accessible to me --- not even one. Today Apple delivers everything with full accessibility --- ready to go right out of the box! If you can’t see or hear well, or you have physical or learning challenges – you get the same product at the same price as everyone else.

The reality of all this brought on a surge of unexpected emotion. I was welling up a little. These were not the tears of misery that technology used to evoke in me --- they were the tears of joy. I realized this was not just about how you see --- it was about how you hear, how you feel, how you think. It was not just about some of us, it was about all of us. Now I really had to fight back the tears!

I was inspired to step out of the box myself and ventured over to the demonstration of accessibility options for Learning and Literacy. There was more good stuff here for me: spotlight search, announced alerts, and text to speech. The gifts keep coming.

If you have not quite experienced the level of understanding you were looking for at your local Apple Store --- Don't Give Up! Today we know Apple 14th Street has accessibility specialists – and tomorrow maybe all the other apple Stores will too. Amen.