All of the teachers with whom I work know two things about the tech side of me:
1. I use keyboard shortcuts whenever I can (and constantly remind people of them), and
2. I love Apple devices.
A part of me is very sad to hear of the passing of Steve Jobs, both thinking of the personal loss to his family, and for those millions of us who have enjoyed using Apple products for years.
Here's something that Steve and Apple did for me: I now look at all new technologies with the expectation that it will incorporate accessibility features into its operating system, or I won't consider it. Case in point: although I've been a huge Amazon fan for years (I bought the original Kindle--at a whopping $399, and I love Kindle books), I haven't given more than a glance at the specs for the upcoming Kindle Fire tablet. I've read that it is not accessible to people who are blind (National Federation of the Blind sent out a statement to that effect), and therefore, even though it is much less expensive than the iPad, it will not be a device that many of my students can use. Come on Amazon, start thinking the Apple way--build accessibility in from the ground up!
All you tablet and device makers, all you app developers out there--please start thinking Universal Design. This means, plan well upfront to offer your product to the widest audience. Seek out people who access the computer via their keyboards, or depend upon captioning of all auditory media; think of how an app or a webpage is organized. Try moving around webpages using your keyboard, rather than the mouse/trackpad. Make sure you add a text tag to all your graphics on webpages. Remember Steve Jobs talking about wanting to offer a computer that EVERYONE can use. Keep his vision going.
The Mac-cessibility website has some great posts about how Apple devices are appreciated by people who have visual impairments. Check it out here.
