Full Transcript
Sarah:
-super excited about all that Magnifier can do! That was one of the things that we really gave a full overhaul to this year, and I think it’s really almost becoming kind of a toolkit where there’s something for everyone. [Unintelligible] ability for it to read out elements that are on the screen, so that it can tell you, you know, give you that environmental awareness.
Jeff:
Please welcome Apple’s Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger.
Sarah:
The fact that by being a company like Apple, that has so many different groups out there working on so many cool projects, the accessibility team has a lot of ability to be able to kind of see what other people are doing, and go, “We could use that to do something really cool.”
Jeff:
A conversation about Apple products, features, and customizable ability, all from an accessibility perspective.
Sarah:
One of the things I love about accessibility is it’s never-ending, and we can always keep building in another custom something, another way for you to be able to figure out what makes the device make you more productive, or creative, or just happy, you know?
Jeff:
Now please welcome Sarah Herrlinger, we hope you enjoy.
Raqi:
It’s been a wonderful fall.
Sarah:
Well, you know what, I think we all thought that Christmas needed to come a little early this year.
Raqi:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson, and in the studio with me is Raqi Gomez, Raqi, how’re you doing?
Raqi:
I’m doing great, Jeff.
Jeff:
Raqi is the manager of the Adaptations store out at the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Well, I’m glad you could make it, Raqi, and in the studio, we’ve got Sarah Herrlinger, and she is Apple’s Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. Welcome to Blind Abilities, Sarah.
Sarah:
Thank you so much! It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jeff:
It’s been quite a busy fall this year, all these events coming down, a lot of apples falling from the tree, it’s just a great time to be in the Orchard.
Sarah:
Yeah, we have had quite a busy fall. No rest for the weary. We’ve been trying to put out a lot of really great features for all of our customers as always. You know, accessibility is such an important part of the work we do, across every product we make, and our accessibility team is doing double time to try and make sure that we keep up with all of the amazing hardware that’s coming out and put in some real fun new gems for members of the blind and low vision community as well.
Jeff:
Oh, yeah. That has been very well-noticed lately, especially with the 12 pros? Mm. That’s some really good stuff there with the LIDAR and the people detection, but that is quite a job keeping everything so inclusive and you’ve been doing a great job at it.
Sarah:
Thank you! As you well know as users of the products, accessibility really has been something that has been a part of Apple’s DNA for decades now, you know, we have always really wanted to try to make products that work for everyone, and so being able to build in so many great features is something that you know, was really a part of what our team just focuses on every day.
Jeff:
And not only are they accessible and everything, I just think some of the product lines with the Apple Watch and the Mini iPhone too, is becoming very affordable, you’ve got quite a spread there of devices and yet, they all have accessibility built right into them.
Sarah:
Yep, that is the goal. We want to do as much as we can to make sure that employees with any kinds of disabilities are able to use the products right out of the box, and find the device that works best for them, you know, with the lineup of the iPhone 12s in general, there’s really something for everyone, you know, we’ve made them in lots of different sizes. I know within the blind community, I have a number of friends who really love the smaller sized devices, that they don’t really need the real estate of a bigger phone or an iPad or any of those, so they really appreciate having something like a mini that has a lot of great power, a lot of really brand-new components, and yet is really the smallest, thinnest, and the lightest 5G phone we’ve got. And, with the SE as well, forget about that one, because we know how much that is beloved in the community, with now having options for individuals who like face ID, and those who like touch ID.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. And Raqi’s probably one of the biggest Apple fangirls out there.
Raqi:
Yeah, I’m a believer. I’m pretty entrenched in the whole ecosystem, so I’m not a hard one to convince, but it’s difficult, I want them all, you know. I want the little one that fits in my pocket, and I want the other one so I can carry it on the train and find empty seats from five feet away, I’m so excited, now, I can’t wait to go back to work and put this people detection into action, and there’s so many cool things, it’s just, from the watches, I don’t know, like you said, of any other company, any other mainstream company, that I can say has every single device accessible out of the box. It’s fabulous. I love it.
Sarah:
Well, thank you, I appreciate the kind words. I will be sure to take those back to some folks on the team who are really making some magic, to make all this happen.
Jeff:
I was really interested in the LIDAR technology and I saw it was on the 12 Pros, and I was excited about that, so I did pick up the 12 Pro Max, and then all of a sudden you come out with People Detection in the Magnifier…
VoiceOver:
Magnifier, People detection button, actions available, People Detection On.
{ascending beeping sound} 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
{descending beeping noise} 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Jeff:
…and it was like wow, just at a timely spot where people are out there trying to keep their distance, and it’s just such a unique feature, and it’s built right into the accessibility section of the phone, and the iPad.
Raqi:
That’s a big deal.
Sarah:
Thank you! Yeah, People Detection has been a really fun project. Truth be told, it’s something that we were thinking about and working on, there was work being done before our current situation ever became what it was, because, you know, one of the key things for us is we always try and build with the involvement of individuals who are part of communities, and in this case, you know, we had a number of our blind employees who talked about, for all the things that iPhone could do, one of the frustrations that they had was still just being able to move through space, and in particular what they talked about were very human moments, COVID or not, that were things like how do I find an open seat at a table, or how do I know if the person in the checkout lane in front of me at the grocery store has moved forward or just any line in general, and so we were really starting working from that perspective, of how do we just solve day-to-day problems that are about commuting and shopping and just moving through space, and then as our world changed so abruptly overnight, we realized the potential of this for many more circumstances out in the world, and really worked to make sure that at launch we had this ready to go.
Jeff:
Yeah, that’s awesome. It was in the Magnifier app- well, I moved it so I could access it, and there’s just so many different ways of getting to it, and I touched the screen on certain spots, all of a sudden, there’s my cat, or there’s a table with bananas and apples and everything, and just like this thing has come alive, it’s really- I mean, for the blind and visually impaired community, this is something that they should be investigating, because it’s really exciting to have such a feature built right in.
Sarah:
Yeah, you know, we’re super excited about all that Magnifier can do, that was one of the things that we really gave a full overhaul to this year, it’s really almost becoming kind of a toolkit where there’s something for everyone. Obviously even tools like People Detection are built for a wide range of individuals in the world, because we know blindness is a spectrum and even, you know- gosh, in some cases we’re finding this valuable for anyone who just wants to be very clearly aware of how far someone is away from them. But Magnifier in general, you know, we’ve done a lot to make it a really powerful tool for so many users. You know, there’s the elements around just being able to customize Magnifier as a low vision user to kind of focus on the things that are most important to you. For me, as someone who is a glasses wearer, I use it most to, you know, the magnification is the thing that is most important to me, things like color contrast and such, but then when you start getting into a lot that it can do for a Voiceover user as well, once again, as you were saying, that ability for it to read out elements that are on the screen so that it can tell you, you know, give you that environmental awareness, so that it describes that there is a person near you, or you know, when you’re walking down the street that it would tell you that you’re next to a parked car, or you know, all of those kinds of things, so you have a lot more contextual awareness of what is around you in the world and then on top of that- and that actually it’s working dynamically, descriptions change, things- it’s really meant to be as you’re in movement, then when you get to things like people detection as well, and that that one has just been a really cool project on so many levels, and one of them, to sort of geek out for a second on it, is just the sort of technology that’s powering it, you know, the fact that by being a company like Apple, that has so many different groups out there working on so many cool projects, the accessibility team has a lot of ability to be able to kind of see what other people are doing and go “We could use that to do something really cool.” You know, the fact that it’s sort of foundationally based on AR Kit, which was, you know, in many ways has been used for gaming and things like that, but using a specific part of that called People Occlusion, which detects people in the camera field of view and estimates how far away they are, and that was a really cool sort of baseline for this, but the reason that it is in the Pro models is that LIDAR scanner, because when you add that on the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and actually I should also say the latest iPad pros, it really takes it to the next level, because of the way it can increase the accuracy, so when you combine that LIDAR scanner with the depth frameworks that are in AR Kit and all that, people understandably have been building through AR Kit for so long, you can get something like People Detection that does give you so much information in such a dynamic way. Sorry, I geeked out for a second there.
Raqi:
No, it’s wonderful, I’m just sitting here going I love it, I love it, and it’s, it really is amazing, and it’s so- and it’s real time, you know? I think people don’t realize how fast it is, you know, it takes place like- it’s quick.
Sarah:
Yeah.
Raqi:
I can’t wait, you know, I’ve been apprehensive, I will say, carry this to your team, I really want people to understand I’ve been really apprehensive about travelling during these times of COVID, but part of me, I can’t wait to go on, you know, Amtrak or go on the subway, just see- it’s such a nerdy thing, but I just want to have the camera there and see if I can find an empty seat from six feet away, you know, I don’t want to have to reach over with my cane or whatever to see if there’s a person sitting there, just I want to go take it out now and take it into the public and take it for a spin, I’m just so excited to play with it in real time situations, you know? Where can I find a line of people waiting to test it out?
Sarah:
Yeah, I think that was a fun element of our testing as well, was trying to figure out how to find large groups of people that weren’t large, you know, how do you avoid the large groups of people as you’re moving through space, and so it’s a, yeah, it’s been fun. And one of the other kind of cool things in how we built it was the different ways it provides you feedback. You know, the feedback is available in that voice readout, for Voiceover users, to tell you the actual distance, but then also an audio tone at your threshold distance, so you know whether you’re, you know, it sort of tells you as you’re getting too close or farther away, and then haptic feedback as well, and then for those individuals who are low vis, or once again may just be interested in knowing how far away they are from other people, there’s a visual element to it as well, so really trying to provide a something for everyone in terms of how it provides feedback too.
Raqi:
One group that doesn’t often get mentioned in this but is hugely overlooked in this whole scenario sometimes are the deaf-blind folks, and this is phenomenal maybe for someone who’s deaf-blind, or maybe uses their iOS devices like so many of us do, maybe with a braille display for output most of the time, so the haptic feedback is going to give them information that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have available to them too, so I think it’s phenomenal on so many levels, it’s just been a wonderful fall. I’m spending too much money, but it’s been a wonderful fall.
Sarah:
Well, you know what, I think we all thought that Christmas needed to come a little early this year, so-
Raqi:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
I really like in the camera modes where you’re getting all this feedback, you’re not just getting the face but you’re getting a little more information, then you take the picture, and then it reads to you what it believes it is and it gives you a good idea, you know, that you’ve captured something, there’s so much information to explore if you turn on all the options in the settings, and it’s gone on steroids lately about all the stuff you can do with the phone, especially for Voiceover.
Sarah:
Absolutely! I think even stepping beyond Magnifier and People Detection, the work that’s often done in terms of the voiceover recognition area of voiceover settings has been a huge leap forward as well. For anyone who might be unfamiliar with it, now when you go into the settings tab for Voiceover Recognition it gives you a number of options of elements that Voiceover can now recognize in different ways, so that can be either for images and photos, now Voiceover will read complete sentence descriptions to describe what’s being shown, so that more- just making it a more human experience, and what was very valuable to Four in terms of being able to tell you specific elements now is read to you in a way where you’re given a lot more contextual elements, and just an understanding of kind of what’s happening in a photo, as best as we can, but also being able to see text when it’s detected in an image or a photo, and then I think the last one that’s a great addition as well is what we call screen recognition, which is really about reading out elements on the screen of things like third party apps that might have not been labelled properly or labelled at all. You know, we always work with developers to ensure that they are making their apps accessible and our end goal is for the developer to do the work because they’re gonna do it absolutely better than anybody else would, you know, they know their app better than anybody else. But, in lieu of that in places where they may have left something out or just aren’t quite getting all of the different pieces as we would hope, we really want to still make sure that apps are accessible to the community, so it’s been a really- yeah, a big project, to work in the AI realm and sort of use machine learning to be able to really understand so many different images in the world, and therefore be able to then go back across all of these, whether it be that’s a slider, you know, what an element is on an app, or what’s in an image, but to be able to take all of that, and be able to give a much richer experience to voiceover users when they’re using the device.
Jeff:
And another part of it that’s really cool is you can go into each app and turn them on and off, or you can toggle on the toggle switcher, you can actually, for this particular time you want to shut it off, you know, if need be as you’re exploring different things. I like that versatility built in because everyone uses it differently, and with these options that your team has built into it, it makes it possible.
Sarah:
Yeah, and I think you hit on a really key piece of what we always try and think about with this, which is everyone uses it differently. Everyone’s experience in life is unique. You know, we all use our devices differently, we all go about our daily life differently, and so that’s something that has been really from day one important to us as we design, is to think about, you know, never creating something and saying it just works this one way and now we’re done, and move on and that’s that, you know, one of the things I love about accessibility is it’s never-ending, and we can always keep building in another custom something, another way for you to be able to figure out what makes the device make you more productive, or creative, or just happy, you know? How do you want to use your device, and let’s try and see if we can help you do that.
Raqi:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
Yeah, and with the variety of iPhones that just came out, a lot of people will be able to be happy because they can pick and choose, and they have options of where they want to go with their devices, so that’s really a great thing.
Sarah:
Yeah. I will be intrigued to see a little bit more whether, as I read some of the articles and forums and different things out there and listen to podcasts such as yours, whether people start to gravitate one way or another, you know. I think there is so much ability for one to choose what one prefers, but I do find it interesting sometimes within the community, you know, for example, the SE did become so beloved in many ways because of its size, so I’m curious how people start to embrace some of these different models and what they do with them.
Jeff:
Well, I think with all of the products that have been coming out this fall, I think you’ve done an exceptional job at staying on top of it, because we’re not waiting around. We get it, and we’re using it, and we’re all clamoring about, talking about Raqi’s excited, everyone’s excited. If Raqi’s happy, most everyone’s happy, so.
Sarah:
Well, that is good to know!
Raqi:
I’m not sure how to take that!
Sarah:
I will use that from here forward as my means of figuring out success, when I see Raqi’s happy.
Jeff:
There you go.
Sarah:
One other thing I wanted to bring up today, because it is brand new, and not a product but instead just about our website, we did a complete redesign of our apple.com/accessibility website and wanted to make sure to bring that to your attention, because we’re really excited about it, it makes it a lot easier for all users to discover and learn about the accessibility features and the benefits available across the entire ecosystem. The way that we’ve redesigned it, it really focuses more on kind of what your needs are, and really looks at our features based on the entire ecosystem, so it sort of lays out now that, for example, Voiceover and all of the things that Voiceover works on, and then resources for how to use Voiceover, lots of different things that are in there, you know, it kind of gets started with a paragraph about what is this thing, and where does it work, and then if you dig deeper, and in all of the areas there’s like a little plus sign that if you tap on that, visually it flips the card, and on the back we’re providing a lot more resources around how do you get started, how do you go deeper and find out more information about things, how do you get to the right resources, and really giving people a lot more to work with to understand kind of what features work best for them, and then how to get started using them. So, we’re super excited about the update of the website, and we hope everyone takes a look at it. We also have some new how-to videos that we’ve been working on, which are done through our Apple Support, both our Twitter feed and our YouTube channel, so we’re gonna have some great new how-tos on using Magnifier, things like Back Tap, so I don’t know how many folks around there are Back Tap users as well, but that’s been a great beloved feature of iOS 14, so. Using haptics to tell time, also focusing on some things around voice control, so for individuals with extreme physical motor limitations, there’s a great new how-to on how to take a selfie with voice control, all kinds of things that we are putting out.
Raqi:
I love it!
Sarah:
Yep, starting today, so please come investigate and spend a little time exploring.
Jeff:
Well, that’s great!
Raqi:
Wow, how would somebody actually get to that site, how would a new user find that website?
Sarah:
Yeah, that is apple.com/accessibility, and we have had that as our customer-facing pages for many, many, gosh, decades now, that we have been giving information out at that address, so make sure to bookmark it, it’s always a good one to have, but I think over time we tend to have to do some pretty significant refreshes to bring some newness to it and make it easier and more digestible, I suppose, in all of our stuff that we’re working on, so today’s a great day to go head on over there.
Raqi:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
Yeah, it’s a really great point, like when I lost my eyesight, went blind, it was like where do you find things? I’m glad there’s one spot, send people right there, they can dig in. I like that, flipping the cards over, just like flashcards, back in the day.
Sarah:
Yep!
Jeff:
I like it. Well Sarah, thank you much for coming onto Blind Abilities and sharing with us all the great news coming out of Apple, and the new website update, thank you very much for accessibility.
Sarah:
Absolutely, it’s been a real pleasure to be here, so thank you very much for allowing me to spend a little bit of time with you today.
Raqi:
Thank you, it’s been awesome.
Jeff:
Such a great time talking to Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s Director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, and be sure to go check out the newly refreshed accessibility website on Apple, that’s apple.com/accessibility. And as we were talking about Magnifier, if you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s how you get to it. First of all, let’s go into Settings.
iPhone:
Settings.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap. And now we’ll go down to Accessibility.
iPhone:
Accessibility button.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Accessibility features help. You customize your iPhone for your individual needs.
Jeff:
And swipe on down to Magnifier.
iPhone:
Magnifier off button.
Jeff:
Now here, you want to turn it on. So, single finger double tap, there you go, swipe left to right.
iPhone:
Magnifier off.
Jeff:
And one more time.
iPhone:
Magnifier lets you use your device’s camera to quickly magnify your surroundings. When enabled, you can drag Magnifier from the app library to your home screen or add as an accessibility shortcut option.
Jeff:
So, let’s go back and toggle Magnifier on. Swipe right to left one time.
iPhone:
Magnifier off.
Jeff:
And single finger double tap.
iPhone:
On.
Jeff:
Now this allows you to add it as an accessibility shortcut and you can now go into your app library and find it in Utilities, take it out of there, and put it on your home screen if you want. And you can always just ask Siri to open Magnifier. So now that you have Magnifier turned on, you now have an app called Magnifier, and it’s located in your app library. If you want to bring the Magnifier app out to your home screen, you just have to go to your app library, go to your last page, I just go down to the page numbers, and I flick up to go forward, or flick down to go to the previous page. You can also use a three-finger swipe to go left or right.
iPhone:
Page 7 of 7.
Jeff:
And one more.
iPhone:
Showing app library, app library. Search field.
Jeff:
There you go, your app library. It’s kept in a grouping called Utilities.
iPhone:
Utilities.
Jeff:
Once you open that up-
iPhone:
Utilities folder. 41 apps. Utilities heading.
Jeff:
The apps are listed alphabetically, go find Magnifier-
iPhone:
Magnifier.
Jeff:
And once you touch on it, single finger flick up and you’ll hear-
iPhone:
Edit mode.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Started editing.
Jeff:
Once you’re in the edit mode-
iPhone:
Add widget button.
Jeff:
Notice “Add widget” pops up in the upper left-hand corner, but keep flicking until you have-
iPhone:
Drag Magnifier.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap, and now let’s go to the page where we want to put the icon. I want to put it on my second page.
iPhone:
Page 6 of 8. Adjustable. Page 5 of- Page 4 of- Page 3 of 8. Page 2 of 8.
Jeff:
And then I’ll go right after an application that I already know where I want it located.
iPhone:
Facetime is editing.
Jeff:
I’ll be flicking up, until I hear the desired “Drop after.”
iPhone:
Drop Magnifier after Facetime. Drop ready.
Jeff:
And then I single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Drop complete. Row four, Magnifier, is editing.
Jeff:
Now to get out of edit mode, all I do is swipe up from the bottom with a single finger swipe up.
iPhone:
Finished editing.
Jeff:
Or if you have a home button, just hit the home button once. Now I can open up the Magnifier app.
iPhone:
Magnifier.
Jeff:
And just by panning my room-
iPhone:
Magnifier viewfinder. Image: a sheet of paper with text on it. No description available.
Jeff:
-and touching the viewfinder-
iPhone:
Viewfinder image: a plant with green leaves in front of a window.
Jeff:
And I just turn to another area, touch the viewfinder.
iPhone:
Viewfinder image: a cup of beverage near a boardgame, on a wooden surface.
Jeff:
A little bit of Magnifier magnificence. And while you’re exploring with Magnifier, be sure to take your zoom down to zero. You’ll cover a lot more area for detecting elements in the room. Now, as I mentioned, you can put it in your accessibility shortcuts. To add Magnifier to your accessibility shortcuts, let’s go to Settings.
iPhone:
Settings.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Settings.
Jeff:
Swipe down to Accessibility.
iPhone:
Accessibility button.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Accessibility features help. You customize your iPhone for your individual needs.
Jeff:
And now we’ll go to the very bottom, and you can get there quickly by doing a four-finger tap near the bottom.
iPhone:
Accessibility shortcut ask button.
Jeff:
And single finger double tap on accessibility shortcuts.
iPhone:
Settings. Configure and then triple click the side button to toggle accessibility features on or off.
Jeff:
Here are a bunch of options that you could add to this list. Right now, we’re gonna go down to Magnifier.
iPhone:
Magnifier.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Selected, Magnifier.
Jeff:
And there you go. Let’s back out of this, and now let’s check it. I’ll invoke the accessibility shortcut by triple clicking on my side button. Now you may have a home button and you would triple click on your home button.
iPhone:
Alert, accessibility shortcuts.
Jeff:
Swipe to the right.
iPhone:
Selected, Voiceover button.
Jeff:
And then another swipe to the right.
iPhone:
Magnifier button.
Jeff:
Single finger double tap.
iPhone:
Magnifier viewfinder. Image: a black cat sitting on a white surface.
Jeff:
Perfect. Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc-Rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed. And for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and give us a call at 612-367-6093. Leave us a message and let us know if we can put your voice on the next podcast. Drop us an email at info@blindabilities.com, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and Google Play store. That’s two words, Blind Abilities. A big shout out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @lcheechau. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, through these challenging times, to you, your family and friends, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. I want to thank you for listening, hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye.
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