

IPad Opens World to a Disabled Boy - credo
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/nyregion/31owen.html

======
jnoller
As a hacker, and a Dad, I can't say I wasn't choked up at the end of that
article and had plenty of tears in my eyes as I sat there looking at my
perfect, healthy daughter.

This is just another example: We in the technology sector spend a lot of time
arguing and debating about total bullshit. We deride iPads as underpowered, or
over controlled while I think we miss the fact that something well designed,
simple and accessible can do the thing none of our editors, frameworks or
other baloney can do:

Change People's Lives.

Maybe I've just grown cynical at the cyclical nature of technology debate and
discussions, at the fact that we seem hellbent on painting bike sheds more
frequently then making something amazing and at the constant retreading in a
lot of startups of the same old technology. Of course, things like this should
inspire all of us, as entrepreneurs and developers to consider something
_more_.

It's a challenge to us to overcome and create something amazing.

~~~
mathgladiator
Dude, that moved me.

------
sleight42
I've found this to be true for my wife, who has fairly advanced Huntington's
Disease (please do read about it -- to say that we'd love a cure is a massive
understatement: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntingtons_disease>), as well.

Although it seemed odd to me at first, she performs far better with the iPad
than the iMac that I bought her years ago. Typing, clearly a chore for her
with a physical keyboard, is somehow simpler on the iPad in landscape.

A clear benefit of the iPad: it is relatively simple to constrain what can and
can't be done. The base set of apps are simplistic.

The only downside: I can't hide apps that she doesn't want to use or that I
would rather insulate her from. I'm looking at you, Settings.app.

But between E-mail, bookmarks as desktop icons, Friendly, Proloquo2go, Safari,
and the iPod app, my wife's quality of life suddenly improved dramatically.

~~~
glhaynes
iOS 4.2 will bring folders to iPad, which might help a _bit_. At least all the
"dangerous" stuff can be put in one hopefully-not-very-interesting-looking
place. Though that might cause problems too, of course! It seems like the
complaint about not being able to hide things is a consistent one whenever the
topic of disabled people's usage of Apple's touch devices comes up; I hope
they hear it and do something about it.

~~~
mattparcher
This reminds me of the usefulness of having multiple user accounts on the
iPhone and iPad. Given the social, _shareable_ nature of these devices
(especially the iPad), a bit of added complexity would go a long way to
customizing the experience (and protecting sensitive data).

------
preek
The iPad has certainly brought the Internet to my 75yo grandfather:
<http://blog.dispatched.ch/2010/07/18/my-grandfathers-ipad/>

He's not disabled in any way, he's the most active senior citizen I've ever
seen, but computers or the net have not been in his portfolio before. Now he
writes mails on a regular basis, manages his digital photo albums, surfs the
net on soccer news and even plays games!

It's an incredible machine for non-hackers.

------
nithyad
Apple always gets the UI right - right enough to even overcome disabilities.
This is amazing!

~~~
kellishaver
Yes and no. Their built-in screen reader and other accessibility tools in OS X
are great. The iPad has allowed me to read a book again-which I haven't been
able to do in 2 years, unless I was sitting at my desk (can't see printed
text). However, you can't, for instance, do some very simple things, like
enlarge the text in iTunes, or change the size of the min/max/close buttons in
the OS's UI.

Many people don't need/want full-screen magnification/zoom all the time, just
the ability to enlarge some text and tiny UI components. For things like that,
I find linux far more accessible.

All of that said, most of my accessibility problems with Apple center around
OS X.

Though you also can't enlarge text in iTunes/app store on the iPod/iPhone, the
iPad has a much more usable 3-finger zoom, as well as a screen reader. The iOS
touch interface is, as a whole, very intuitive and easy to use.

It is a bit too sensitive in some instances, but also rather forgiving in
others. I'm guessing that has more to do with the app itself than iOS or the
touch screen technology.

~~~
mattparcher
You make a good argument for resolution independence in Mac OS X — which would
allow the user to resize interface elements on-demand, without loss of image
quality. Apple is working on this, but has not provided an indication of when
it will ship to consumers.

~~~
kellishaver
That's good to hear. I think there's something of a gap between accessibility
for people who are blind and users who just have bad eyesight and may need a
little bump here and there.

