Luis F. Perez

While a number of smartwatches were already on the market at the time, Apple’s long awaited announcement of the Apple Watch in the fall of 2014 brought significant attention and excitement to this relatively new product category. Rather than being a replacement for the smartphones and tablets many of us carry around, the smartwatch was designed from the start to be a complementary device. Thus, it typically works in concert with a paired smartphone to provide notifications and quick access to information with a glance to the wrist. The idea is to reduce the need to reach into a pocket […]

This session will consist of an overview of the iOS and Apple Watch accessibility features that can benefit users who have low vision. Zoom screen magnification and other options for customizing the display of information will be discussed in detail, along with an introduction to the VoiceOver screen reader. A number of apps, complimentary to the built-in accessibility features, will also be demonstrated, and participants will also learn about a number of online resources for developing their knowledge of iOS and Apple Watch accessibility for low vision users. Luis F. Perez, Ph. D., is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Google in […]

Apple has released iOS 10, the latest version of its operating system for mobile devices, such as the iPad and iPhone. This article is a quick review of some of the most significant enhancements to the accessibility support in iOS 10, starting with a brand new feature called Magnifier. Magnifier With Magnifier, users who have low vision can use the great camera on their devices to enlarge the text in menus, pill bottles and other items where they might need a little support for their vision to read the content. Magnifier is found alongside Zoom (which enlarges on-screen content) in […]

I was pleasantly surprised when I recently updated my Chromebook to the latest version of Chrome OS (version 54 at the time of writing). Whenever I do an update, one of the first things I do is go into the accessibility settings to see if any new options have been added. In the latest version of Chrome OS, Google has provided a number of visual supports that I am finding helpful as a person with low vision. For example, there is now the option to enable additional highlighting (a red circle) when the mouse cursor moves. This kind of additional […]