Yesterday saw the announcement of a flurry of Apple accessibility
improvements, including a new "Assistive Access" interface option, Live
Speech, and Personal Voice. These have been welcomed by people who rely on
accessibility features, though they would like to see greater ambition for
one of the features.
The Personal Voice feature was the one to get the most attention, needing
just 15 minutes of training in order to allow users to have their iPhone
play speech in their own voice .
Steven Scott is blind and the creator and host of Double Tap, a daily radio
show all about how technology can be used by blind people. The show airs
every day on AMI-audio across Canada at 12 noon Eastern, and is also
available as a podcast.
He said that it can sometimes be hard for sighted people to understand just
how revolutionary simple-sounding tech can be.
"Having the ability to identify all the different buttons on my microwave
seems pretty unremarkable to most people, but often when you're blind you
are shown what you need to know and nothing more, so you might not even know
that your microwave has a defrost function. With something like the new
Point and Speak feature, I can find out for myself what functions my
microwave and other kitchen appliances have".
But he says that some accessibility features can also benefit everyone.
"The beauty of accessibility features is that they often help so many more
people than often intended. Assistive tech will be so helpful to many who
just want a more simplified experience of using their device.
This year I'm looking forward to the much-rumoured Reality Pro and beyond.
Apple is known for its commitment to accessibility across its product lines
so I will be fascinated to see how they implement it into a whole new
category".
Colin Hughes, former BBC producer and advocate for accessible technology,
said that as a quadriplegic person, hands-free control of technology is key.
"As someone living with a severe physical disability, who relies on voice to
get things done, the Apple accessibility features that make the biggest
difference to my life are Voice Control, and all the hands-free features
Siri offers.
I am pleased to see Apple enhance Voice Control by adding phonetic
suggestions for text editing so users can choose the right word out of
several that might sound alike, like "do," "due," and "dew."
Additionally, Voice Control Guide, a Windows-like Voice Access feature,
where users can learn tips and tricks about using voice commands will be
helpful, especially for newcomers to Voice Control".
Hughes also takes comfort from the announcement of Personal Voice, even
though he doesn't yet need it himself.
"For people with progressive disabilities like mine, it's encouraging that
new features like Live Speech and Personal Voice will be there one day when
we might need them. It's reassuring to see Apple acting so inclusively".
He does, though, think Apple needs to set more ambitious goals for Voice
Control.
"The new text editing feature sounds great, but does feel a little like
locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. The company should be
doubling-down on accuracy by using AI so that less editing is needed.
Apple should also be using AI and voice isolating microphone technology to
block out background noise when dictating with a Mac or an iPhone in noisier
environments. Voice Control dictation is nowhere near the 98 - 99 per cent
accuracy users achieve with an app like Dragon Professional, which
unfortunately is now only available on Windows computers.
Voice Control still struggles with proper nouns, and foreign names. Even if
you add proper nouns to Voice Control's vocabulary the app ignores the
capitalisation of the name".
Again, more reliable dictation features benefit everyone, not just those
with disabilities.
"I would love to hear more from the company on how it is trying to improve
dictation accuracy for everyone".
Hughes also has a suggested next step for Voice Control.
"I would like to see Apple do more for the estimated 250,000,000 people who
have non-standard speech and experience difficulty making their words
understood.
At present you can't train the app to recognise words the way you pronounce
them, so I'd love to see an element of personalised speech recognition in
Voice Control in the future.
With greater accuracy and personalised speech recognition, Apple will be
able to help even more people make themselves heard".
Apple has often said that it wants to make its products useful to as many
people as possible, and that it doesn't seek a financial return on its
investment in accessibility tech.
9to5Mac.
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