Apple Stores to feature accessibility products in early 2016, report says

According to a report on Sunday, Apple plans to market through its online and brick-and-mortar stores accessibility products designed to aid disabled users, with sales expected to begin sometime in early 2016.

Following up on a report regarding high-resolution audio, Japanese language website Mac Otakara claims accessibility devices will start showing up in Apple Stores between January and March 2016.

It is not yet clear what products or product categories Apple plans to market, though the company's current device lineup supports a broad range of hardware, from "Made for iPhone" hearing aids to braille displays.

Apple has for years provided accessibility options to users, which now fall under a general Accessibility umbrella of features on all existing platforms, including Mac, iOS, watchOS and the new tvOS. For example, iOS comes with built-in tools like Guided Access, VoiceOver, dictation and system-level UI adjustments.

The company also puts an emphasis on accessibility in its first-party software. When FaceTime debuted in 2010, television commercials and online media touted the video calling technology as ideal for those communicating via American Sign Language.

More recently, the American Foundation for the Blind gave Apple a Helen Keller Achievement Award for its work on VoiceOver tech. The company later threw a spotlight on first- and third-party apps featuring VoiceOver in a special App Store section.

6 Comments

smiles77 658 comments · 15 Years

About 8 years ago

Very cool.

appex 670 comments · 11 Years

Great. Then bring back the Mac accessibility features (new things and bringing back good things; if it ain't broke, don't fix it!)::

Hardware:

- Mac power button on USB keyboard.

- Electronic SIM (eSIM).

- Mate displays.

- Mac tablet.

- Twin TV tuners on Mac.

Software:

- Resume playback in iTunes, which was available in SoundJam™ MP 2.5.3 from which Apple iTunes was developed in 2001 (almost 15 years ago!).

- Full Finder color labels.

- Arrows in scroll bars.

- Working Apple Mail import tool from Eudora Mail for Mac supporting non-ASCII characters.

- Integration of Contacts (Address Book), Notes and Calendar in a single application.

- Allow to customize and remember "File - Find" (Command F) settings, instead of the mostly useless "Kind is Any" default.

- Implement rich-search options as HoudahSpot (requiring indexing) and EasyFind (not requiring indexing). The latter is essential to search non-indexed disks.

badmonk 1332 comments · 11 Years

As a physician, I will say that my patients struggle and I ripped off by the high prices and poor quality of hearing aids. Apple can make inroads here. Also many patients are put off by the high price of hearing aids (>$2000-10000) and often go without. We are talking about millions of people here.

foggyhill 4767 comments · 10 Years

badmonk said:

As a physician, I will say that my patients struggle and I ripped off by the high prices and poor quality of hearing aids. Apple can make inroads here. Also many patients are put off by the high price of hearing aids (>$2000-10000) and often go without. We are talking about millions of people here.

Hearing aids ARE A SCAM! $30 bucks of hardware for $3000 and more (even the so call "top level" ones). If Apple applied the same margins, the Iphone would be $5000.

zimmie 651 comments · 9 Years

badmonk said:

As a physician, I will say that my patients struggle and I ripped off by the high prices and poor quality of hearing aids. Apple can make inroads here. Also many patients are put off by the high price of hearing aids (>$2000-10000) and often go without. We are talking about millions of people here.

And a lot of health insurance plans don't cover them, which is especially problematic for children. If a child can't hear, he isn't getting anything out of school, which puts him at a huge disadvantage. Improving accessibility options (including getting the cost down) has the potential to hugely affect a lot of people.