Most teens listen to their music on digital players, but Cory Cadlik, who is blind, had to ask for help when he wanted to buy songs for his iPod from the online music store iTunes.
To Cadlik, a self-described tech “geek,” that was too frustrating to tolerate.
“For me to be as tech savvy as I am, and not be able to do something ... I hated it,” said Cadlik, 17, of Medway, Massachusetts. “I had one iPod. I got rid of it.”
On Friday, Cadlik was making plans to get his iPod back after Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley reached agreement with Apple Inc to program iTunes to make it accessible to anyone with software that blind people use to read the Internet.
Tony Olivero of the National Federation of the Blind demonstrated the technology at a press conference at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, just outside Boston. Olivero navigated through iTunes, guided by a voice that called out whatever he slid the mouse pointer over, including file commands and the movie, music and TV titles iTunes sells.
Cadlik planned to test out the new iTunes this weekend by sampling some hard rock from bands like Breaking Benjamin and Chevelle.
“You had no access before,” Cadlik said. “When then this came out ... I said, ‘Wow, this is great, this is awesome.’”
Under the agreement, Apple must make iTunes accessible to all systems by June.
Providing equal access to online stores is required in the same way supermarket aisles must be a certain width to accommodate people with disabilities. But major gaps remain in the online retail world for blind consumers.
Coakley said a lot of industries are working to make the Internet more accessible because they know it’s good business to give more people a way to buy your product. Coakley said she hopes the move by Apple inspires more copycats.
“Apple is the leader, they’ve become the industry standard,” she said. “Other companies that compete will have to or want to do this.”
The new iTunes can be read on a Macintosh, though people with PCs must buy “screen access software” to make it work. It’s pricey, retailing at about US$1,000. John Olivera of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind said discounts are available around the US, and the commission has purchased a substantial amount of the software and is supplying it free in his state.
As fun as movies and music are, Olivera said the state approached Apple primarily because of the increasing popularity of iTunes U, which provides lectures and other educational content from colleges and universities.
Schools were posting class material there, and that created problems for blind students.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS