Darren Burton, a self-described ‘child of the 60s’ who lost his sight 15 years ago, can find his Crosby, Stills and Nash and George Harrison much easier thanks to a recent agreement between Apple, Inc., the National Federation of the Blind and the Massachusetts attorney general.
In September, Apple guaranteed that iTunes U, which allows students and faculty to transport educational content from colleges and universities to their iPods, will be fully accessible to blind students and consumers by December 31, 2008, and the iTunes Store will be accessible by June 30, 2009, according to a press release from Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.’
Apple will incorporate software that converts screen information into Braille or speech for iTunes and iPods, American Foundation for the Blind national program technology associate Darren Burton said.
The growing number of university professors uploading lectures and notes onto iTunes U, which blind students previously could not access without assistance, has driven Apple to develop products for the visually impaired, Burton said
‘iPods are [these] really great and amazing [things] that everyone has,’ Burton said. ‘Blind consumers were stuck with what some would call a ‘ghetto’ device and were separated from their peers. Now they can join in.’
Accessibility must be in the foresight of the technology industry, Amy Ruell, president of the Visually Impaired and Blind Users Group, the first technology-based group for the visually impaired in Massachusetts, said.
‘Companies should develop products with accessibility in mind,’ Ruelle, a National Braille spokeswoman, said. ‘Instead, they create products and then have to go back and retrofit them.’
Many other businesses need to catch up with universal technological accessibility, Mika Pyyhkala, an activist who worked closely with the National Federation of the Blind to reach the agreement, said.
Colleges should incorporate accessibility issues into their education programs, he said in an email.
‘It is important that topics of accessibility and universal design be presented to students both in the context of social responsibility, good corporate citizenship and compliance with the law,’ Pyyhkala said in an email. ‘We still have a situation where a lot of people in the information technology industry are not familiar with accessibility, even at a high level.’
Businesses benefit economically when they make their products accessible, Massachusetts attorney general spokeswoman Amie Breton said.
‘Apple now serves as a leader to other businesses like mymusic, [an online CD and DVD store,]’ Breton said. ‘They have a market share that their competitors do not.’
National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts President David Ticchi said Apple’s amicable response to NFB’s call for accessible iTunes and iPods should set a precedent.
‘Collaboration between private companies, collective organization and consumer advocacy groups is a win-win all around,’ Ticchi said. ‘It’s good business, and it’s the right thing to do.’
Other companies have not been as agreeable toward NFB’s call for accessible products.
Target will have to pay $6 million to the NFB and Target.com must be accessible to blind shoppers by 2009 as part of the agreement reached by a class action suit filed against Target by the NFB in August.