In a move to widen the demographic appeal of its hugely popular iTunes Store, Cupertino-based computer and gadgetry specialist Apple Inc. has this week announced a service that enables visually-impaired music lovers to navigate and purchase content from the sprawling online media outlet.
Apple iTunes to provide screen-reading compatibility for blind users. Image: Apple.
Apple’s decision to widen the user-friendly access of its iTunes Store has come about after Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley took the technology company to task for not developing an approach that would allow blind people to use iTunes effectively through established Internet-reading software applications.
“Blind residents seek to live independently and be active members of their communities,” commented Coakley, “this agreement will help them do that.”
Coakley, who worked alongside Apple on amending iTunes access for the blind, also went on to say that Apple’s positioning as “the industry standard” for downloadable music and media will hopefully inspire competing media services to also adopt similar assistance techniques for their specific user bases.
The helpful tool integrated through iTunes audibly speaks whenever a user passes the cursor over important on-screen navigational prompts such as file commands or movie, music, and television titles that are available for purchase and download, reports the Associated Press.
The new iTunes technology was recently successfully tested by Tony Olivero of the National Federation of the Blind after Apple confirmed a service agreement that will see the iTunes Store -- the most popular music retail outlet in the U.S. -- made compatible with all screen-reader software systems by June 30 of 2009.
The special screen-reader software applications are used by the blind to audibly translate on-screen content. However, the applications are not cheap, costing upwards of $1,000 USD.
To help blind users better navigate iTunes and the Web in general, the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind has said purchase discounts are available across the U.S. and that the commission itself has bought a large batch of the software and is supplying it free to the blind in Massachusetts.
Providing further assistance, Apple is to donate some $250,000 USD to the commission to help it supply blind computer users with the necessary software.
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