Apple Watch to Offer First Wheelchair Fitness Tracking Feature

For athletes who use a wheelchair, and everyday wheelchair users looking to track their exercise and calories burned, Apple has good news for you. Apple Watch will include manual wheelchair fitness tracking in its free watchOS 3.0 update, to be released later this year. Apple made the announcement at their annual WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference)

The Accessibility of Apple Watch Bands – MacStories

… What applies to iPhones and iPads also applies to Apple Watch. In the context of the Watch, the hardware that is most crucial, accessibility-wise, are the bands. To folks like me who suffer from motor delays, the ability to successfully get the Apple Watch on and off is as key to a positive user

A Smartwatch for the Visually Impaired | XPRIZE

… an idea that could change the way the visually impaired interact with technology. The students created a startup to develop and produce an affordable active Braille smartwatch, called Dot. When wearing Dot, users can check the time, read incoming text messages or tweets, and even e-books–although reading “War and Peace” four characters at a

Apple Watch makes Apple Pay even better for accessibility | iMore

“We love this kind of problem. This is exactly what Apple does best.” That’s how Tim Cook prefaced the reveal of Apple Pay last September—by talking about the many issues with physical credit cards. To me, Apple Pay is emblematic of what Apple does best: integrating hardware and software in a seamless, easy to use

Two New Smartwatch Apps Aim to Help the Visually Impaired

A new pair of watch apps from pharmaceutical company Novartis has been launched with the intent of helping the visually impaired. The first app, Via Opta Nav, provides turn-by-turn navigation in the manner of Google Maps or Waze, but directions are provided with both voice directions and with haptic feedback. The second app, only available

Accessibility and Apple Watch apps | Macworld

From an accessibility standpoint, the Apple Watch’s screen is just too small for me to get a lot from apps. As someone with low vision, I try to minimize my interaction with the watch; I don’t want to spend much time looking at the screen for fear of increased eye strain and fatigue. … The

Apple Watch: Invisible feature helps woman who is deaf and registered blind to navigate – News – Gadgets and Tech – The Independent

A woman who is deaf and registered blind has described the way that the Apple Watch has been able to help her navigate and communicate with friends. Molly Watt, an activist and blogger, lives with Usher Syndrome and is deaf and registered blind. Apple products are “more than just up market gadgets” … One of

Tactile Watch – ‘Touch Time’

  On Kickstarter is a beautifully designed time-piece called ‘The Bradley’  – made for wearers –  including the blind and visually impaired — to tell time through touch rather than sight. Instead of traditional non-visual designs allowing one to ‘feel’ the watch hands,or rely on audible read time, “The Bradley” uses two ball bearings: one

Wireless door access TI watch

Wireless door access using the TI hackable watch What seems “novelty” can often be essential in a different context. This type device could be great for access. The TI Chronos development kit will allow many great projects that cleverly exploit the resources of the Chronos watch. This video shows a hack that wirelessly unlocks a

AlarMe – Alert watch with style

AlarMe is a very unique watch that has the ability to alert those who cannot hear an audible alarm by vibration. Multidirectional microphones that can register a drastic change in ambient sound level, or pick up specially asigned frequencies alert the user. The LED lights and face alert the user as to what the alarm