2014-08-13-Accessible GPS Apps
Seminars@Hadley
Are We There Yet? - Accessible GPS Apps
That Help Answer This Question
Presented by
Ian Shadrick
Moderated by
Doug Anzolvar
August 13, 2014
Host
You’re listening to Seminars @ Hadley. This seminar is “Are We There Yet? Accessible GPS Apps that Help Answer This Question,” presented by Ian Shadrick, moderated by Doug Anzolvar.
Ian Shadrick
I want to welcome everyone to this seminar and I’d like to talk just briefly about the concept of standalone GPS versus an app-based GPS which is what today’s focus will be on. When I’m referring to a standalone system I’m really referring to GPS that are either physically their own device such as maybe the Captain or the Trekker Breeze systems that are available for persons with blindness or low vision, or those that are built into other devices – so as an example the BrailleNote using its GPS system.
Those are great systems. I’m not attempting to downplay those at all but today’s focus again was more on the apps, and those systems in part because it does provide a little more flexibility in its use. It’s something that if you’re using an iPhone for example or an iPad depending on which app we’re talking about it tends to be something that someone is going to have with them and allows for some of the same capabilities as say the BrailleNote for instance. So that’s why we put the focus today on more the apps.
They also tend to be overall much more cost-effective for folks as well as more commonplace. Universal design being what it is has allowed many of these apps to be more off-the-shelf types of apps which has helped people to obtain some of these systems.
One of the things I want to point out before I jump too far into specific apps is a couple of points regarding orientation and mobility and the use of these apps. There’s a school of thought that GPS in particular is something that should be used particularly by what we would consider an advanced student or an advanced consumer in regards to orientation and mobility skills. And I think there’s really two ways of looking at that. One camp will say as I said it should be more of an advanced user.
The other flipside of that coin is what we’re really discussing here is orientation apps. We’re not necessarily considering these apps and you shouldn’t as a user consider these apps to be your mobility device per se. They’re not taking the place of your cane or dog guide or anything of that nature. None of these apps intend to do that whether they’re designed for blind users or not. So I want to caution everyone against being in that mindset.
With that being said I do think that there’s something to be said for someone who may need advanced orientation in using a GPS system, the challenge becomes not being strictly reliant on that system. And I think over the longest period that’s been the biggest concern for most folks, is looking at a system and saying “I can rely on this app,” as an example, “to get my from Point A to Point B, and I can let my skills not necessarily be as strong as what they should be.” And I think that’s the challenge, is to think about things from the perspective of “How can I use this to accompany my skills rather than trying to augment or supplement skills?”
So that’s just something to keep in mind in terms of more of the O&M side of things – making sure that you are comfortable with that training and that you feel good about that before you start using too many of these apps in terms of specific orientation; which is not to say that a few of the apps I’m going to get into a bit later in the session would still not be useful in terms of finding things around you and locales of businesses or needed materials.
Before I jump too far into the specific apps I just wanted to take a quick second and make sure no one has any questions thus far…
Okay. So the other thing that I wanted to kind of do is to kind of give you guys a breakdown of how I’ve set up today’s session. I’ve set it up so that basically we’re breaking down the components into really four sections. So we have apps that are going to be free apps, we have low- and what I’m considering mid-cost or mid-range apps; and then the third section, more of the high-end apps in terms of specific orientation and then lastly what I’m calling GPS-related. And those are going to be more apps that are not specific to orientation per se but that more deal with points of interest.
Okay, the other thing I’d like to caution everyone against, there’s two related points regarding any of these apps that we talk about today with the exception of possibly the free apps, although some of those fall into this category, too. And that is first of all, we’re talking about apps today that are in some way accessible. I’m not talking about a single app that I can see is not accessible at all. I don’t see much relevance in doing that; I don’t think that’s useful for any of our time.
With that said it’s important to know that changes to the apps, either updates or simple development changes between the developer and iTunes for example can affect accessibility as they do updates, as they make slight revisions and that’s just something to keep in mind. So everything that we’re talking about today or any of those that I might demonstrate will be accessible to a large degree – a couple of which I’ll talk about maybe some workarounds or some need for workarounds on a couple of apps.
But for the most part everything is I’d say 80% to 90% accessible if not more. But just keep in mind that an update or a change can affect that.
I want to jump first to what I would consider those apps that are included on an iDevice regarding orientation and mobility and specifically the orientation side of things as I said. Again, some people kind of overlook some of the ones that are built into a phone simply because they feel like they need more out of their device or more out of their app. And that’s perfectly fine, that’s a personal preference.
The one thing to know about any of these apps today, just know that there are some apps that have overlaps. As Doug mentioned today’s session is an overview so I will be demonstrating some apps – I’ll try to pick from each category and demonstrate some of those. But in that it’s an overview there’s also a range of options, so it doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily hitting on everything that’s available. But I’m doing my best to really hit kind of the high sections in each of those three groups that I discussed. And then the fourth with POIs is really just a smattering of the options available.
But in terms of the things that are built into the phone itself that are useful the first is obviously the Maps app itself, and that is really kind of a stripped-down version of almost a Google Map. And in fact they’ve paired with Google on much of their design for this. But essentially that will let you with voiceover go in and select your location or type in your location using your typical typing modes for voiceover. And then from there it will route you from Point A to Point B. Its biggest challenge has been again an update where accuracy has been kind of a concern, going back and forth, so that is something to keep in mind.
The second app that I want to discuss briefly that really looks at overall use is just the compass. It’s something that a lot of people will overlook simply because again they think “I’m beyond that, my skills aren’t such where I necessarily need a compass. I really want route directions or I want points of interest.” So the thing I would challenge that with is just that we all get into certain environments where either it’s unfamiliar or you know, it’s a really rural setting or a really urban setting and you just lose your bearings. Sometimes the compass is just a really great way to just kind of reorient yourself and get an understanding of where you’re at directionally before you start off on any route using an actual GPS system at all.
Okay, and again, with both of those apps being built in they are voiceover accessible. The compass as an example is fully voiceover accessible, from everything from the calibration of that to as you torn the phone, if you’re holding the phone flat in your hand as you turn your hand it’s going to give you directions as to the compass itself both in degrees and cardinal direction.
Some additional apps that I wanted to discuss that are free apps that tend to work quite well, and a couple of them – again, these are not necessarily ones that are produced initially with blindness or with low vision in mind but are still useful apps in that regard. The first of those that I find particularly useful is the MapQuest app and the MapQuest app works quite well with voiceover.
The one challenge that can be with that is the actual physical map itself does not allow for a great deal of navigation. We will talk about some apps here in a moment that allow for more navigation of the physical map itself in order to explore that map in relation to where you are. But in terms of a true Point A to Point B typing in your destination, you know, “I’m at Point A and I want to get to Chicago, how do I do that?” MapQuest is a free app that will help you do that in most ways.
The one general thing that’s useful to know is the map view of the app itself is particularly something where if you’re a user who has decent residual vision or you’re a person with low vision you can probably use that physical map pretty well. It does allow you to zoom in and change some of the views in that regard. But the other nice feature, either for someone who’s using strictly voiceover or for a pedestrian mode – because it does allow setting for both vehicle and pedestrian – is to switch the option to a list mode.
And that is something that is not typical of most of the GPS but it’s a nice feature that MapQuest has where when you’re in the map itself it will actually give you the option to switch to a list mode; and at that point you can actually swipe across with your gestures and it will move you down the list in terms of directions. So you can actually use it as an exploratory option or if you’re out traveling and you want to know what your next turn is as an example, you want to know what the next street is that you need to approach in a given distance, it will allow you to do that.
The other app that is a nice app for more of a basic information scenario that is free is the Sendero LookAround app. And the Sendero LookAround app is really built around giving you your current information as to your locale and then also the points of interest that are around you. So in the case of that app it’s going to find your current location. It will give you your nearest cross streets for that location and tell you the basic distance for those, and then it’s going to tell you the nearest five points of interest that are near you.
So as an example, when I pull mine up it will give me my cross street and then will tell me the closest five businesses, which in my case happen to be a couple of cafés and a hospital. So those inevitably are going to come up under that five listing of POIs. And this is one that I’ll demonstrate here in just a little bit.
I want to talk now about some of the lower-cost or kind of the low- to mid-cost GPS that have shown some good traction and work fairly well with voiceover. And again, in those cases we’re not necessarily looking at things that are always designed with blindness and low vision in mind or particularly voiceover use in mind – although we do have some that have shown as I said some good traction over the last few years and have been fairly useful for folks.
The first of those, and this one has actually, it initially was one that I would probably put more towards a mid-range but they’ve actually recently changed the price – that is the Ariadne GPS. And Ariadne was actually designed with voiceover in mind – that is not typical of most of the GPS systems overall but it is one that works quite well with voiceover. And again, because it was designed with voiceover in mind it allows for a little bit different navigation as well as more precise navigation than what we typically have found in some of the GPS.
The nice part is as I said, it is designed as a voiceover app, and when you open Ariadne… So as a result of that all of the elements are accessible, I should say that – all of the buttons are labeled appropriately, your search boxes, things of that nature. And again this is one I’ll demonstrate as well.
But one of the nice features with Ariadne is it again allows for an exploratory mode. This is something that you will find in your standalone GPS where for a long time this is kind of where they had the market cornered, was it would allow you to sit in your home, type in a location and actually explore that location without having to be outside planning a route, walking a route or driving a route. That’s not always typical of all GPS. It’s becoming more so but it’s still something where in terms of a voiceover role we still see limited success.
So with Ariadne it’s nice because it’s designed so that your location is essentially the center of the screen. The top of your screen is what is in front of you in terms of streets or intersections and the bottom of your screen is your information that’s behind you. So from an orientation standpoint it’s quite easy to gain your orientation. They’ve also made some recent updates. Initially when it was designed they would only give you your distances as a metered distance for intersections for instance. Now it will actually give you clock directions and give you more specific detail as to the location of an intersection.
It also does give you information about whether or not the intersection is a 4-way, whether it’s a 3-way, etc., or a T-intersection. It will give you those kinds of details as you’re doing your search. It will of course do your typical Point A to Point B. It will get you there with pretty good accuracy. I believe it’s within 10 to 15 meters is what they’re quoting so you’re looking at under 50 ft. to your final destination which is fairly typical of most GPS. If any of you have used GPS in a vehicle and thought “Okay, well it’s saying I’m there and I haven’t even turned in yet,” that’s just typical of the way satellites are currently working and how precise they can get you. There are some techniques with other devices to help with that but realistically that is a pretty typical usage and pretty typical outset from it.
Okay, and Ariadne at this point, and again, this is as of today, it’s currently $5.99. Again, I will demonstrate this one here in just a bit so that you get an idea of that one. But that is one that has worked quite well for most folks.
Another one that has gotten pretty good reviews over the last three or four years, there’s actually two versions of this one – MotionX GPS or MotionX Drive GPS. Both of those are low-cost. The Drive version is $0.99; the Adventure version as I’m calling it or more of the track version, more of tracking your outings is $1.99. Both of those are fairly accessible and work quite well with voiceover.
The one thing to know in terms of what again I’m calling the Adventure side of things is the challenge behind that app – it does read your labels as you would hope with voiceover. The one thing that you’ll see though as I demonstrate that one in a moment, you’ll hear it say “Button” and then if I do another swipe that’s actually when I’m going to get more detailed information as to the name of the button. So it doesn’t read the label of the button as you initially land on it. It will read the label the second swipe. So that can be a little confusing if you’re not familiar with that but that is something to keep in mind as we go or as you’re investigating apps.
And again, part of today as an overview is to help you understand what apps are available and what things are working accessibly rather than simply saying “Oh, you must use Ariadne versus MapQuest. You have to use one over the other.” It truly is a preference issue, so I would encourage you, especially for those who have a free trial period I would encourage you to investigate these on your own and discern what’s going to work best for you and your skills, and really what you’re wanting out of each of the GPS.