It’s 2022 and the technology we have access to is, let’s face it, nothing short of amazing. But do all of us have the same access to today’s innovations? One prominent hallmark of our modern society is the dependence on smartphones and touchscreens, which rely heavily on the user’s ability to look at a screen. But how does this account for users with visual impairments?
The short answer is: smartphone apps have to be deliberately designed to accommodate users who are visually impaired and most apps, simply, are not.
So… What did we do about that?
In this way, the latest version of TrueFire’s guitar lesson app for iPhone & iPad really stands out. We think the joy of learning to play a musical instrument should be accessible to as many people as possible and that includes those with visual impairments. After all, music is an auditory experience.
Before implementing the latest round of updates to the iOS app, TrueFire’s app developer, Adam Pietrafesa, enlisted the help of multiple users with vision impairments to optimize for accessibility. These new features include menus that have been reorganized to better accommodate swipe functions and customized audio tutorials. Simply put, the app takes better advantage of the intuitive swipe functions that iOS accessibility mode offers.
What do our students think?
Here is what one of our users had to say about the updated, VoiceOver-friendly TrueFire iOS App:
“I was really knocked out, as a blind musician, at how well thought through your accessible tutor functionality works on your iOS app. It actually helped me understand what the ‘direct touch’ functionality provided in the iOS screen reader VoiceOver is all about, but more than that, you guys have managed to deliver the same functionality to visually impaired users as is available to sighted users in a really intuitive way.
In order to do this, your developers must have dug quite deep into understanding how VoiceOver works and make your courses work really nicely compatible with it. Very many congratulations for the way you have gone about this.”
– Tony, TrueFire Student
Needless to say, there will always be improvements to make along the way. But, as long as TrueFire has users who are willing to give their feedback, we’ll be one step ahead in providing world-class guitar instruction to anyone who wants to learn!