Apple's New MacBook Touch Bar Could Hurt Visually Impaired Users
In the roiling debate over the new MacBook Pro and its many deficiencies in the minds of Apple fans, one subject has barely been broached: accessibility. Macs built-in screenreader VoiceOver, which allows visually impaired people to use the computers, is generally seen favorably by those in the visually impaired community. But part of the design of Apple's new laptop could cause visually impaired users some real difficulty.
That would be the new OLED Touch Bar that will sit at the top of the MacBook's keyboard, where the function buttons used to be. The Touch Bar was already raising concerns for users who worried what would happen if the Escape key was not always accessible, but for visually impaired users it presents other problems. To toggle the VoiceOver software users must press the Command and F5 keys. With the addition of the Touch Bar, that F5 key will be integrated into one smooth long bar, without an easy way for visually impaired users to find it.
Over time, visually impaired users may learn the position of the correct Touch Bar key by memory, even if they can't feel it. But Noel Runyan, an access technology engineer who is visually impaired, still thinks the new MacBooks may present problems for users with disabilities. "As with iPhones, tactile feedback in the form of vibration of the Touch Bar panel or of the whole keyboard case might be helpful for some users who are deaf-blind," Runyan told Motherboard. So using haptic feedback could potentially help visually impaired users know when they've hit the right key. Runyan also suggested putting a physical rubber dot on the key in question to make it tactile. But one of the main draws of the Touch Bar is that the keys can change depending on the app being used. When that happens, blind users will need to learn the new keys from scratch.
"For some users who are blind," Runyan said, "the functions of the Mac Touch Bar might have to be accomplished through special handling by their screen review software and external refreshable braille display."
Braille displays are expensive, ranging in price from $1,200 to more than $8,000, so this is not an option that's easily available to all users. With these limitations built in, it seems that the new MacBook is as disappointing for the visually impaired community as it is for everyone else.
Source: Motherboard
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