[Accessibility] Seeking input from experts with mobile assistive devices

[Leo Spalteholz]

Hi Trenton and qt-accessibility.

I thought I would introduce myself and the organization I work for.   My name is Leo Spalteholz and I manage the engineering team at CanAssist.   We develop technology and devices for people with disabilities where there is a gap in the commercial market.  We’ve been using Qt for our desktop applications since I started in 2004, and since last year also for our mobile apps.   
We create a wide range of assistive technology everything from mechanical adaptions to access recreation (http://www.canassist.ca/EN/main/programs/technologies-and-devices/sports/outdoor-ball-launcher-for-dogs.html#video ) to accessible cameras (http://www.canassist.ca/EN/main/programs/technologies-and-devices/sports/single-button-camera.html#video ) to various apps for people with disabilities (https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/university-of-victoria/id598687546 ).

We work a lot with individuals with physical disabilities, and along with the rest of the industry have migrated primarily to mobile development.  So we are primarily concerned with Voiceover support and switch accessibility.  We have primarily concentrated past app development efforts on iOS because platform accessibility and accessibility app support is still far ahead of android for most of our clients.  However we are naturally interested in cross platform development so we have switched to Qt for most of our new, in-development apps to be able to ship Android and iOS simultaneously with our very small team.  

We’ve worked with hundreds of individuals with disabilities over the years across the age and disability spectrum.  Happy to help if we can.

Regards,
Leo Spalteholz
Engineering Manager
CanAssist @ UVic
1-250-721-7302 


On May 20, 2014, at 2:54 AM, Trenton Schulz <Trenton.Schulz at nr.no> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> My name is Trenton Schulz. I’m a senior research scientist at the Norwegian Computing Center (Norsk Regnesentral), and I’m working with Digia on our BestApps project [1] for increasing the accessibility of mobile apps.
> 
> Currently, we are doing some user investigation about how different people use assistive technology (AT) with their smartphones and apps. In connection with this, I would be interested in finding people that would be interested in participating in a small interview (either over telephone, Skype, or email) about how they use this technology. We are holding a workshop connected to this as well on 19 June in Oslo.
> 
> So, if you are interested (or know anyone), please let me know via email and I can send more details. Your input can help make future Qt applications more accessible and easier to use for everyone.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> -- 
> Trenton Schulz
> Senior Research Scientist
> Norwegian Computing Center
> 
> [1]: http://www.nr.no/en/projects/bestapps-–-best-practices-accessible-applications
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