The American Foundation for the Blind Lauds Apple's New Accessibility Enhancements

Upon taking the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Steve Jobs introduced iTunes 8, two new iPods and a slew of enhancements accompanying both to the world. One extra in particular is now being lauded by The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), which appreciates Apple's efforts in making its products more accessible to the impaired.

The American Foundation for the Blind stresses that the iPod nano, which was, until not long, practically useless for the blind, now has talking menus and large font options. The foundation is profoundly grateful for Apple's newly added improvements to the accessibility of iTunes, as well.

"The iPod nano, which was virtually unusable for people with vision loss, is now equipped with talking menus and large font options. Apple has also made improvements to the accessibility of iTunes," says Carl R. Augusto, president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. "This news is music to the ears of the 20 million Americans with significant vision loss," Augusto added. "I can't tell you how great it will be to find my Timbaland and Madonna songs without having to shuffle through every song in my music collection."

As some of you may have heard, Apple's iTunes 8 is now screen-reader friendly on both Mac and PC. Visually-impaired users can manage their iTunes library using VoiceOver in Mac OS X Leopard, or Window-Eyes for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Screen reader can be used to purchase or download content from the iTunes Store — including iTunes U.

Even more accessibility enhancements can be found on Apple's newly-launched iPod nano fourth generation. Spoken menus allow listeners to hear the names of menus, song titles, and artists, while an alternative large font can make menus easier to read. The nano's high-resolution LCD sports adjustable contrast and backlight settings, so it's easier to view in low light. Lastly, captions in video are displayed when they are present using a legible, high-contrast, white-on-black font.

More info on the The American Foundation for the Blind, here.