Forbes attacks Apple on its commitment to blind users

Editor’s note: Forbes changed the story removing the offensive material. Thanks to the cache at Bing, here is a link to the original story in all its glory.

It’s very rare that I actually get angry while reading an article on the Web. Sometimes I shake my head, other times I disagree, sometimes I thoroughly enjoy the read — today I got mad.

Writing for Forbes.com, Roger Kay not only questioned Apple’s commitment to the blind, he outright insulted the company and blind users in general. Check out these quotes from the Forbes story.

For example, one could make the argument that blind people represent only a tiny slice of the total market. In the U.S., people who are legally blind represent about 3% of the population. When your product is so well optimized for the other 97%, why bother?

And this:

On the hypothetical playground, Apple is the cool kid, impressing wannabe cool kids. The blind kid in the wheelchair never had a chance, and the cool kids don’t care.

Seriously? I doubt that blind people think of themselves like that. I spent some time years ago working with blind kids and teaching them activities like soccer. Not one of them thought of themselves or acted like Kay portrays them here.

Let’s move on to Apple and if they are actually ignoring the blind when making products.

Kay would have to look no farther than the website he was writing for to see that he may be alone in his thoughts. In an April 2010 article on Forbes.com, Benjamin Clymer said:

They [the blind] care more about how Apple products actually work. And while the iPad may be Apple’s most controversial launch in recent memory, the blind community is unanimous in its support.

And this:

Computer nerds, tech columnists and the general public may not know where the iPad fits into the existing media consumption landscape–but the blind and visually impaired see it as the only e-reader worth owning. Call it further proof that Apple is more than just a pretty face.

In January, the National Federation of the Blind commended Apple for its VoiceOver app on the iPad. “Blind consumers, like our sighted friends and colleagues, will be able to share in the experience of using this new device from the moment we take it out of the box,” said Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind.

The American Foundation for the Blind gave Apple an award in 2009 “for making significant accessibility improvements to the latest versions of the iPod Nano and the iTunes software, and for installing the VoiceOver screen reading software into all Apple computers.”

Robin Spinks, principal manager of digital accessibility at the Royal National Institute of Blind People said in June that “When it comes to embedding accessibility, Apple has set the standard in recent years. It is now up to other manufacturers to follow their lead.”

Surely these people know more about how Apple devices work for the blind than Roger Kay.

Sarai

The original author is way off. I’m a blind Mac and iPhone user. I also work for a technology company with other blind Mac users. Apple is the only mainstream company to provide a fully accessible phone, and PC, as well as an Ebook reader. Add a Braille display, and you have the best of everything.
Peter Cohen

Roger Kay may not be blind, but he’s pretty frigging stupid.
Sarai

Yes, he is a bad reporter. Apple was at the National Federation Of The Blind for a demo. They provided all blind users with Macs to demo.
http://moeskido.wordpress.com Moeskido

Every time someone posts an angry comment on the Apple/blind users Forbes article, Roger Kay’s internet machine spits out a nickel. Thanks for linking to the cached copy, Mr. D.

Jim Dalrymple

Orjan Larsson

Work as an technican in the field for accessibility in Sweden, and if Windows 7 included the same VoiceOver feature in their Narrator, I would be in heaven.

Even swedish voices as standard in iPhone! (not yet oS X 10.6 though)
JD

The standard for “journalism” continues to spiral into the gutter. I mean, seriously, how can this idiot continue to hold down a position at Forbes, or any other media outlet. If they don’t fire his ass immediately, well that will tell you all you need to know about them as well!
Eric

As a journalist who worked in the field for 15 years, if any writer I worked with had written such an incredibly wrong article, which has to be intentional, or the result a complete lack of due dilligence, they would not be working on the following day.

There’s mistakes, and then there’s crap that is intentionally made up to hurt the target. No real journalist who have written that hit piece on Apple. Mr. Kay is a fraud, if he calls himself a journalist.

Peter Cohen

In point of fact, Roger Kay isn’t a journalist. He’s an analyst. Which makes his comments even more laughable.

Mark White

KAY!! Why stop at Apple?? What about the car makers? After all this time they still haven’t come up with a car that a blind person can drive safely up and down the streets with the 97% of us sighted people.
John Whitehead

This is too much: I checked out his own article from back in 2008 (that he rightly says was mistimed — AAPL stock has risen 104% since that date). After more ignorant anti-Apple ranting he ends the piece thus: “Everyone makes mistakes. But society loves to repay hubris with derisive laughter.”

Let’s all laugh together!
http://tewha.net Steven Fisher

The story’s not over yet! One of the major networks in Canada just picked this up.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100709/apple-firing-customers-100710/20100710

If CTV is this clueless, they shouldn’t be covering tech at all.
Nick

Oh, my. What an idiot. His comments sounded exactly like someone sarcastically mocking a company for NOT supporting blind users. I had to look over the article several times before I understood. I mean, is he really saying that Apple shouldn’t care about the 3%?!? That kind of article belongs on April Fool’s Day or The Onion.