About NVApple

Born in December 2013, NVApple is a website aimed to inform Italian people about built-in Apple products accessibility features that make them usable by people with disabilities. Through podcasts, tutorials and manuals, in our website we provide a lot of materials to make blind people use Apple products together with their accessibility features from the very basic scenarios (i.e. deciding what products to buy according to your needs, getting the products out of their boxes and turning them on for the first time) to the most specific scenarios (i.e. using various programming tools, customizing advanced settings and performing every kind of system maintenance tasks).

We also advocate for apps accessibility. To achieve this goal, we

• keep an up to date list of accessible apps reviewed by us or our users;
• Document available workarounds for accessibility issues (whenever possible);
• Reach to developers to report accessibility issues in their products, offering to test beta versions and give specialized feedback about accessibility and, if asked for, in general on the app.

We also provide support to developers who want to localize their apps in Italian, our native language.

Since Apple products accessibility is great but far from perfect. We constantly provide feedback to Apple so that they can improve their products accessibility features.

Last but not least, we keep users up to date about any change that could affect the Apple ecosystem (especially focusing on accessibility) and maintain a list of reviews of accessories that work great together with Apple products and can be used by people with disabilities.

NVRadio

In Winter 2014, we launched NVRadio, a non profit webradio that broadcasts 7/7, 24/24 the best music from all over the world as well as interesting podcasts, forecasts and news programs and even live broadcasts whenever something important in the Apple infrastructure happens, such as the release of an operating system major upgrade or the presentation of new Apple products. We also broadcast public events where our website is involved with.

The staff

Who are the people behind all of this? Well, we are 5 blind friends living across Italy and we can work together thanks to the tools that technology has to offer. Below you can find a short introduction for each of us.

Alessio Lenzi

Reference man in Turin for computer science related activities in the local blind association, he has been experienced in computer science since the early days of the Internet. He is specialized in reviewing software and hardware products, identifying even the less significant issue.

Elena Brescacin

If there’s an application or a gadget that can improve your life, she finds it: granted! She’s a web developer and she focuses on software localization, reviewing software and hardware products and testing OS X and iOS development versions to report bugs to Apple.

Simone Dal Maso

Server administrator and Drupal expert, he’s interested in reviewing software and hardware products, Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Management. He maintains the script that allows our web radio to work and the Italian NVDA localization while playing a critical role in the Italian NVDA community.

Vainer Broccoli

Professionally involved in computer science for visually impaired people since 1989, he’s a great expert in audio editing and radio broadcasting. He’s also an expert in teaching how to use assistive technologies and he’s interested in reviewing software and hardware products as well as testing OS X and iOS development versions to report bugs to Apple.

Vincenzo Rubano

Youngest team member, he’s an accessibility expert and a Computer Science student skilled in programming in various languages for various platforms as well as web development. He’s interested in reviewing hardware and software products as well as testing iOS and OS X development versions to report accessibility issues. He also helps with troubleshooting problems on our server.