Apple plans to work together with the state of Massachusetts to use the VoiceOver technology from Mac OS X in iTunes and iPod in order to make them usable by the blind.

Apple’s new iPod nano already has some features which are blind-friendly. The shake to shuffle function and the optional spoken interface to help with audio navigation, the tactile control on the new headphones which also have an integrated microphone for voice commands.

Apple will also be donating $250,000 to the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind and by the end of the year will transform iTunes 8 and iTunes U in order to make it 100% accessible for the blind.

This was bound to happen, with Microsoft and Apple being rivals and all, right? It seems that there are various accounts of iTunes 8 crashing when an iPod or iPhone is plugged into the PC.

We don’t mean just iTunes 8 either, oh no, this little bug will bring up the dreaded blue screen of death. Not only that, but Apple hasn’t isolated the problem yet so it could be any number of things.

It seems your best bet now, if your a Windows Vista user, is to either downgrade to iTunes 7 or not upgrade if you already haven’t. We will keep you posted on a patch for this problem.