**Update June 16, 2025: The Community Bug Reporting program is now live. Please find the report form at the bottom of this post or at https://www.applevis.com/form/community-bug-report-form.
We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new community bug tracking initiative at AppleVis.
Since at least 2012, AppleVis has regularly published lists of new and fixed accessibility bugs in Apple software impacting blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users. As an independent editorial organization, we see the tracking and reporting of these bugs to be one of the more impactful ways in which we live out our mission to serve and empower our community.
While our past testing and reporting efforts provided valuable information to blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users about changes in Apple software, they were always, by necessity, somewhat limited in scope. We are a small team, and our bug identification has generally been limited to our own personal devices and use cases. As we always say in our release announcements every year, it is impossible for us to test every device, configuration, and use case.
While we feel that we have done our best with what we have in our testing and reporting efforts thus far, we believe there is more that we can do with the help of the community. Today, we are excited to share details about a new initiative in this regard.
In 2022, we evolved our guidelines regarding the discussion of Beta and Preview versions of Apple software to meet the needs of our community and reflect the current landscape. As part of this change, we created a dedicated "Apple Beta Releases" area of the forum for users to discuss beta software. Over the last three years, this section of the forum has proved immensely popular; with many in our community sharing their experiences (and their bug reports) during beta cycles. From reading those forum threads, it is clear that many in our community both use beta software and enjoy sharing their findings with others.
With all of this in mind, we are very excited to announce the upcoming launch of a program for community bug tracking on AppleVis. Through this program, we hope to offer our community a more direct way to contribute to our coverage of accessibility bugs in software releases and our reporting to Apple.
While the specifics are still being worked out, we expect that our Community Bug Program will look something like this:
- The program will initially be open to users of the iOS and macOS betas expected to be released this summer.
- Participants must first file all bugs they share with us directly with Apple using the Feedback App. This will ensure that Apple is made aware of the bug(s) community members encounter. Submissions will not be accepted without a Feedback Number.
- Participants will complete and submit a form, describing the issue they are experiencing, the platform on which they encounter the issue, the steps to reproduce the issue, and the Apple Feedback Number.
- Our team will attempt to reproduce the issues submitted to us by the community. If we are able to reproduce the bug, we will report it to Apple and begin tracking the issue throughout the beta cycle. If the issue persists in the Golden Master version of the software (the version that will ship to consumers), we will include it in our post announcing bugs and fixes for the release.
- If we are unable to reproduce an issue shared with us by a member of the community, we will unfortunately not be able to track it internally or include it in our release announcement (if applicable). However, community members are welcome to continue sharing their findings in comments to the release announcement just as they have always done.
- All who participate in our Community Bug Tracking Program will be recognized in the final release announcement, unless they wish to remain anonymous.
We currently expect that the Community Bug Tracking Program will launch in the second week of June. Please watch this post and the comments for additional information as and when it becomes available.
AppleVis' greatest asset has been and will always be the community, and we greatly appreciate each and every person who has helped make AppleVis what it is today. We look forward to this new initiative and encourage all who are interested to participate.
Comments
this is awesome
this is awesome and can't wait to see what happens with it
Can't wait
Hi all,
This is great to hear.
This is awesome
This is awesome. I'm looking forward to it.
This is great.
This is great news.
Looking forward to taking part in this.
this is wonderful!
This wonderful! Congratulations!
Yayyyyyyyyyy!!!
Yayyyyyyyyyy!!!
Betas
I was always hoping the bug tracker would one day get opened up to us common folk and I'm really glad that this is happening. This is great news.
It would be nice if it wasn't restricted to those using beta software. There is no way I am ever going to be installing beta software on my Apple devices and I'd like to be able to take part too.
But as you suggest, this is a first step and a very welcome one. Thank you.
Great shout
We are really grateful to the team for all this hard work. This sounds like it will be strategically beneficial for everyone.
This excites me greatly!
Hi,
Back when it existed, I was part of the bug tracking & identification team & was super sad to see it go. However, I'm so glad this new version has been created. I've been testing betas ever since the dev betas became free, by no longer requiring a developer membership, which costs $99/year here in the US.
iOS 19 is supposed to be more stable than prior releases as well, so I'm certainly looking forward to testing all the things, as soon as the big keynote ends on June 9!
I'll be watching for sure!
Exciting News
Hi. This news is very exciting. Looking forward to it. :)
A few features I hope are put in place with this initiative
1. As I understand it, Apple's nondisclosure agreement requires information about beta releases to be shared only with other beta users. I hope this AppleVis initiative is consistent with Apple's requirements, which I may be misinterpreting as I don't have the current text in front of me. I'm using public betas rather than developer betas, and I'm not sure whether the terms are the same.
2. I hope AppleVis can establish a relationship of some kind at the management level with Apple Accessibility to facilitate communication about bug reports.
3. Finally, if AppleVis volunteers can't reproduce a bug, could there at least be an opportunity for dialogue with the submitter in case the conditions for reproducing it can be clarified?
As others have said, I think this is a positive move that should generate high-quality information which then has a chance of going to software engineers who can act on it.
Awesome
This is awesome, can’t wait to see it in action
Amazing!
This is amazing news! I just hope that this means that more bugs will be reported and more bugs will be fixed.
what about other betas?
Hello,
I typically test all the things, after the big keynote.
Are there plans to add support for WatchOS, TVOS & the other missing operating systems?
Very Nice
I'm a bit late to the party, but I'd like to add my congratulations. This sounds like it'll be a good addition to an already awesome site. I have never tested any beta releases from Apple, but hopefully I will eventually be able to contribute something to this effort.
Going Live on June 16
Hi all,
Our Community Bug Reporting program will launch on Monday, June 16. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
Amazing!
Amazing!
Community Bug Reporting Program Now Live
We are pleased to announce that our Community Bug Reporting program is now live.
You can access the form on this page below the original post at heading level 2, or at the below URL: https://www.applevis.com/form/community-bug-report-form.
Before sharing a report, please carefully read and understand the following:
So glad to see this
Finally, we are taking some meaningful action rather than just ranting about bugs. As long as we preserve quality in the process, I think Apple might find this a great resource to fix their software. We shouldn't have to, we are doing any way.
Sadly my iPhone is being used for my work activities, so, I won't be risking it.
Question on betas
After submitting a Community Bug Report Form, the next step in the process is that the AppleVis team will attempt to verify it.
If I can read between the lines, this means that I am free to submit a Community Bug Report on release software. And if AppleVis can't reproduce it in the beta, then no further action is taken.
Am I correct in this assumption? If so, it means we don't necessarily have to load prerelease software on our primary platforms in order to participate.
Like, as long as the bug…
Like, as long as the bug mentioned is reproduceable in the beta, which let's be honest most bugs are... You know what? I wonder the same thing indeed even though I will be running betas on a separate volume on my mac like I've been doing since last year anyway.
Limited to the Betas for Now
Hi Paul and all,
Initially, our Community Bug Reporting Program is only open to those on the Beta. Once we get a feel for community participation and are confident we can process an increased volume of reports, we will open it to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.