So, this is admittedly more a philosophy of blindness/conversation starter kind of post than a technical question, so, apologies in advance if it perhaps doesn’t fit the character of the forum.
So, my question: Does anyone else feel more and more like Apple Accessibility is taking a backseat to what sighted people want in favor of sighted people instead of making both our experiences as close to equivalent as possible? I mean that, it seems that, especially with the latest phones/iOS, accessibility is seeming more and more like an add-on whose processes are becoming far less convenient for us to use than they would be for sighted users. I’m thinking now specifically of Face ID and the absence of the Home button and the increased complexity of gestures for us compared to having a fingerprint scanner.
A certain Mr. Jaime Teh of Mozilla/Firefox accessibility fame has a phrase I like: “delightfully accessible” which I take to mean that, if something is “delightfully accessible”, it is not just accessible, but it is both accessible and easy/convenient to use so that people actually like using something instead of doing so begrudgingly. Thoughts?
Comments
Depends on Use Cases
I think this in part depends on individual use cases. For me personally, it seems like the opposite is true. It seems that more and more companies are jumping on the accessibility bandwagon. Additionally, more and more enhancements are being made. I've never used Android so cannot comment, but Apple is really doing a nice job imho. Regarding the NLS eReader from Humanware, I'll admit I have yet to fully get it up and running but it has worked well for me thus far. I checked in the VoiceOver Utility on my M1 Mac, and the Braille category appears to contain a lot. News sites are still a problem though at least for me, due to constant page refreshes. But then again, I'm not too fond of the news especially as of late. That's probably a topic inandof itself. But I'm sure the different news outlets will eventually jump on the accessibility bandwagon as well. At least I hope this will be the case.
I advocate and I fight.
To my very rude interlocutor above, I reply that, unlike so many here in our blind community, I advocate and I fight for blind and disabled equity and equality. I don’t just sit back and accept the status quo. Our blind community has a real problem with a strain of this passive attitude within it, unlike so many other parts of the wider disability community and, to my mind, it’s very much holding us back. What is wrong with us? Just because sighty says it automatically makes it right and something we should automatically accept as true? Let’s stop drinking the Kool Aid, guys! Come on!