ben, I couldn’t agree with you more here. I feel now that the more we are complacent about quietly dealing with the mounting accessibility issues over the various OS roll-outs and new Apple products, the worse this situation is unfortunately likely to become.
The truth is that Apple has been doing incredible things in the access world over the last several years and they really should be settling into their groove now, not out of it. Unfortunately though, the later seems to be what is happening. Now I know that the accessibility team is stretched thin and has been for some time now, and they are truly committed people who really do work hard to make these technologies work for us, but some of these issues are QA (quality assurance) issues in my opinion. Some of these obvious issues need to be given higher priority than they seem to be receiving. Now I know that there is a lot going on inside Apple that I am not aware of so some of what I say may be well out of line here, (and I do apologize if this is the case) but as a consumer and long-time advocate of Appel’s efforts, I feel I do have some right to express these sentiments. The people on the accessibility team are awesome folks but the fact is that more and more, visually impaired consumers are having to deal with what I do feel is becoming somewhat second-rate access experiences with some Apple products and /or OS releases. This is simply unacceptable. I know this is anything but intentional on the part of the access team but it is still simply unacceptable and I feel this needs to be said. to illustrate this, when iOS 8 came out, one extremely serious issue was the sticking touch tones (which would prevent people from making calls) on the iPhone. Who on earth let this walk out the door? Who thought that this would be okay? For God’s sake, the iPhone is first and foremost a phone after all, and to have that very function released with such an incapacitating bug for users of Voiceover is so far beyond crazy that I honestly cannot express myself here within this list’s language guidelines. If you are tasked with testing a phone, what is the first thing you test? Can you make a call? Can you do it again? Can you do it five more times? Can you make the call on the other models of phone you produce? You get the idea… As I have recently said on another list, Apple has the pick of the cream of the crop of engineers, designers and any other professionals it requires. So why is this happening? What is the excuse?… Honestly, there is none… So what do we do about it? Certainly, posting here can be cathartic but it may not reach those it needs to. Yes, we can write [email protected] however, those communications may not actually go directly to the engineers in the accessibility department like it used to. I personally feel that we need to secure several options for ourselves now to be assured of good access to technology. I do feel we need to stay in touch with Apple in a very active sense. I also feel we need to look at all technology options besides Apple products and similarly stay actively in touch with their respective developers and / or companies as well. I personally intend to stay with Apple products for the majority of my tech needs, but quite honestly, I also feel the time is now in general, in the tech world where the awareness level is much better than it ever has been. Discussions are happening; conferences are covering access. I see more discussion now on programming forums about accessibility and interested developers asking questions. etc. My point is that Apple has been a true trailblazer here and while I hope they find it in themselves to improve what they are doing now, I feel that we need to really make our voices heard in general so that accessibility can really be a forefront topic of conversation for technology in general. This can only benefit us… I would welcome others’ opinions on this as well. What are your thoughts? How do you feel we should address these issues? As I said I am by no means ditching Apple here. The truth is, I love my Apple products and I love the fact that they have Voiceover. It’s just that it’s a love / hate relationship sometimes now. That’s all! :) So what do you think? Chime in if you like… Thanks so much for reading and please do have a wonderful rest of your weekend and happy holiday season! Cheers! Cara --- iOS design and development - LookTel.com --- View my Online Portfolio at: http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn Follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ModelCara On Nov 29, 2015, at 8:11 AM, Ben Mustill-Rose <[email protected]> wrote: This is correct, but this simply shouldn't be the case. As it stands, given the lack of apps and the VO issues, I have to add a few caveats whenever I recommend that someone buys one because in my opinion it simply isn't ready for primetime yet. The TV has been shipping for around a month now and I haven't noticed any updates to the OS to fix any of the issues that I and others have experienced. Some will argue that I should email the accessibility address, but we're talking about some really obvious issues here - E.G. "poster" being spoken instead of app names and Siri screens being inaccessible. These are things that Apple know about and have chosen not to fix. I'm confident that at some point in the future these issues will be resolved, but when? Should we really be content with spending what is for most people a fairly large amount of money on a device in the hope that at some point in the future it will be fully accessible? On 11/29/15, MamaPeach <[email protected]> wrote: > The new Apple TV, with updates, will improve over time, just like anything > else that is newly released, such as any new versions of IOS. It takes > people letting them know what issues they encounter in order for them to > consider fixing them. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Mustill-Rose > Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2015 7:49 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: apple tv 4th generation thoughts > > Hi, > > It's good but still feels like a bit of a beta product. The remote has > sensitivity issues - E.G. I unknowingly purchased a film when it was > in my pocket and there are some annoying VO issues but nothing that is > a show stopper in my opinion. > Given the fairly small range of apps available at the moment it's > definitely expensive for what it is, but hopefully this situation will > improve in the future. > > Cheers, > Ben. > > On 11/28/15, Larry Lumpkin <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hello all. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts concerning the apple tv 4. >> Do >> you like it? Do you not like it? Why not? Etc. thanks very much. >> >> -- >> The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone >> list. >> >> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or >> if >> you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners >> >> or >> moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >> >> Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn >> - >> you can reach Cara at [email protected] >> >> The archives for this list can be searched at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "VIPhone" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - > you can reach Cara at [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - > you can reach Cara at [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
