Hello List and Apple Accessibility, Below is a message from the Flicktype list which I believe should be posted on Viphone. Hopefully many people from the list will take a few minutes to write to Apple Accessibility to lobby on behalf of Kosta and Ashley who spend so much of their time to develop this fantastic keyboard which for many blind people completely revolutionizes typing on the iPhone. Those who have practiced and spend a lot of time with Flicktype can type as fast as sighted people and it's a shame that Apple makes their life so difficult. Currently if you want to use Flicktype as a system wide keyboard you can subscribe for 99 Cents a month or $12.99 a year as a one-time annual payment. Kosta was initially part of the team which developed Fleksie which has become a keyboard now for the broader and sighted public, but they use some of the same technology for Flicktype. They also just had a baby and all they want is to have a bit of steady income for all the awesome work they do. I would please like to ask those who have a problem with their pricing model to not post anything, this is not about this, it is about Apple not letting their updates go through because of the stupid reasons given in the email below and it is truly an example where Apple's app reviewers who probably don't understand the nature of this app/keyboard reject it and it's a shame and a big stain on Apple who is quick enough to point out how much accessibility matters to them. I believe Tim Cook has said accessibility is a human right so then why do they throw stumbling blocks in the way of developers who have released such a wonderful app? All it would probably take is one memo from above to the app review department and this would be no longer an issue, but we all know how difficult it is to actually reach somebodyin charge at such a large company. I CC Apple Accessibility on this message, maybe whoever reads this does the right thing and directs it up the line to their supervisor and they continue until it does reach somebody who can actually set this right. Anyhow, here now is Kosta and Ashley's message:
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of FlickType Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2018 3:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [FlickType] Upcoming pricing changes Dear FlickType friends, We have had numerous rejections of FlickType by Apple over the last few months, most often due to the uncommon nature of our app being a keyboard for VoiceOver users. Usually the reviewer is confused by the way they need to operate the keyboard with VoiceOver, and it takes some back-and-forth before they eventually reverse their devision and let us release our updates to the App Store. This past weekend, our update got rejected because, quote, "the app uses auto-renewing subscriptions, but it is not an appropriate use of the service". This has happened before, and after our detailed explanation and position they agreed to reverse their decision at the time. It would seem that they have now either changed their policy, or this is a different person reviewing the app and for some reason they don't have the context of our earlier conversations. This is likely to happen again in the future, even if we succeed in getting the current update through. Either way, App Store rejections and appeals to the App Review Board take a long time to resolve, time that we can better spend developing the app itself. We have therefore decided to drop the subscription model moving forward, and instead introduce a one-off purchasing fee for the system-wide keyboard, so that we at least eliminate one of the potential causes of App Store rejections and delays in the future. We have not yet decided on the pricing, and in fact we'd love to hear some of your ideas on that. We are still hoping that we can find a price that is both reasonable for users, and also sustainable for us as a business. We also wanted to share this background information with you, and for you to be aware of the upcoming pricing changes. Again, we welcome your thoughts in the matter, and we are thankful for all your support so far. Warmly, Kosta -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. You automatically follow any topics you start or reply to. View/Reply Online (#1084): https://flicktype.groups.io/g/hello/message/1084 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/28272182/157163 Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://flicktype.groups.io/g/hello/leave/2810164/1753932908/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -- 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. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list 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 https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
