Amazon Adds Sign Language to Prime Video
Amazon this week published a blog post wherein it detailed accessibility features for Prime Video. Most notable is support for sign language interpretation in American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL). The post was written by Deb Landau.
“Prime Video now offers sign language interpretation in American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) across more than 20 movies and series including Prime Original movies such as Red, White, and Royal Blue and The Idea of You, among others,” she wrote on Thursday. “This viewing option is available globally.”
To find sign language-enhanced titles, Landau notes users can use search, as well as peruse the Accessible Movies & TV collection in the app if you’re in the United States.
Relatedly, Landau highlights Prime Video’s audio descriptions and Dialogue Boost. Moreover, she pointed to Amazon’s page outlining Prime Video’s accessibility features. I say the Prime Video Accessibility Statement is an eminently cogent read and well with your eyeballs’ attention. It’s damn impressive how flexible Amazon built Prime Video to be in terms of how a disabled person can traverse the app, including calling out nerdy coder minutiae such as how the software “leverages operating system and device level APIs to support assistive technologies in ways customers are familiar with.”
Elsewhere in Landau’s post, she details accessibility features in other Amazon products such as Alexa, Fire TV, and Kindle.
One de-facto accessibility I miss dearly in the Prime Video app on tvOS is X-Ray. I recently completed another rewatch of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—unquestionably, one of my all-time favorite shows—and was dismayed to discover X-Ray had been removed from the app at some point in the past. Like InSight on Apple TV, I love using X-Ray occasionally to remind myself of who’s on screen at a particular moment if I don’t recognize them. It’s more accessible than, say, pausing the show or movie and reaching for my iPhone to open up Callsheet by my friend Casey Liss. Callsheet is a lovely app in isolation; the salient point is only it necessitates taking another few steps, whereas I was always drawn to X-Ray’s immediacy and how it consolidates actions.
From a disability standpoint, it can be more accessible to tap on the Siri Remote and select the InSight button, for instance, than picking up your phone, launching Callsheet, searching for the material, and then finally absorbing the info. The latter exerts significantly more energies for certain people than the former potentially would.
Anyway, as a CODA whose native language is not English but ASL, I’m deeply appreciative of this week’s news from Amazon. I don’t speak ASL very often nowadays, but I haven’t lost my skills as they’re “hardwired” into my being; to that point, it delights me whenever I watch CODA—get it on 4K Blu-ray, if home theater nerdery is your thing—that I don’t have to read the subtitles in order to understand dialogue during scenes with Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur, for instance. It keeps me grounded to my roots, never mind the fact my roots have entanglements from which I’ve never quite freed myself, mental health-wise anyway. But hey, I’m bilingual at least!
Zooming out, Prime Video’s support for sign language interpretation marks the continuation of somewhat of a (good) trend in the streamer space. I’ve done quite a bit of reporting on HBO Max, as an example, augmenting its catalog with sign language features. Most recently is my report from last November HBO Max was adding an ASL stream to the service’s popular horror series IT: Welcome to Derry. As a devout sports fan, I’ve also written extensively about the NHL’s “NHL × ASL” initiative, a Sports Emmy winner and produced in partnership with PXP founder and CEO Brice Christianson.
App Store Connect on iOS Gets Accessibility Updates for VoiceOver, Voice control Users
Zac Hall reports for 9to5 Mac this week Apple has updated App Store Connect on iOS with various enhancements, including some pertaining to accessibility. The new version number, now at 3.2, applies to both the iPhone and iPad versions of the app.
“Today’s iOS app update matches the web version while adding VoiceOver and Voice Control improvements and a change to TestFlight feedback sorting,” Hall wrote.
According to Apple’s release notes, quoted by Hal in his story, the accessibility additions in particular (emphasis mine) “accessibility improvements for developers who are VoiceOver and Voice Control users.” As to everything else that’s new, Apple added support for 11 languages, as well as more streamlined filtering of TestFlight feedback and the requisite, boilerplate “stability improvements and bug fixes.”
My aforementioned italicizing is intentional, as I believe it’s an under-the-radar callout of something. Apropos of my piece on Apple’s 50th birthday, the “for developers who [require accessibility features]” line isn’t mere innocuous language. It actually means a lot; to wit, it’s tacit acknowledgment from the company that there exist programmers with disabilities in the world. Apple is subtly saying software development can, and should be, inclusive. As such, Apple is providing said people more accessible tools with which to scratch their creative itches. Release notes are, by and large, byzantine reads which are neither insightful nor informative. “Stability improvements and bug fixes” is used so often it’s become less about standardization and more about laziness.
As a lifelong disabled person—who isn’t a developer—it meant a great deal to see this ostensibly throwaway blurb. It was nice to see people like me humanized yet again.
Hall also reports this week’s app update comes on the heels of Apple also announcing localization changes to App Store Connect. Moreover, both pieces of news comes six months after Apple wrought support for iOS 26 and Liquid Glass to App Store Connect.
Allyant CTO Ferass Elrayes: Web Accessibility ‘Not a feature or Checkbox’
Early last month, Ottawa-based Allyant put out a press release in which the Canadian web accessibility company shared what it called “the market’s first large-scale, cross-industry analysis of public-facing PDF accessibility” in the PDF Accessibility Index: 2025–2026 Benchmark Report. Allyant’s findings, based on nearly 645,000 documents, reveal a staggering 95% of PDFs were discovered to be inaccessible, leading to “widespread barriers for people with disabilities,” according to Allyant.
“While accessibility conversations often center around websites and applications, the report underscores a critical miss: PDFs remain among the most relied-upon formats for delivering essential information—and among the least accessible,” Allyant wrote.
The company released the PDF Accessibility Index as a PDF itself, of course.
As Allyant noted, the release of the aforementioned Index is timely given the regulatory scrutiny around web accessibility parameters. Indeed, the company said “regulatory expectations [are rising]” in 2026, what with compliance deadlines approaching involving Title II of the American with Disabilities Act in the United States, as well as similarly-scoped initiatives for Health and Human Services (HHS) accessibility requirements and European Accessibility Act (EAA) requirements already in effect.
Late last month, I had the opportunity to connect with Allyant’s chief technology officer in Ferass Elrayes for a brief email interview about the findings. At 30,000 feet, he explained the main issue with inaccessible PDFs boil down to three things: “impact, risk, and scale.” There’s a real sense of urgency to address this problem, he went on, because of PDFs’ ubiquity; they’re “high-volume, often decentralized, and frequently created without accessibility in mind.” What this means in practice is organizations are hoarding “thousands” of inaccessible documents which not only run the risk of non-compliance, the byproduct of which is real, daily barriers to people with disabilities.
“PDFs are one of the most relied-upon formats for delivering critical information—applications, policies, medical instructions, financial disclosures and more. But for many people who rely on assistive technology, they’re also one of the most persistent barriers,” Elrayes said of the file format’s ubiquitousness. “When a PDF isn’t accessible, it’s not just inconvenient—it can prevent someone from completing a form, reading medical test results, or accessing essential services independently.”
Beyond the obvious legal pressure, Elrayes said those in the disability community have (unsurprisingly) proven to be “a major driver of change,” adding considering the Justice Department’s edict on standards, “the standards and expectations are now clear” and the community can hold companies accountable for (in)accessibility.
“For years, people with disabilities have been vocal about the barriers they face with PDFs—particularly screen reader users encountering documents that are unreadable or impossible to navigate. What’s changing now is that those lived experiences are intersecting with broader awareness, renewed regulatory pressure, and organizational accountability.” Elrayes said. “The PDF Accessibility Index doesn’t create that momentum—it validates it. It gives organizations the data to understand that these aren’t edge cases; they’re systemic issues affecting millions of users.”
When asked about Allyant’s study, Elrayes told me while the headliner is “stark”—95% of PDFs are barriers—there are “deeper insights that matter most.” He cited four of them, emphasizing the tried-and-true notion that inaccessibility more often is the norm instead of the exception. Crucially, only 5% of PDFs have basic usability, which means “they may contain a warning-level issue but no accessibility failures,” according to Elrayes. Likewise, he also noted less than 1% of PDFs are “truly accessible,” with Elrayes saying “scanning has identified at least one failing issue.”
“In practice, this means most organizations have far more exposure than they realize because it’s probable the vast majority of their documents fail accessibility standards,” he added.
Elsewhere, Elrayes told me high-risk industries are amongst “the worst offenders” while also excoriating the government and education sectors for showing “the highest inaccessibility rates.” On the bright side, however, Elrayes noted healthcare is “showing progress” but still falls short, telling me “the majority of healthcare PDFs are still inaccessible” despite performing better than, say, government or education.
“The issues are foundational, not highly technical. This is the good news. Common failures include things like missing structure, headings, metadata, and table relationships,” Elrayes said. “Overall, the takeaway is this—organizations don’t just have a compliance gap—they have a process and governance gap when it comes to document creation.”
Feedback-wise, Elrayes said reception to Allyant’s efforts have been “a mix of expectation, validation, and—importantly—relief.” He described the company’s Report as “the market’s first true benchmark” and adde accessibility has heretofore largely been an “unknown” commodity, saying “teams knew it was a problem, but they didn’t know how widespread it was or how their industry—or their organization—compared.”
He continued: “The [study’s] findings aren’t entirely unexpected. Popular websites have been scanned for years, also revealing similar high percentages of failure. In addition to expectation, there’s relief in finally having data to support internal conversations, a way to benchmark against the market, with clarity on where and how to prioritize. However, at the same time, similar to the state of website accessibility, the findings are sobering. Nearly every organization recognizes themselves somewhere in the data. But that’s also what makes the report powerful—it shifts the conversation from ‘Are we failing?’ to ‘Now that we know, how do we move forward?’
Elrayes ended our correspondence by making it crystal clear Allyant’s main goal with publishing the PDF Accessibility Index is neither to put anyone on blast nor antagonize them. The intention, he said, “moving the industry forward” towards great accessibility for everyone. With the DOJ’s impending guidelines, the market can use Allyant’s data to “understand where their organization ranks, and how they can make forward progress.” Moreover, Elrayes said most organizations don’t ignore accessibility out of malice or spite, rather “they’re navigating complex systems, legacy content, and decentralized workflows.” The endgame, he added, is Allyant’s information can be a “catalyst for change,” which, distilled, indeed is the company’s primary motivation.
“Instead of continuing to react to issues one PDF at a time, organizations can now take a more strategic approach to benchmark where they stand, focus on high-impact improvements, embed accessibility into document creation—not just remediation, and monitor their progress. But the key is progress over perfection. This isn’t a quick-fix project, it’s a long-term commitment. And an important one,” Elrayes said. “Ultimately, accessibility isn’t a feature or a checkbox—it’s access. And for millions of people, that access starts with the documents organizations publish every day.”
Apple At 50: Accessibility is innovation too
Apple turns 50 years old today. The company was 5 when I was born.
My friend John Gruber reports today Apple’s homepage features a nice animation to commemorate the occasion, while CEO Tim Cook posted to X with what Gruber describes as “VHS-style ‘rewind’ through Apple product history.” Then there are two other Apple community friends in Shelly Brisbin and Stephen Hackett, both of whom wrote “Apple at 50” retrospectives today for Six Colors and 512 Pixels, respectively.
Then there’s mine, this very piece.
Take a gander at Curb Cuts’ archives and you’ll notice I posted 34 times in 31 days last month. That’s a lot of journalism. Take a closer gander at said archives and you’ll note the majority of my coverage in recent weeks has been on Apple. In my opinion, to cover Apple means covering Apple—and the company’s history is inextricably tied with the disability community and accessibility. Apple turned 50 today, but it was actually in 2025 the company marked its 40th anniversary of its accessibility initiatives. Ask any accessibility professional not inside Apple Park and most, if not all, will shout from the proverbial rooftops the company is the unquestioned leader in the industry when it comes to conceiving and shipping best-of-breed accessibility software for its panoply of platforms. Apple lives staunchly in Secretariat at the Belmont territory. I’ve heard it said myself many, many times in interviews with accessibility leaders at companies big and small—in one way or another, everyone looks to Apple for lessons on how to do accessibility right. People wax romantic about the original iPhone in 2007 being a revolution of the first order, and it truly was. Those people probably don’t realize there were zero bespoke accessibility features in iPhone OS 1.0, and would have none until the iPhone 3GS came along in 2009. Yet, for my druthers anyway, the phone’s giant-for-its-time 3.5” screen and Multi-Touch user interface were eminently more accessible than the flip phone I used at the time. I vividly remember standing in my local Cingular Wireless store and being blown way by the demo iPhone; I originally had planned to buy an iPod touch alongside an upgraded cell phone, but knew the iPhone was my destiny from the moment I first used the legendary “Slide to Unlock” control.
It truly was a seminal moment for me.
That first iPhone was my first-ever Apple product. It would be the Trojan horse for me to switch to the Mac from Windows. Then I’d spend the next few years scouring Twitter and Apple’s website during my break times from the classroom at work on media event days to marvel at, say, the all-new iPhone 4. I was utterly mesmerized by Steve Jobs’ stage presence and by the technology, of course. I would always think about how cool it’d be to be in the room covering those events—I’d blog about them in the evenings after school—never dreaming that, in a few short years, Apple PR would literally call me with an invitation to my first-ever press event. What I’m saying is, Past Steven never dreamed I’d get to go to one, let alone become a regular attendee at countless more.
* * *
Apple’s innovation oftentimes get lionized in four main tiers: the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. macOS is generally heralded as the apex of human-computer design. As software goes, however, accessibility gets left in the dust when giving Apple roses because it’s esoteric and niche and, in my view, most people just aren’t comfortable talking about it beyond the occasional “gee whiz, this is neat” platitude in blog posts and on podcasts. But I’m here to tell you as a person who’s coped with multiple disabilities my whole life, accessibility features—whether from Apple or others—are literally life-changing, innovative designs. These are things which enable more types of people to enjoy their iPhone Air or MacBook Neo or whatever. More pointedly, accessibility is an incubator for innovation. As I’ve shared numerous times over the years, popular features like the mouse pointer in iPadOS, the Double Tap in watchOS, and even Type to Siri in Apple Intelligence owe their life to Accessibility; according to sources, these functions were handed off to the wider OS team from the Accessibility group so as to massage them to have more mainstream applications. Accessibility is admittedly not conducive to juicy “sources said” reporting, but the insider knowledge is instructive insofar as it affirms the idea that disabled people are technologists. As Dr. Victor Pineda told me in 2024, things like audiobooks, to name just one example, wouldn’t be so popular with the masses if not for my community.
Apple isn’t perfect in accessibility, to be sure—especially if you take a few minutes to peruse this year’s AppleVis report card. Again, though, Apple makes mistakes and people like me and Stephen Hackett still adore its products. The salient point is simply that not only are the actual software pieces good, that Apple does go so hard in prioritizing accessibility is the company walking the walk. Apple is dignifying people like me—a group who lives on the margin’s margin societally—and acknowledging that we’re human and utterly deserving of top-flight computing experiences. Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and company aren’t compelled by law to make the iPhone accessible; the Americans with Disabilities Act focuses on the physical world, with the legislation’s father in retired congressman Tony Coelho (D-CA) telling me in 2020 the digital realm is unquestionably its Achilles heel. Absent of an amendment to the law—not even remotely likely in the current political climate—it matters that Big Tech companies like Apple care so much about providing for those in need. At the very least, better accessibility ultimately begets a better bottom line for Cook and Kevan Parekh. Put another way, it’s heartening that Apple care about accessibility every single day of the year in a way that, as GAAD co-founder Joe Devon told me last year, most companies sideline but one day of the year in Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
* * *
The people I’ve spoken with, mostly off-the-record, who serve on Apple’s executive team, have been ardent in their advocacy for Apple’s accessibility work. From Tim Cook on down, the ethos funnels throughout the entire organization. From Apple’s retail outposts to its employees to Apple TV to even accommodations during events, that accessibility is part-and-parcel of the company’s culture is abundantly clear. It’s my understanding that, as software is concerned, the conception and building of new and improved accessibility features ranks right up there as an all-hands-on-deck, A1 priority as preparing the newest flagship iPhones each and every year. It’s serious.
Steve Jobs died around a year-and-a-half prior to my pivot to tech journalism, so I neither shook his hand nor interviewed him or took a selfie with him at media shindigs as I have with Cook. I like to think, though, Apple’s work in accessibility stands as an exemplar of Jobs’ insistence that Apple functions at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. Were he still in the mortal realm as Apple’s executive chairman or something, I like to think he would be fucking delighted and proud at features such as Voice Control and its ability to empower literally everyone to use their Apple device(s).
Now if only we could get disability inclusion vis-a-vis accessibility as a beat to be richly acknowledged in newsrooms. If you can hire AI reporters, you can hire for accessibility.
Meta Announces New ‘optical-forward’ Ray-Bans
Menlo Park-based Meta on Tuesday announced its popular Ray-Ban smart glasses, of which the company touts is “the deepest lineup of AI glasses across every use case,” now supports prescriptions. The $499 Ray-Ban Meta Optics Styles are available for pre-order beginning today on Meta and Ray-Ban’s respective websites, with general availability in the United States and “select international markets” starting April 14.
“Billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction and many Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta users already add prescription lenses to their AI glasses. Today, we’re rolling out an optical-forward pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses that support nearly all prescriptions,” Meta wrote in its announcement. “These are also the most comfortable glasses we’ve ever designed—aimed to better support all-day wear, even if you don’t need a prescription. Ergonomic features such as overextension hinges, interchangeable nose-pads, and optician-adjustable temple tips help make these new Ray-Ban Meta styles adaptable to individual face shapes for a tailored fit.”
At first blush, today’s news is good for accessibility. It makes Meta’s product more accessible to a wider swath of prospective customers who may have distinct eyewear needs. On the flip side, however, is the very real possibility someone with a very high prescription—someone like yours truly if I ever went (back) to wearing glasses like I probably should—could be left out because Meta just can’t support such powerful lenses. In fact, the prescription concern is the exact same concern I had when Apple unveiled the Vision Pro at WWDC 2023, as Vision Pro does support prescription lenses but caveats not all prescriptions are simpatico. The company even notes “[some] medical conditions, such as those involving eyelid drooping, changes in eye alignment (including strabismus or lazy eye), or uncontrolled eye movements (including nystagmus) might make it difficult for Vision Pro to properly detect your eyes. This might impact the visual experience.” To its credit, Apple suggests exploring the accessibility features in visionOS should you need higher-level support. As someone who does have strabismus, I can confirm Optic ID on Vision Pro doesn’t like me much.
The advent of Meta’s forthcoming new prescription glasses come soon after its partner Be My Eyes announced new accessibility features for Ray-Bans earlier this month.
Regarding tvOS, App Review, And Accessibility
My good friend John Gruber wrote over the weekend on Daring Fireball advocating for Apple to “enforce some basic standards” regarding custom video players on tvOS. He posits Apple should have codified that Apple TV developers use the system video player—which, incidentally, gives developers a lot “for free” in terms of accessibility.
“No custom video players. It’s too late for that, alas. But the tvOS App Store review process ought to insist on compliance with these accessibility and platform compliance features,” Gruber said in a Linked List item shared on Saturday. “You want to use your own custom video player? Fine. But apps with custom video players must support the “CC” [closed-captioning] button in the iOS Control Center remote control, must support the triple-click accessibility shortcut, must support the platform conventions for fast-forwarding and rewinding using the Apple TV remote control, etc. If your video player doesn’t comply, your app update doesn’t get approved.”
Let’s do a task analysis and break down Gruber’s gripes here:
his usability complaints are, at their core, about accessibility
App Store review
accessibility as a baseline, part and parcel of design (and/or vetting)
First, players. Count me as one who silently judges developers choosing not to use the tvOS video player in favor of their ostensibly “better” one. I think Apple’s works (and looks) the best. Like with VoiceOver labels, developers get a lot of accessibility “for free” by using the default interface elements; the trick is realizing you must still put in effort to apply more spit-and-polish to whatever custom pieces to layer atop them. VoiceOver, for instance, will work optimally only if you teach it to recognize your custom icons, text, and whatnot. So it goes with the tvOS video player—the text and iconography are all built to play nice with accessibility features (like VoiceOver!), so the onus is on the programmer(s) to ensure the alternative they insist on using plays equally as nice. (Relatedly, it’s criminal the Siri Remote’s buttons aren’t backlit.)
Next, App Store review. Gruber says Apple ought to use the protocol to “for the benefit of users.” While it’s admittedly been some time, my understanding, according to sources, is App Store Review does kinda, sorta check for accessibility but there isn’t a formal policy. This ties into the last point on accessibility as a baseline; I agree with Gruber that, as Marco Arment argued over a decade ago, vetting for accessibility should be part of the approval process. I can’t speak to the exact methodologies App Store reviewers currently use for spot-checking accessibility, but I don’t think it’s purely speculative to say the company certainly has the capabilities to institute more robust toolsets as are feasible. In any case, it also bears mentioning Netflix, for its part, is an ally of the disability community and, for a few years, employed an executive whose purview was accessibility and whom I interviewed early on in their tenure.
While I’m at it… if a whole country can have a chief accessibility officer, so could Apple.
Logitech’s Agnes Lisowska Masson Talks Wellbeing, Building Better Ergonomics in interview
Did you know March is International Wellbeing Month? I surely didn’t until earlier this month, when I was alerted to this blog post from Logitech wherein the Bay Area-based tech maker marked the occasion with “a fresh focus on everyday comfort.” As the title says, Logitech’s goal here is to identify (and fix!) “the hidden strain of your workday.”
“If you end your workday feeling stiff or achy, you’re not alone. When Logitech surveyed over 5,500 people across 11 countries, more than half said they experience pain or discomfort by the end of the day,” Logitech wrote in leading off its post. “That’s why this March, Logitech’s International Wellbeing Month returns for its fifth year with a clear message: your workspace should support your wellbeing, not work against it. And this year’s theme, Ritual Rescue, helps you transform your daily desk habits with smarter setups and intentional design.”
Logitech said its wellbeing study led to an enlightening conclusion: the “clear cause” of daily discomfort at one’s desk is caused by bad posture. In particular, the company reported Gen Z and Millennials indicated they “[feel] more strain than older groups and women across most countries reported higher levels of discomfort than men.”
“What remains consistent is 8 out of 10 people wish they knew how to optimize their workspace for comfort and ergonomics. Yet tools like keyboards and mice are an overlooked factor in the comfort equation,” Logitech said.
I got to connect with Logitech’s Agnes Lisowska Masson, a human-computer interface specialist and scientific leader of the company’s Ergo Lab. The Switzerland-based lab is described on Logitech’s website as “a world-renowned technology and research hub” devoted to employing a “human-centered and science-driven approach to designing, developing, and reinventing tools that help people feel better at work.”
Masson explained wellbeing (and by extension, accessibility) are central to the Logitech’s ethos. She called wellbeing the “foundation” of its Ergo line of products such as keyboards and mice. Moreover, the products are “ergonomist-approved,” adding people and science lay at the heart of the company’s efforts. Masson pointed to the Lift, a $69 mouse she told me “puts your hand in a more natural handshake position to relieve strain on the forearm and put less pressure on your wrist.” Likewise, the $59 Wave Keys keyboard has a wavy design which “provides cushioned palm support and accommodates a more natural typing posture,” according to Masson.
“By understanding how the human body naturally moves and functions, we create tools that encourage healthier postures, reduce muscle strain, and help you stay comfortable for longer… these products [from Logitech] aren’t just about making you more comfortable, they’re about supporting long-term wellbeing and helping you work better and feel better throughout the day,” she said.
It seems evident International Wellbeing Month is one to celebrate if you’re Logitech.
The human body was destined to move, not dedicate itself to desk duty, per Masson.
“International Wellbeing Month is a time for us to shed light on workspace wellbeing. On average, most of us will spend 82,000 hours of our lives working, so it’s important that your workspace supports your wellbeing, not works against it,” she said of the importance of raising awareness for greater ergonomics. “Throughout the month, we offer simple tips and smarter setups that improve how work feels. A few small changes can make a big difference on how we feel both at work and beyond.”
As a practical matter, when asked about product development, Masson explained Logitech’s work involves a cross-functional approach involving professionals such as ergonomists, as well as physical and occupational therapists. The end result, she said, has been the manifestation of “science-backed tips and tools designed to help people feel better at the workspace.” Furthermore, Masson said the aforementioned experts "utilize a human-centered and research-driven approach to create products, while also discovering actionable insights for optimizing workspace comfort and wellbeing.”
She continued: “The right tools are just one factor contributing to workspace wellbeing. For other areas, we collaborate with external partners to provide expertise such as Modern Health for mental wellbeing tips on how to manage burnout or find connections when working from home. This combination of ergonomic science and external insights helps us empower users with tools and tips that enhance both physical and mental wellbeing at work.”
Masson said prioritizing wellbeing has increasingly become “a prominent trend,” particularly amongst younger people. In fact, Logitech’s survey showed 80% “wished they knew how to optimize their workspace for more comfort and ergonomics.”
“The desire is there, and we see this through our community on social [media] platforms,” Masson said.
She added: “People are eager to learn about actionable tips and tools that can make a real difference in their daily lives. With International Wellbeing Month, we’re able to provide these solutions, which empower people to work smarter and live better.”
A brief bit of editorializing is apropos here. The timing of doing this story is fortuitous, as I’m doing the reporting amidst immense personal turmoil and recalibrating new spaces and systems in return. One example is my office, in which I’m writing this piece on a nice new desk and a badass monitor—yet I’m doing it sitting in my grandmother’s 80-year-old dining room chair. It’s a lovely heirloom, and I festooned it with a more comfortable seat cushion, but it’s decidedly not ergonomic nor attuned to my sleek, modern design sensibilities. On the bright side, I have a new, eminently more modern chair picked out, but haven’t pulled the trigger on ordering it with the background noise. The salient point is my posture sucks and my body aches in consequence.
Masson’s final words should be motivating. Ergonomics beget accessibility, after all.
“Small changes can make a big impact on your wellbeing, both at work and beyond,” she said. “Simple adjustments like taking regular breaks, elevating your screen to eye level, or maintaining proper posture can significantly enhance comfort throughout the day. At Logitech, we believe there is no one-size-fits-all solution. It’s all about finding what works for you, because your setup should truly support you.”
Using AI to automate more Accessible Alt-Text
Marcus Mendes reported last week for 9to5 Mac Apple researchers have devised a way to train AI models on generating image descriptions which, despite the models being “far smaller” than competing ones, “delivers more accurate, detailed descriptions.”
The new study, a collaborative effort between Apple’s band of AI researchers and folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was recently detailed in a paper entitled RubiCap: Rubric-Guided Reinforcement Learning for Dense Image Captioning.
“Dense image captioning is critical for cross-modal alignment in vision-language pretraining and text-to-image generation, but scaling expert-quality annotations is prohibitively expensive,” Apple’s researchers wrote in prefacing its findings on the company’s Machine Learning Research blog. “While synthetic captioning via strong vision-language models (VLMs) is a practical alternative, supervised distillation often yields limited output diversity and weak generalization.”
As Mendes explains in his story, the concept of dense image captioning refers to “generating detailed, region-level descriptions of everything happening within an image, rather than a single overall summary.”
He continues: “In other words, it identifies multiple elements and regions in an image, and describes them with fine-grain detail, resulting in a much richer understanding of the scene than an overall description.”
Without getting into the veracity of Apple’s claims here, the pertinence to accessibility is obvious. Like with language translation, providing image descriptions, or alt-text, is one task where leaning on artificial intelligence is savvy; it’s the kind of thing which plays to a computer’s core competency: automation. Indeed, from a human point of view, the ability to append good image descriptions is most definitely a skill to be learned and honed. There are tips and tricks on doing it well, but the tension lies in wanting to walk the tightrope of brevity and baseline; that is, wanting to be succinct in length whilst still offering a baseline of good information. Most alt-text I encounter particularly on social media, falls off and descends into the abyss—not because people are lazy or unfeeling, but because, as I said, it’s a skill one must learn and practice. On the other side, I absolutely loathe the penchant of people (and brands) using the alt-text box as though it were a secret treasure chest, adding cutesy, pithy messages. In my opinion, doing so is not merely offensive—using a bonafide accessibility tool for one’s own vanity—it also underscores an utterly, and tellingly, fundamental lack of understanding on disability and showing empathy for the people who need accessibility. I get it—this practice may not be malicious in intent, but it is absolutely malicious in action because it reduces an assistive technology to a mere novelty.
If you want to try AI-powered alt-text, I suggest downloading Ice Cubes. The app is an open-source Mastodon client, and I prefer its interface design to something like Ivory. I have Ice Cubes on iOS and macOS, and there’s a little button that looks like a magic wand which, when tapped, will automatically generate alt-text for your photo(s). You can edit it, of course, but it works well in my experience. As I said, leveraging AI like this is conducive to the technology’s strengths. Not only that, but manually typing out alt-text every time you want to share pictures can be cognitively and/or physically taxing for a person with disabilities, depending on their individual needs and tolerances.
Google Translate’s ‘Live translate with Headphones’ Feature Arrives on iOS
In a post on Google’s The Keyword blog this week, the Bay Area-based company announced Google Translate’s Live Translate With Headphones feature is available on iOS. The news was shared by Sasha Kapur, a product manager for Google Translate.
“Google Translate’s Live translate with headphones is officially arriving on iOS,” Kapur wrote in the short announcement on Wednesday. “And we’re expanding the capability for both iOS and Android users to even more countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Thailand, and the U.K. Live translate helps you instantly understand and connect with the world right through any pair of headphones in 70+ languages.”
Kapur notes using Live Translate “deepens” the connection to family, as well as helps better understand the world when traveling. In a brief how-to video, Google demos how to use Live Translate from within the Google Translate app after pairing headphones.
It may seem obvious, but language translation is all about accessibility at its core. To Kapur’s points, real-time translation provides an accessible solution to literally understanding the world around us, removing a conversational barrier by way of assistive technology. While the technical underpinnings of such a feature is surely damned impressive—to wit, Live Translation is powered by Gemini—the reality is this is one of those instances where accessibility truly is for everyone. Everyone benefits from more accessible interaction with their fellow human just as much as they benefit from larger text on their iPhone or Pixel phone. It’s truly technology being used for the betterment of everyone—and, in Live Translate’s case, the solution is being driven by artificial intelligence! Indeed, real-time language translation is a prime use case for AI.
Google stands not alone, of course. For its part, Apple announced new Apple Intelligence features last September coincident with the new iPhone launch and the AirPods Pro 3. Some may roll their eyes at the marketing speak of a press release, but Apple’s stated goal of “[breaking] down barriers” with Live Translation on AirPods isn’t the least bit bullshit or blustery. It really is a “powerful” feature which enables “users [to] translate all types of conversations—whether over the phone or while using FaceTime, in person, or asynchronously in Messages—right when they need to.”
Live Translation even works on the new AirPods Max 2 announced earlier this month.
Apple Mercifully Discontinues Mac Pro, Says ‘No Plans’ for Future Models
My pal Chance Miller scored a helluva scoop this week: The Mac Pro is no more.
“It’s the end of an era: Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that the Mac Pro is being discontinued. It has been removed from Apple’s website as of Thursday afternoon. The ‘Buy’ page on Apple’s website for the Mac Pro now redirects to the Mac’s homepage, where all references have been removed,” Miller reported on Thursday. “Apple has also confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.”
Until yesterday, Apple sold the 2019 desktop tower, running the M2 Ultra, for $6999.
Unlike John Siracusa, I was never amongst the target demographic for the Mac Pro. I can appreciate what it represented, and my beloved Pro Display XDR was literally built for it, but I never, ever gave the Mac Pro even the slightest consideration as a buying option. Nonetheless, for the people who do still have the Mac Pro, as Siracusa does, there exists an accessibility case for it. Overall, however, it seems the technology world had decisively moved on from the Mac Pro eons ago; indeed, the Mac Studio seems like a much better, and much smaller, fit for these contemporary times.
Don’t miss Joe Rossignol’s “reflecting on 20 years” of the Mac Pro’s life.
Sony Institutes ‘Necessary’ PlayStation Price Hikes
In a brief post on the PlayStation blog, Sony on Friday announced the PlayStation 5 family soon will be more expensive. The change goes into effect next week, on April 2.
“With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally,” Isabelle Tomatis, vice president of global marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, wrote in the lede. “We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”
Here in the United States, the impending price ladder works thusly:
PlayStation 5: $649.99
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: $599.99
PlayStation 5 Pro: $899.99
As of this writing, the three consoles go for $549, $499, and $749, respectively.
In addition, the PlayStation Portal will jump to $249.99 from $199.99.
Today’s news is bad for accessibility. Like Apple products, Sony’s aren’t cheap; if you’re a disabled person who’s on a fixed income and have been saving to upgrade your trusty old PS4, for example, the extra $100 is going to really hurt. (On the flip side, if you are someone with disabilities with means, the PS5 digital version may be worth it if only because no discs means no hand-eye coordination friction.) I write about these socioeconomic winds because, obviously, buying tech costs money and most in the disability community don’t have much of it. Nonetheless, Sony does invest considerable resources into accessibility. You have to pay more to get your shiny new console, but at least the actual gaming experience should be as high as the price tag.
Today’s news comes six months after Microsoft announced similar plans for Xbox.
Amazon’s ‘Prime Access’ Plan is All accessibility
One silver lining of my personal life’s dark cloud is getting an opportunity to recalibrate my life’s systems. Such reassessment has entailed many things, most of which I’ll refrain from divulging publicly, but suffice it to say there is a tech tie. Last week, I was delighted to discover Amazon runs something it calls Prime Access—it’s essentially a discounted, more accessible Prime plan. It’s $6.99 per month and includes a 30-day free trial should you qualify for the reduced rate. (I’m currently on the trial myself.)
The reason I was so tickled to learn of Prime Access’ existence is because, as part of my systems recalibration, I applied to, and was approved, for SNAP benefits—colloquially known as food stamps—through California’s CalFresh program. According to Amazon, one’s SNAP EBT benefits is but one piece of governmental assistance one can show to receive Prime Access. I followed the company’s directions and was easily approved for the discounted rate. I’ve been a Prime member for a very long time, signing up circa 2011 I believe, and have always paid the standard rate. As my life’s circumstances changed dramatically, and owing to my lifelong status as a person with disabilities, I’m entitled to receive a lot of social services. To my knowledge, Prime Access is the first “fun” (read: ostensibly non-essential) subscription which uses governmental support as a basis for cheaper pricing—at least in my own experience.
“All of Prime [for] half the price,” Amazon says in explaining the Prime Access plan on its website. “Eligible government assistance recipients and income verified customers can access all of Prime for $6.99/month.”
In practice, the everyday user experience of using the Amazon app and buying things isn’t any different than before. What’s different is obviously the new price of my Prime membership, but also the fact Amazon Fresh accepts SNAP EBT as a form of payment. This means I can accessibly order groceries for delivery and pay for them not with my normal debit card, but my CalFresh card. The monthly buffer not only makes food shopping easier, the technological element vis-a-vis Amazon makes for an easier experience in terms of “browsing the aisles” and not having to lug what could be a heavy bag home by myself. Moreover, my experience with Amazon, be it for buying groceries or anything else, underscores the notion that Prime accounts can be a bonafide de-facto accessibility tool for disabled people. It’s not at all trivial for someone like me, for example, can use my iPhone to get groceries without having to (necessarily) going to a store, doing the literal shop, and then bringing home the proverbial bacon. In this way, relying on Amazon isn’t laziness or pandering to society’s worst whims—it’s a legitimate survival tool that goes far beyond sheer unabated consumerism and capitalism during times like the twice-a-year Prime Day events.
On a related note, Ofek Levian, chief executive officer at San Francisco-based payments startup Forage, posted on LinkedIn this week his company was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026. I interviewed Levian in 2024 about fighting food insecurity in this country and, commensurately, supporting SNAP.
Levian gets it, really and truly.
“One in eight Americans depends on EBT to put food on the table,” he wrote in his post shared on Tuesday. “Millions of them are elderly, disabled, or living in food deserts. For them, grocery delivery isn’t a convenience; it’s a lifeline.”
Indeed, Prime Access makes that lifeline even stronger.
tvOS 26.4 Adds Genius Browse, More New features
Ryan Christoffel reports this week for 9to5 Mac Apple’s newly-released tvOS 26.4 update brings with it three new features for Apple TV 4K. The marquee addition is something Apple calls Genius Browse, which Christoffel notes is a throwback of sorts.
“In the tradition of iTunes’ old Genius feature, Genius Browse offers TV show and movie recommendations for users. Available by scrolling down the Home tab in the TV app, you’ll see a variety of categories like ‘Good for a Date Night’ or ‘Based on a Book.’ These categories refresh regularly, and each one offers a list of titles to check out,” Christoffel wrote on Tuesday. “The nice aspect of Genius Browse is that within each list of recommended titles, you can find additional suggestions that are related to any specific title you select. So there are multiple layers of recommendations waiting for you.”
Recommendations cover not only Apple TV, but also HBO Max, Prime Video, and other services. Christoffel published an overview of Genius Browse last week, calling the exclusive-to-Apple TV feature as "a powerful solution to improve content discovery.”
From an accessibility standpoint, Genius Browse has potential. I haven’t played around with it yet, but it’s easy to see how, for instance, neurodivergent people who may have trouble cataloging what content lives where, that Genius Browse collates suggestions based on themes should make it easier to find something to watch. Likewise, that the TV app supports Continue Watching from a million services not named Netflix makes getting back to what you were watching much more accessible. Broadly speaking, the advent of Genius Browse is a sobering reminder at the backwards nature of the tvOS user interface. To wit, the Genius Feature, while worthy in its current form, really and truly should be part of the main screen—not exclusively siloed to the TV app. As I’ve argued numerous times over the years, tvOS could be so much more compelling on a big, bright screen like that of my 77” LG C3 OLED. You can argue the static grid of icons is simpler and more accessibly understood, but I’d contend it’d be more accessible to help users find something to watch, be it new or old, right then and there. This is Google TV’s conceit, whose Android underpinnings notwithstanding, is chockfull of good, very clever ideas Apple should absolutely steal for its own television platform.
This is why I keep saying I’m waiting for Apple to give tvOS its iOS 7 “glow-up” moment.
Elsewhere in his story, Christoffel says tvOS 26.4 also includes new customization options for subtitles (ahem, captions) which aren’t nestled in the bespoke Accessibility submenu in Settings, as well as finally removes the legacy TV Shows and Movies apps.
Report: Zoox expands San francisco Service Area
My friend Rya Jetha reports for The San Francisco Standard today Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox is expanding its service area in San Francisco so as to serve more neighborhoods. Zoox’s HQ is located on the peninsula, in Foster City.
“Zoox is quadrupling its San Francisco service area for select riders, with operations in the Marina, North Beach, Chinatown, Pacific Heights, and along the Embarcadero,” Jetha wrote on Tuesday.
Of the new neighborhoods, Pac Heights is closest to my former home in the Richmond. I signed up for Zoox long ago, but never was willing to literally go across the city to the Mission or SoMA to try it out. By contrast, Waymo is available city-wide. I was in Las Vegas for a few days (post-CES) back in January, but never booked a Zoox while there. I’d love to try them out someday, ideally sooner than later, but at this point, I’m longing for Waymo to expand its own service area and start serving my corner of the East Bay—incidentally just over the bridge from tech hotbeds like Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and more. Regardless of the purveyor, autonomous vehicles as a category have utterly revolutionized my own autonomous, agentic, transportation needs—Lyft and Uber have their place, but Waymo takes the experience to the next level. Journalistically speaking, I’ve been in touch with Zoox’s PR team in the recent past, and my understanding is the company cares very much about accessibility, but that’s the extent of my interaction thus far. I’d love for the dynamic to change sometime soon.
Back to Jetha. Her dek is really good: “[Most] San Franciscans still can’t catch a ride—unless they work at Zoox, know someone who does, or make it off the waitlist.”
In Defense of macOS Tahoe’s menu icons
Over the weekend, Stephen Hackett linked to a post by Steve Troughton-Smith on how to hide the menu icons in macOS Tahoe. The trick involves a Terminal command.
defaults write -g NSMenuEnableActionImages -bool NO
“It [the command] even preserves the couple of instances you do want icons, like for window zoom/resize,” Troughton-Smith said in his post on Mastodon.
The SF Symbols menu icons, a flourish new to Tahoe’s visual design alongside Liquid Glass, have been the subject of much consternation amongst Apple watchers, with most people who revile them describing them as a crime against user interface design. But I disagree with the Apple community’s consensus, at least to an extent.
As a person with severe visual disabilities, two things are true here in my opinion: (1) the little glyphs are unattractive and nonsensical in places, adding clutter to the already cramped menu real estate; and (2) on the flip side, it’s plausible the menu icons can make identifying options more accessible because the icons act as a pictorial element which augments the written text. For my use, I don’t mind the menu icons at all, but will concede, as Hackett suggests in his commentary, Apple ought to “roll this change back in macOS 27, or offer a proper setting to disable these icons for those of us who find them distracting.” An eminently reasonable compromise to ask of Apple.
Preference notwithstanding, the accessibility story deserves some spotlight. To me, the former Early Childhood Development major sees Tahoe’s menu icons as simply a more highfalutin implementation of the High-Scope philosophy. Without getting too deep into the weeds on the curriculum’s inner workings, the Cliff’s Notes version is High-Scope classrooms prioritize bimodal sensory integration while also promoting literacy. To wit, it’s beneficial for young children to not only see images of the materials available to them in a particular center area, it’s also a boon to have the written word of said material(s). At a high level, this concept is what I’d presume drove Apple’s UI designers to add the icons in the first place; better for people to have a picture which reinforces the text. Disability-wise, while you can make a cogent argument that the icons are too “busy” in terms of visual and cognitive needs for some, the salient point I’m making here is just that the reality is probably—likely, even—more nuanced than that. The fact most restaurant menus omit pictures in their dishes’ description is commonplace, I’ll grant you, but commonality doesn’t necessarily equate to accessibleness. In other words, the people who loathe Tahoe’s menu icons are clutching their proverbial pearls because they think it’s an aesthetic regression—the problem is, aesthetics don’t, or shouldn’t trump, accessibility. By the menu icons logic, showers shouldn’t have grab bars because they make them look shittier, god forbid.
Here’s my one and only gripe with Apple’s current implementation of menu icons. I use Hover Text on my Mac, and while it does include keyboard shortcuts in the enlarged “tooltip,” it does not include the much-maligned icons. It seems like a curious oversight, making the Hover Text experience feel inconsistent and half-baked. That’s a surefire feature enhancement I’d love to see announced for macOS 27 come early June.
Apple announces this year’s WWDC Dates
Apple on Monday announced WWDC 2026. The week-long event will run June 8–12.
“WWDC26 will spotlight incredible updates for Apple platforms, including AI advancements and exciting new software and developer tools,” the company said in the press release posted to its Newsroom site. “As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting developers, WWDC will also provide unique access to Apple engineers and designers, and insight into new tools, frameworks, and features.”
This year’s WWDC will begin on Monday, June 8 with what Apple describes as “a special in-person event” at Apple Park. The main keynote, as well as the colloquially known “developer keynote” in the Platforms State of the Union, will be watchable by developers and students alike. Apple doesn’t say so, but the in-person event includes a sizable number of media in attendance as well—historically including yours truly.
Historically is an apt descriptor; WWDC26 will be my 14th as a member of the press.
“WWDC is one of the most exciting times for us at Apple because it’s a chance for our incredible global developer community to come together for an electrifying week that celebrates technology, innovation, and collaboration,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, said in a statement included in the company’s announcement. “We can’t wait to see many of you online and in person for what is sure to be one of our best WWDC events yet.”
Accessibility is a big part of WWDC, and you’ll see all my news and analysis right here.
Where Does John Ternus Land on accessibility?
Ben Lovejoy posted a synopsis for 9to5 Mac of Mark Gurman’s profile of John Ternus for Bloomberg. I don’t have a Bloomberg subscription, so I can neither read the story nor Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Thus, Lovejoy’s Cliff’s Notes version was helpful.
One bit about Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, stood out to me.
“Last year he took control of a secretive unit developing robots, including a tabletop device with a screen that swirls to focus on a speaker moving around the room during a FaceTime call. (It’s slated for release as early as next year.) He has taken a bigger role in Apple’s product marketing, sometimes personally editing copy for the website and product event materials, and has become central to the company’s work to make its devices more environmentally sustainable,” Gurman reported. “Ternus has also assumed oversight of the hardware and software design teams, making him the key liaison between Apple’s vaunted design organization and senior management—meaning he’s already one of the most influential people in the company’s history.”
The immense potential for robotics to engender greater accessibility notwithstanding, reading this passage got me wondering about how, if and when Apple publicly announces its succession plan for Tim Cook, Ternus will embrace disability inclusion vis-a-vis accessibility. To a man, I’m confident Ternus, as with everyone else on the company’s executive team, is all-in on supporting Sarah Herrlinger and team in their truly life-changing efforts. Ternus is someone I’ve not yet met in person, but if and when he fills Cook’s shoes, I’d love to interview him on-the-record about his thoughts on Apple’s accessibility software and stewarding the company here into the foreseeable future. As one data point, it is not small potatoes that Cook heartily gave accessibility an explicit shoutout in his recent interview with David Pogue; indeed, to have members of the disability community acknowledged on a national news program (by way of CBS Sunday Morning) wasn’t an implementation detail. It mattered a lot to someone like yours truly, never mind the journalistic interest behind it. I’m just curious as to whether Ternus, as the purported CEO-in-waiting, will end up following Cook’s lead in standing shoulder-to-shoulder with disabled people for not only the internal work, but externally as well during occasions like Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Later, Lovejoy continues about Ternus’ reputation inside Apple Park: “Ternus is also said to have a management and communication style very similar to that of Cook and to have a similar attitude to risk. Not everyone will see that latter point as a good thing, of course, with some arguing that the company needs to be significantly bolder. However, after initially seeming to fail to appreciate the importance of AI to the company’s future, the piece says that is no longer the case.”
‘The case for an Ultralight Mac’
David Sparks, aka MacSparky, published a blog post in which he contends Apple should make an ultralight Mac laptop fitted with Apple silicon inside. Mac fans like him rightly proclaim such a computer would be the long-awaited successor to the beleaguered but beloved 12” MacBook, introduced in 2015 alongside the OG iPad Pro.
Sparks longs not for “the MacBook [Neo] for everyone,” but the esoteric Mac for few.
“The MacBook Neo is here, and it’s already obvious it will be a massive hit for Apple. People are going to buy so many of these. It will be transformative and bring lots of new users into the Apple ecosystem,” he said. “But I want to talk about what the Neo isn’t. If you’ve been waiting for Apple to make a truly ultralight Mac, something more premium, smaller, and yes, more expensive, the Neo isn’t that machine. The Neo is about accessibility and volume. It’s the MacBook for everyone… I want the other thing.”
Famously, the MacBook Air in 2008 was positioned as a premium, ultralight laptop.
Although I’d love to get my hands on a MacBook Neo, count me in with Sparks’ feelings here on wanting a true MacBook successor. In the five years of its life (2015–2019), I lusted hard after that thing; each and every time I’d visit an Apple Store, I’d make a beeline for the MacBook table and gawk at its diminutive figure. For a time in college working towards my (unfinished) degree in Early Childhood Studies, I toted around the 11.6” MacBook Air, first introduced in late 2010. I have a vivid memory of sitting down at my group’s table one night in English class and pulling the MacBook out of my backpack and the girl across from me asking incredulously “That’s your computer?!”
The 12” MacBook refined that form to its Platonic ideal. The MacBook Neo refines nothing in this regard, rather astonishing sheerly for price and value proposition.
The original MacBook Air cost $1799. The 12” MacBook cost $1299. It’s not unusual for smaller and denser things to carry premium price tags because it’s actually harder to engineer things to fit nicely and correctly within smaller spaces (yay, physics). In contemporary times, look no further for evidence than the 9-month-old iPhone Air. I have one as my everyday phone this year, choosing it precisely for its thin-and-light profile. As a smartphone, it’s no slouch, but remains objectively worse than the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro; most meaningfully worse is economical—the Air is, at $999, $200 more expensive than the base iPhone 17 ($799). Ah, but therein lies the rub: you, like I did, paid the price because you prioritized thinness and lightness. Maybe $999 is beyond your wallet’s ken, and that’s okay, but it doesn’t detract from the core of my contention.
Consider the object lesson here. I love the Air despite knowing it’s a technologically inferior product compared to its brethren on a spec sheet. I accept that trade-off because I so adore the size. Likewise, I’d relish an opportunity to get my hands on the 12” MacBook’s progeny primarily because of its svelteness. Indeed, from an accessibility perspective, the benefits (for me, anyway) would be similar to those of my iPhone Air: a “good enough” computer whose greatest attribute is how I accessibly carry it to and fro. However splendid the MacBook Air and Neo are in their own rights, their dimensions—pointedly its 2.7lb weight—makes them heifers by comparison.
The salient point? A revived 12” MacBook (and iPhone Air) are in classes all their own.
Apple watchers can, and undoubtedly do, engage in spirited, nerdy debates over whether Apple should, or would, expand the MacBook lineup once more to accommodate an ultralight. That’s valid. In an accessibility context, though, equally valid is the conclusion a new 12” MacBook would redefine the Mac’s accessibility story.
Season 2 of ‘Wonder pets: in the city’ Hits Apple TV
I typically don’t cover TV news on Curb Cuts, but I’ll make an exception today.
Marcus Mendes reported this week for 9to5 Mac the Apple TV children’s program, Wonder Pets: In the City, dropped its 13-episode second season on the platform. The series debuted in 2024, with adventures following a band of humble classroom pets by day, who, by night, transform into heroic, opera-singing superheroes who “answer calls from animals in need all over the world” in their Batmobile-esque “Jetcar.”
Fortuitously, I wrote about Wonder Pets: In the City last March. I published a story which featured a brief interview with Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and director Jennifer Oxley, who developed the show alongside Nickelodeon Animation. Wonder Pets, she told me, is targeted at preschoolers but is “adorable” to any one of any age.
Adorability aside, the show features characters coping with disability in some way.
“Ultimately, we’ve got these three pets who have very different personalities and they’re different types of animals—yet they’re best friends and they come together as one,” Oxley said of her protagonists. “They can work together and find a way to bring all of their strengths to save the day. I’m hoping audience will feel that sort of love and heart and joy of helping others. I’m hoping that will be a takeaway message for them.”
Moreover, Oxley described working with Apple, notably children’s programming boss Tara Sorensen, as “a fun challenge and collaboration” because, as you’d expect, the company has its own sensibilities that absolutely translate to its streaming service.
I know it’s not an either/or scenario, yet for all the acclaim Apple TV receives from critics and audiences alike, the streamer’s embrace of disability inclusion is criminally underrated. I love Severance as much as the next person, but there is so much good disability-centric content on Apple TV that gets barely any buzz. Like its work in advancing disability inclusion on the software side, Apple deserves far greater roses for their efforts—especially from reviewers and journalists who critique the company.
Tim Cook: Mac Enjoyed ‘Best Launch Week Ever’
Tim Cook took to social media on Friday morning to boast about the Mac platform seeing immense enthusiasm in recent times from “first-time Mac customers.” The Apple CEO’s X laudatory post has thus far garnered 1.5 million views as of this writing.
As Ryan Christoffel writes for 9to5 Mac, March been momentous for the Mac, as Apple has announced the M5-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as well as the newest darling in the A18 Pro-powered MacBook Neo. Of the three laptops, the Neo has (rightly) grabbed the lion’s share of the buzz and adulation. I wasn’t in New York City for Apple’s soirée intime earlier this month, nor was I part of the review cycle this time around, but I’m as excited for the Neo as any one of my peers in the reviewers’ racket.
Indeed, the MacBook Neo arguably is most interesting, and pertinent, from an accessibility perspective. The computer’s $599 price tag, coupled with its premium build and macOS software, is an uber-compelling piece of kit for those in the disability community who, for instance, needs or wants a new Mac but can’t stretch further to nab the $1099, base model Air. There’s zero shame in being budget-conscious—and make no mistake, the majority of us fall into that category—but the salient point is a disabled person could pay a relative pittance for what’s, for all intents and purposes, a fully-fledged, fully capable Mac laptop. Technical pedantry notwithstanding, the Neo seems eminently capable of doing all the typical things most people want to do with a Mac every day; Apple obviously cut corners in an effort to meet a price point, but they did not cut corners in regards to fit and finish and user experience. All things considered, the MacBook Neo’s value proposition is extraordinarily high if, again, you’re someone with disabilities who (a) prefers the Mac; and (b) commensurately depends on the Mac’s accessibility features. For my druthers, I’d prefer the pricier $699 configuration so I could get not only more disk space (512GB versus 256GB), but, more crucially for accessibility, the Touch ID sensor for biometric authentication.
The MacBook Air is objectively superior, but the Neo’s value is nigh untouchable.
Back to Cook. My good friend iJustine, whom I interviewed back in 2023, got the opportunity to interview him again this past week in New York City as part of Apple’s 50th anniversary festivities. Their conversation is available on YouTube, of course.