How ventura Charted Course to tahoe and beyond

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman published his spoiler-filled report late this week wherein he reveals what Apple intends on unveiling at Monday’s WWDC25 keynote. Gurman has formed a habit of doing so, a practice my friend John Gruber described as “tradition.”

As with movies and TV shows, abstain from Gurman’s report if you dislike spoilers.

What caught my attention reading Gruber’s comments is the hotly-anticipated visual redesign of Apple’s platforms. Gurman first wrote about it back in March, saying Apple planned to make its myriad operating systems “look similar and more consistent” while adding styles differ widely in terms of iconography and more between platforms. He rightly pointed out said differences “can make it jarring to hop from one device to another.” Apple’s primary goal, Gurman said, is to prioritize consistency, design-wise.

This is the part that struck me hardest. As I said on Mastodon yesterday, the same people who are like kids on Christmas morning regarding the aforementioned design refresh are the exact same people who have bemoaned the redesigned macOS Settings app when it debuted a few years ago. The irony here is these people haven’t a clue they’re talking out of both sides of their mouth; there can be spirited debate surrounding Mac design idioms, as well as how much iOS should invade such entrenched territory, but macOS Settings blazed a trail. To wit, launch the Settings app on one’s Mac of choice and the inspiration is crystal clear: it looks highly similar to that on iOS and iPadOS. Why is that? The cynical view is to say it’s because Apple wants to deepen the so-called “iOS-ification” of the Mac, much the chagrin of diehards. The more charitable viewpoint, however—and I believe the more correct one—is Apple sought to provide (surprise, surprise!) more consistency and likeness between platforms. What the company reveals come Monday morning at Apple Park is taking that prior work on macOS Settings and expanding upon it such to scale it up big time.

Apple’s software engineering groups are bifurcated no longer. This isn’t the iPhone’s early era, circa 2007–2010, where the company built only two OSes: Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Since those days, the company has taken the core underpinnings of iOS and spooled off four more platforms in watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and visionOS—with rumors of yet another on the horizon. It makes complete sense for Apple to strive towards more “unity,” more consistency, across its panoply of platforms because the company makes a helluva lot more computers than it used to. I’ve long banged the drum that, from an accessibility standpoint, that Apple took iOS and pulled the proverbial string to build its progeny was a stroke of genius. Especially for people who cope with intellectual disabilities where cognition is atypical—however unstated, these are exactly the type of user Gurman alluded to this past spring—that iPadOS, watchOS, et al, look and behave so similarly to an iPhone is worth its weight in usability gold. It’s accessible in part because it’s consistent. Consistency should be lauded far more as a feature, not a bug. As I said earlier, the design snobs of the internet like to navel-gaze and gripe about idioms and implementation details. This kind of critique certainly does have its place, but particularly in context of the macOS Settings overhaul, the complainers routinely miss the forest for the trees. You’re free to niggle philosophical on Apple’s choices, but I’m here to tell you once more with feeling that accessibility matters. At 30,000 feet, that macOS Settings looks like iOS or whatever is a good thing for a not-insignificant swath of people in the disability community—anyone else’s precious pearl-clutching be damned. Likewise, that “iOS 26” and its compatriots will look and feel of a family is also a very good thing in the aggregate. For accessibility, the family resemblance is of crucial import when it comes to acclimation and comfort. That macOS Settings looks like iOS is a huge, if imperfect, win for legions of disabled people.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) co-founder Joe Devon was spot-on when he shared an anecdote in a recent interview with me about someone lamenting on social media about the “364 days of global accessibility oblivion.” So much attentionis paid to Apple’s annual GAAD announcement on blogs and podcasts, but so much of it smacks of tokenization and patronage. I bring this up because I can’t help but think were accessibility coverage more robust in the Apple sphere, it would be easier to connect the dots between, say, the redesigned macOS Settings app and the updates Apple is readying itself to announce next week. Alas, accessibility is more often than not relegated to 364 days of oblivion because the tech commentariat lack the perspective for it—and, even more frustratingly, the powers-that-be running the tech desks in newsrooms are apathetic towards seeking out the knowledge—with precious few exceptions. What you’re left with are people like myself, perpetually shouting into what feels like an ever-growing black hole with weekend think pieces such as this one.

Anyway, I’ll be in Cupertino on Monday covering all the news from the WWDC keynote.

PlayStation Store Gains support for Apple Pay

On my way home from a brief reporting trip/vacation in the Pacific Northwest, I came across this X post on Sony’s official PlayStation account sharing news that Apple Pay now is a supported payment method on the PlayStation Store for PS4 and PS5. Sony’s post includes a link to this support document with information on how to use Apple Pay.

Sony emphasizes one must ensure Apple Pay is set up for use on their iPhone or other iOS device, as well as there are valid payment methods saved to their Apple account.

News of the PlayStation Store adopting support Apple Pay grabbed my attention as Apple Pay certainly will make purchasing games more accessible. I’ve extolled the accessibility virtues of Apple Pay innumerable times over the years, and use it every chance I get—whether in a brick-and-mortar store or online. In case of the PlayStation Store, the irony here is my PlayStation 5 model is the disc version; most times, I tend to prefer disc-based games to their digital likenesses. This mindset is more sentimental than practical, as I also have a Mega Sg console alongside a cavalcade of game cartridges. My gaming heyday coincided with the Nintendo NES and Sega Genesis, coupled with mobile consoles like the Game Boy and Game Gear. What this means is I’m virtually hardwired to insert (and remove) physical media, (in)accessibility be damned. Ditto for DVDs and Blu-rays. Call it nostalgia—or negligence, given my affinity towards, and need for, greater accessibility—but there’s just something about physical game media. More ironic is my Xbox Series S can only download games from the internet.

Anyway, there lies a schism in my media. Sony’s announcement reminded me of that.

I may need a new Mac Soon, Report Suggests

If this rumor becomes reality, the end is nigh for my trusty iMac.

I became a bit crestfallen today when I read this report by MacRumors’ Hartley Charlton, who cites a report from AppleInsider, that the forthcoming update to macOS—macOS 26; more below—drops support for five older Macs. Charlton says the 2017 iMac Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, 2018 Mac mini, 2020 Intel-based MacBook Air, as well as my aforementioned Retina 4K iMac, all are (purportedly) incompatible with the new version.

I’d love to know how many words I’ve churned out on this machine in the nearly 6 years I’ve had it. This iMac came to me in 2019, which feels almost quite literally like a lifetime ago now. It was a few months after I had a personal tragedy, and a few months into becoming a pig parent. The pandemic was several months away, unbeknownst to me and the rest of the planet. In 2019, I was covering Apple exclusively; the powers-that-be at Forbes at the time wouldn’t approach me about joining its invite-only contributor network until close to Halloween. At the time, I never would’ve dreamed I’d be on the verge of career opportunities that would eventually push my reporting into the stratosphere. My Forbes column opened those doors for me, and I’ll forever be grateful.

All the while, my iMac has been here to see me through it all.

I don’t mean to wax overly poetic about a computer. I know electronics have only a finite lifespan, and it appears increasingly likely that it will reach its end—defined by the stoppage of support for the latest software—which makes it befitting that I eulogize my iMac in advance. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my desk setup for some time now, especially lusting over the also-new-in–2019 Pro Display XDR with either a docked MacBook or perhaps a Mac mini of some sort. As someone whose work primarily involves videoconferencing and plain text files for writing, my spartan compute needs belie my nerdy desire for beefier hardware like the tricked-out Mac Studio my friend and former collaborator Federico Viticci has been testing lately. I’m still weighing my options for my next move, but suffice it to say I’ve greatly enjoyed the all-in-one lifestyle afforded by my iMac. I like that I have a central, dedicated location for work and thus I’m (tentatively) inclined to make a lateral move to the latest one. At the very least, I’m enthused by the prospect of using an Apple silicon-based Mac as my daily driver, despite my Intel iMac still being more than capable of doing what I need for my job.

Okay, about “macOS 26.” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a helluva scoop this week in which he reports Apple plans to change the versioning scheme for its platforms to reflect calendar years instead of version numbers. Lots of people on the internet have taken umbrage over the decision, some asininely so, but I think the reaction is a show of humanity’s adverseness to change. As I said on Mastodon yesterday, EA Sports has used the decades-old practice, dating back to the heyday of the Sega Genesis, to use the upcoming calendar year for its games. For example, the company’s college football title, College Football ’26, is due to come out on July 10 of 2025 and no one is batting an eye. Ditto for its pro game, Madden ’26, out August 14. From an accessibility point of view, it should prove easier for those with intellectual disabilities to know their software is current because it’s based in years. Even for the “normal” non-nerds in people’s lives, the change should be easier to grok; not many of my family and friends are inclined to dive into Settings → General → About to see their iPhone is running iOS 18.5.

As for me, I’m inclined to say I’ll have a new Mac for macOS 26 when it drops this fall.

Inside AXS Labs’ Mission to make the Real world a more accessible place to All disabled People

Two decades have passed since Jason DaSilva was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 25. A filmmaker known for works such as 2013’s When I Walk, DaSilva explained during an interview last week he was “able-bodied” back in 2005 when doctors informed him of his MS diagnosis. He was living in New York City and began noticing problems with walking and blurry vision. DaSilva has primary progressive multiple sclerosis, or PPMS. It’s described by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as “an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body,” adding “if you have PPMS, you will experience gradually worsening neurologic symptoms and an accumulation of disability [and] you will not have relapses early in the disease course. You also will not have remissions.” 10% to 15% of people have DaSilva’s type of MS.

“I didn’t know what to do,” DaSilva said of the aftermath of getting his diagnosis. “Then I worked on a couple more films, then turned it around and said, ‘Well, what I really should do is continue my career, but in a way that embraces the MS I have now.’”

What he chose to do was launch a nonprofit organization called AXS Labs. On its website, AXS Labs says its mission is devoted to “building tools, telling the stories of accessibility and inclusion through media, journalism, news and technology [and] [serving] people with disabilities through media and technology.” DaSilva told me his organization’s first project is the eponymously named AXS Map. The impetus for AXS Maps, is obviously accessibility; as a disabled person, DaSilva has long lamented the lack of maps which cater to the disability community. There are “all these maps from Google and Yelp,” but none truly dedicated to providing crucial inclusionary information on accommodations such as wheelchair access and more. DaSilva was resolute in his belief such a tool “needs to be done,” so that’s what he and his team did. AXS Map isn’t new, with work beginning in 2010 before launching to the public two years later.

“[AXS Maps] has been going ever since,” DaSilva said. “We have a big database now, but it’s been going since 2012.”

DaSilva reiterated the sore need for something like AXS Map to exist for the disability community and its allies. He again lamented how there are apps like the aforementioned Yelp, replete with listings and reviews of businesses near and far, but skimps on accessibility information for people like himself—and yours truly, for that matter. Even now, such information remains sparse, but DaSilva said the work is evergreen. AXS Map has grown considerably in 13 years, with the software reaching a point where “we have so many reviews… we keep going and creating new things.”

DaSilva shared an anecdote about living in Manhattan’s East Village and wanting to go to a bar or restaurant. A wheelchair user, DaSilva would venture out for the proverbial night on the town on Friday nights with friends only to sullenly discover a place would have stairs or steps, making it harder to get in, if at all. Many times, it would be downright impossible and the night would end prematurely because of inaccessibility.

“I said, ‘Well, this is obviously a need that needs to be dealt with from a personal perspective,’” DaSilva said. “But I realized it was [also] something that could help a lot of people with whatever they need in terms of accessibility.”

In a technical terms, AXS Map’s data is based on the Google Places API. According to DaSilva, “any place on Google is going to be available on [AXS Map] as long as they’re a business that’s registered with Google.” He emphasized the notion that AXS Maps stands to “provide another layer of information” which Google may not have, calling accessibility information “critical” for so many like himself and others. In fact, lots of disabled people have expressed gratitude to DaSilva and team for offering such an invaluable tool; DaSilva said people are excited to learn AXS Map exists and subsequently are excited to spread the good word about it to everyone else out there.

“It’s something that needed to be done, but there was no way for people to actually do it,” DaSilva said of the motivation to build AXS Maps. “That’s it. I saw something that I could pull the trigger on and get the word out there.”

He continued: “People really like that [AXS Map] exists. I get a lot of feedback from people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to go to places. They wouldn’t know if they’re accessible or not, so AXS Maps really helps.”

As to the effectualness of AXS Map to people’s everyday lives, DaSilva told me it boils down to two things. One, the software allows people to talk about whether places they know are accessible (or not). And two, it enables people to be explorers by pushing them to venture to new parts of their neighborhood or city. “Even if they go to a new city, there are some places they wouldn’t have otherwise known about,” DaSilva said.

In a broad scope, DaSilva said it’s his experience that an increasing number of businesses have become disability-friendly over the years. In New York City, he noted the bar is “certainly getting higher” for prioritizing accessibility—but caveated a big barrier is infrastructure. Most buildings there, he told me, are legacy and thus pretty old; this means their very construction means upgrading to make them “ADA-friendly,” as the colloquialism goes, is a slow (and expensive) process for city leaders and their budgets. But it isn’t an issue solely confined to New York, as DaSilva also cited other east coast metros such as Philadelphia and Toronto also slogging through relative inaccessibility largely because they, too, are older cities filled with older buildings.

However problematic buildings are, DaSilva finds people are keen to help him.

“They’re helpful as they can be,” he said. “They’re helpful… they tell me where to go to [and] tell me if it’s an accessible place. They tell me if they have another entryway or whatever the case may be. They do as much as they can do for me.”

Looking towards the future for AXS Labs, DaSilva said AXS Map in particular is more “database” than anything else. He’s scheduled to soon give a presentation to the United Nations on AXS Maps: how it works and how best to use it. His talk coincides with the UN’s Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities. Beyond AXS Map, he’s also poised to discuss how artificial intelligence can positively impact the lives of disabled people and how AXS Map fits into the ever-burgeoning era of AI. The technology, he added, has enormous potential to not only map accessible places, but help people in the community get to those places. What’s more, the “robots,” as DaSilva characterized AI, could go in and verify whether places are accessible or not.

AXS Maps is available on iOS and Android.

PopSockets Announces Kick-Out Grip and stand

MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol reports this week PopSockets has released its newest product, the Kick-Out grip and stand for iPhone. The $40 accessory, which supports Apple’s MagSafe technology, is touted by PopSockets as “[rocking] multiple angles.”

“Unlike other PopSockets, the Kick-Out model offers the long-awaited ability to prop up an iPhone in a vertical Portrait Mode position. This added functionality is useful for watching vertical videos in apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube,” Rossignol wrote in describing the new accessory. “You can twist the built-in MagSafe ring, and then pop open the hinged stand to prop up the iPhone horizontally or vertically on a table.”

Seeing this news immediately took my mind to my interview late last year with PopSockets’ chief executive officer Jiayu Lin. Lin, who’s coming up on her 1-year anniversary leading the company, told me in part PopSockets “[sits] at the intersection of fashion and functionality.” My conversation with Lin coincided with the announcement that PopSockets worked with Apple such that the Cupertino-based captain of industry exclusively carry a collection of MagSafe phone grips in both its online store and retail outposts. According to Lin, PopSockets was “really excited” about the opportunity to work closely with Apple to reach “a new generation of customers,” adding it was a big step towards “forming strong relationships with partners and collaborators and [finding] new ways to get the brand into new locations.”

As I wrote in November—editorializing is a key part of reporting on accessibility, in my strong opinion—PopSockets’ origin story indeed lies in accessibility. Back in 2010, company founder David Barnett, who last fall handed the proverbial reins to Lin to be the company’s next chief executive, grew frustrated by his EarPods’ cords becoming tangled, so he decided to concoct a DIY remedy by gluing two buttons to the back of his phone before wrapping the cord around them. A Kickstarter project followed in 2012, with Barnett directing the money generated from the successfully-funded campaign to humbly start PopSockets from his Boulder, Colorado garage over a decade ago, in 2014.

Lin extolled PopSockets’ virtues by highlighting its position sitting at the intersection of fashion and functionality. As ever, it’s about something else: accessibility. Not only does the grippy nature make it easier to hold and prop up on a table, both especially important to those with muscle tone problems, the MagSafe integration makes it such that applying (or removing) the PopSocket itself is more accessible by virtue of the laws of physics. Ergo, a product like the aforementioned Kick-Out may well be immensely appealing to someone who copes with motor disabilities. In fact, as someone who does have motor disabilities, grip and friction are the primary reasons I insist on using a case on my iPhones. A case may obstruct from admiring the industrial design, but it’s a price I must pay for usability’s sake. Such is life for a nerd who lives with multiple conditions.

PopSockets’ new Kick-Out grip is available on its website now.

Presley Alexander Talks being an autistic actor, Disability Representation in Hollywood in interview

When I asked Presley Alexander recently how they got into acting, they told me it happened as a “total coincidence.” Alexander, who identifies as autistic and queer and is based in Los Angeles, told me they initially wanted to work as a YouTuber and figured why not try dabbling in Hollywood while in town. It turned out they “really fell in love with it” as someone who self-describes as “always [being] a person who has a million different hobbies and likes to try different things.” As an actor, Alexander is deeply appreciative of the amount of latitude they’re afforded to “live as many lives as I want.”

“I would never be happy in just one job… unless it was this one where I get to be a bunch of people,” they said.

The impetus for our conversation began with last month’s Autism Acceptance Month, with Alexander telling me they have a “big passion for autistic representation.” When asked about the current state of disability representation in Hollywood, Alexander lamented they don’t see “a lot” of it, adding the representation that does exist isn’t depicted by actual disabled people, which they characterized as “unfortunate.” Alexander attributed a “big factor” to said underrepresentation as many people going about their lives undiagnosed with condition(s). Many people, they added, “just don’t know” what they’re living with day-to-day, with lots of diagnoses not occurring until much later in a person’s life. Alexander expressed frustration at the commonly-held practice of disability being portrayed by people who literally aren’t disabled in life.

“For the most part, a lot of disabled characters—especially physically disabled ones—are played by actors who don’t have that disability,” they said. “There’s a level of understanding that only someone with a physical disability can bring to a physically disabled part. I have some physical conditions, and I still wouldn’t play somebody who had an amputation or something like that… it’s a very different lived experience to look comfortable knowing that’s how your body works and how you interact with the world.”

Alexander emphasized Hollywood is “definitely moving to a better place” in terms of authentic disability representation. They cited their role as Lane in the 2025 Ben Affleck-led thriller The Accountant 2. The creative team, they said, deliberately put out casting calls for autistic actors to play autistic characters after originally hiring actors who weren’t neurodivergent and wanted to right that wrong. “I think it’s a big step in the right direction, and I’m hoping a lot of productions will follow that,” Alexander said.

Alexander described themself as “a lot of things,” saying their autism affects “basically every part” of their livelihood. They added they believe there exist more people out there who are more similar to them than most realize; Alexander noted how some in the entertainment press bemoaned how the cast in CODA were effectively playing caricatures of themselves—but Alexander stressed that’s okay. They went on to say it’s important for people to understand an actor’s craft isn’t diminished or downplayed when they play characters true to their real-world persona. In fact, they said it can actually be “a lot harder” since “I have to be very self aware of those kinds of things.”

As an autistic actor, Alexander told me autistic representation in film and television remains “in a little bit of a weird place.” On one end of the spectrum, there are shows like Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum, but on the other end, there are shows which entail “gawking at people with autism and how they view the world differently.” Much of their favorite autistic representation on screen, Alexander said, involves characters unintentionally “coming off as autistic,” because, in recalling the previous point about diagnoses, they’ve gone undiagnosed and thus don’t know about their condition(s).

“The thing about autistic people is we think everybody else is struggling just as much as we are—until we get diagnosed and realize there’s something else going on,” Alexander said. “I’ve seen, as an autistic actor, more casting calls coming towards me specifically asking for disabled actors, which I think is really nice. But I think what we really need to be moving towards, in the industry, is characters who happen to be disabled or characters played by disabled actors [and] have us be equally included—characters played by disabled actors just because, not because the plot focuses on it or it’s a central part of their character. They just happen to have a disability.”

Alexander’s prior experience being a content creator on YouTube helped immensely when acclimating to being in front of a camera. It also gave them “a very realistic idea of what the entertainment industry is,” adding “I was very convinced and very headstrong about doing YouTube… it was 100% coming from me.” By contrast, they got to meet lots of people over time who weren’t creating content for their own sake. Such realizations gave Alexander a lot of self-awareness “about the specific and special place I’m in to be able to handle that kind of thing and to be comfortable with the weird life you have to live when you’re a public figure.” Moreover, doing press (like this very interview) has been helpful to Alexander as well, if somewhat “disorienting” as someone who used to be on the other side of the proverbial table. Nonetheless, Alexander said the experiences have helped them learn a lot about what people want to hear and how to talk properly; most of all, they’ve come to realize “most of us are just kind people.”

“A lot of actors and directors and people who work on movies are just regular guys who happen to work in this industry,” Alexander said.

As to feedback, Alexander said she enjoys strong support from their network of family and friends. Their immediate family in particular is “very, very supportive” and they “couldn’t do this” without their backing. Likewise, most of their friends are “grounded in real life” and knew them before Alexander got into acting. Their friends still think of them as “Presley from class,” which is “really nice” because “it keeps me from going a little bit too insane, and they’re all very supportive of what I do.” Many of Alexander’s friends are autistic too, which means they appreciate the representational angle having been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Alexander conceded there is some “pushback” from family who don’t understand the Hollywood way of business, but do think it’s cool to see them in whatever project(s) they’re working on. Hollywood, Alexander told me, is a “really difficult industry to understand if you don’t live in it and know people in it.”

Looking towards the future, Alexander said “the world is really scary for autistic people right now.” They’re heartened, however, by the strong show of support they’ve received from within the industry, with Alexander saying people have been “very kind to me” and she considers themself “very lucky.” Alexander is optimistic more opportunities will come her way as time wears on, telling me they “don’t plan on being quiet” in terms of their amplification of, and advocacy for, themself and others in their community.

“My main goal is just to continue existing as an openly disabled person and just show that ‘Hey, we’re here too and we’re just as good as anyone else.’ I think my autism makes me better at certain aspects of my job, because I’m very, very analytical when it comes to behavior and pretty good at copying people,” Alexander said of their hopes and dreams for the future. “It’s called parroting for autistics, and I think that helped me in my career. I’m hoping that I can bring—especially at this time where people with autism being seriously targeted—I can be a bit of hope it will be okay. We are so much more than what we’re being told we are, and we deserve to have these flags too.”

Jason Momoa’s New Show Serves As a Reminder entertainment Journalism needs disabled critics

Last week, I stumbled upon a story from 9to5 Mac’s Marcus Mendes about a forthcoming new drama coming to Apple TV+ this summer, at the beginning of August. The series, called Chief Of War chronicles the events of the unification of the Hawaiian islands. The drama stars Jason Momoa in the lead role as Ka’iana. Notably, Chief Of War marks his second time receiving top billing in a guy-kicking-ass Apple TV+ property.

Momoa, of course, played the main character, Boba Voss, in See. The show, about a post-apocalyptic civilization in which everybody has no eyesight, was one of the original titles when TV+ launched in November 2019 and ran for 3 seasons. News of Chief Of War grabbed my attention because of Momoa’s involvement with See, which, in turn, reminded me of its reception. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 63% rating, which admittedly isn’t that great. Likewise, Daniel Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter said the show lacked “enough depth or vision” in his review while Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said See “[suffers] from a tone that can’t push through the world-building to give us characters or a story to care about.” The message is clear: most pundits, including influential people in the media like critics, widely panned See.

Nearly 3 years later, I’m still pissed about the reception to See. And I’m not the only one: Joe Strechay, a Blind film consultant, told me during a 2021 interview he was “disappointed” by the critical response to the show. (Strechay also worked on the acclaimed 2023 Netflix limited series All The Light We Cannot See, which I covered too.)

I acknowledge it’s a nuanced position. As an entertainment vehicle, it’s obvious no one is obligated to like a show’s conceit; it’s perfectly valid to find something—See very much included—boring or, as Tallerico called it, “a slog.” People like what they like. The lingering bitterness over the reaction to See is less about the show as art and more about the show as representation. To wit, See remains close to my heart in large part because of the ways in which it amplifies awareness of the Blind and low vision community, as well as how it smashes through the societal stereotypes of people like me. Blindness is at the core of the show, not taking a backseat in the storyline in a tokenized way. While Momoa himself is sighted, there were many Blind and low vision people who worked on See, both on screen and behind it, and that matters a whole lot in terms of disability representation. In an industry—Hollywood—where disabled people historically have been pitied and portrayed as hapless and helpless, lauded only when we “overcome” our own bodies, that See puts blindness at the forefront is not insignificant and deserves not to be downplayed merely because it’s part of an ostensibly shitty show. The aforementioned critics may be fine journalists, but they lack the perspective necessary to appreciate the substantiality of what Apple pioneered with See. That the company took from its massive war chest to help fund production is very much another manifestation of its commitment to accessibility—applied to the big screen instead of the screens in people’s pockets, on their wrists, or on their desks.

As I said, it’s perfectly fine to not like See for its entertainment value—but it’s not okay to dismiss it while also being dismissive of the aforementioned representational gains. My friend Kristen Lopez, who covers Hollywood as an entertainment reporter, has lamented this concept in context of yet one more Apple TV+ title in Deaf President Now. As she writes, Deaf or disabled critics are nowhere to be found covering the newly-released documentary. Yours truly, of course, is one exception earlier this month.

“This is something that happens far too often when the few disabled-centric movies Hollywood deigns to give us come out,” Lopez said on her The Film Maven publication, hosted on Substack. “Most outlets, especially trade-based ones, don’t have Deaf or disabled writers on staff, and with freelance budgets all but non-existent these days it’s far easier to just task a hearing/abled journalist on staff with it. But what makes everything more upsetting is hearing from Deaf and disabled entertainment journos who have tried to get ahead of the game and actively pitch covering these films.”

It’s cool not to like See—or Deaf President Now—but you should respect the game.

My Six Degrees of Separation to Sam and Sir Jony

My pal Jason Snell posted a link on Six Colors today to this SF Standard piece breaking down the 9-minute video, released earlier this week, announcing the much-ballyhooed collaboration between OpenAI’s Sam Altman and legendary former Apple design boss Jony Ive. The Standard’s story is a fun little read in its entirety; what caught my eye, however, was the section about the end of the video and the credits, at the 8:56 mark.

“Let’s take a look at the ‘special thanks,’ or credits(?),“ Sophie Bearman, the Standard’s head of audio, said in the blurb. “Davis Guggenheim, the screenwriter, director, and producer known for “Training Day” (2001), “Waiting for Superman” (2010), “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) … and “Sam & Jony introduce io” (2025). And you can’t ignore the music: Also thanked is composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who most recently scored “Gladiator 2.” This seems fitting.”

Guggenheim, of course, is also known as the producer and director of the new Apple TV+ documentary Deaf President Now. The film, released last Friday, chronicles what Apple says are the “eight tumultuous days in 1988” during which students at Washington DC’s Gallaudet University, the world’s only collegiate institution for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing, led a protest over the board of trustees’ decision to name a hearing person over two Deaf candidates. The fury was understandable: until I. King Jordan, who took over in the wake of the protest, there had never been a Deaf leader at Gallaudet—again, a place devoted to deaf people—in the school’s 124-year history.

I watched Deaf President Now again last night and loved it even more than I already do. The reason I’m writing about the aforementioned OpenAI video and Davis Guggenheim is because of the six degrees of separation here. Earlier this month, I interviewed him, along with Nyle DiMarco, about making Deaf President Now and what it meant for Guggenheim, who’s hearing, to learn about such an important show of disabled people fighting for their civil rights and their representation, in addition to being exposed to an intimate look at a seminal moment in Deaf history and, more poignantly, Deaf culture.

“I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know about this [DPN protest] story,” Guggenheim said. “It’s meaningful to me… I’ll never fully understand Deaf culture, so it was a privilege to be invited [to make Deaf President Now] by Nyle to tell this story together.”

He added: “We both realized the story must be understood from both audiences: a Deaf audience and a hearing audience, and that the neglect [of the history] from the hearing side. If you’re Deaf, most people know this story. If you’re hearing, most people don’t know this story. For me, [working on Deaf President Now] was correcting history.”

Anyway, it’s cool to see Guggenheim apparently hobnobbed with Sam and Sir Jony.

Sonos’ New Speech Enhancement Feature uses AI to make dialogue more intelligible—and accessible

Earlier this month, Chris Hall reported for Digital Trends about a software update from Sonos which brought with it a new feature for its soundbars that uses artificial intelligence to make dialogue more intelligible—and accessible. According to Hall, Sonos’ Speech Enhancement feature is meant to “ensure that you can hear every word that’s spoken, so the important dialogue isn’t lost within the rest of the soundtrack.”

The crux of the problem Sonos is attempting to fix is, again, intelligibility.

“Clarity has been a growing problem for TV watchers, with increasing emphasis on that pounding bass or immersive soundtrack, sometimes the spoken elements get lost,” Hall wrote about Speech Enhancement’s raison d'être. “That’s a particular frustration for those with any sort of hearing loss, because you might not be able to follow the action at all, instead resorting to subtitles—which are often of varying quality.”

For its part, Sonos is describing its Speech Enhancement functionality as a “breakthrough” thanks to the capabilities of AI. The technology, Hall said, “[allows] the speech to be separated from other audio in the centre channel, so that it can be emphasized.” He adds the overarching goal isn’t so much about “pushing the speech harder” as it is “making it clear while still preserving the rest of the sound experience.” Sonos collaborated with the UK-based Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) to develop Speech Enhancement. Hall notes the feature has four levels—Low, Medium, High, and Max—the topmost one being specifically designed for those with hearing loss. Max, according to Hall, prioritizes dialogue clarity above all else by “[furthering control of] the dynamic range of non-speech elements, placing dialogue firmly at the forefront of the experience.” These settings are configurable in the Sonos app.

Hall sats Speech Enhancement isn’t about more volume—it’s about more speech.

“One in three adults in the UK experience hearing loss, and it is reported that just under one in four adults in the USA do too,” Lauren Ward, lead researcher at the RNID, said to Hall in a statement. “This tool has the potential to impact a large number of people.”

Speech Enhancement is available now.

Color me Skeptical over The Altman × Ive Merger

The New York Times reported on Wednesday OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, is acquiring Jony Ive’s startup, called IO, for the astronomical sum of $6.5 billion. As part of the deal, Ive will assume total creative control over design at OpenAI—hardware and software. The acquisition was celebrated with a flowery announcement that included a 9-minute video featuring commentary from both Altman and Ive on their grand new partnership.

At a high level, I have three big takeaways from the Altman-Ive collaboration:

1. I think the folks saying this a harbinger of Apple’s irrelevancy doth protest way too much. Monetarily alone, Apple is nowhere remotely in danger of becoming passé.

2. I think two wealthy, white, abled men waxing romantic about living in San Francisco, let alone building technology to empower people, feels really pompous.

3. I think people generally really like screens—and especially their iPhones—and don’t foresee a clamor to buy whatever it is whenever it starts shipping.

It, of course, is a reference to the prototype device Altman and Ive speak about in the aforementioned video, with Altman saying in part he believes “it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.” The Wall Street Journal reports Altman told OpenAI workers the forthcoming product is “a third core device” between one’s iPhone and MacBook. What’s more, supply chain whisperer Ming Chi-Kuo posted on X he believes the device is slated to enter mass production in 2027, with its form factor “as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle” and meant to be worn around the neck.

Given Kuo’s information, I have three more takeaways:

1. OpenAI’s device seems like it’ll eschew a screen, adopting a voice-first UI.

2. Design notwithstanding, this feels awfully akin to Humane’s failed AI Pin.

3. This thing better support accessibility features.

No. 3 is obviously most crucial from my perspective, both as a journalist and as a user. Readers of my old Forbes column may recall I wasn’t kind to Humane co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno about what I characterized as their company’s “lack of clarity” over the accessibleness of its AI Pin. I tried vainly in the last couple years, several times in fact, to get Bongiorno, Humane’s CEO, to speak with me on the record about the product’s accessibility to disabled people like me. I got no response.

You can understand my concern here; I worry Altman and Ive’s fancy new bauble will prove inaccessible too. To its credit, OpenAI has been far more transparent in its support for accessibility, evidenced by its work with Be My Eyes and the work of its software engineering teams to make the mobile app accessible. Nonetheless, accessibility is a master shapeshifter and takes many forms. There are a lot of unanswered questions. If the prototype indeed is voice-centric, how does it accommodate those with non-standard speech or who are nonverbal altogether? If the prototype indeed is neck-worn, how easily does it clasp in terms of fine-motor skills? For those with sensory integration disabilities, how heavy is it? What kind of firmware does the device run? Apple surely isn’t licensing iOS, so is whatever OpenAI’s using under the proverbial hood built with accessibility in mind? These all are mission critical questions that the social media peanut gallery has thus far (predictably) ignored in their zeal to celebrate, and pontificate, over Altman and Ive announcing their joint venture.

I don’t mean to imply Altman and Ive are unfeeling, although I maintain the aura of the introductory video reeks of pretentiousness and an utter lack of self-awareness of each other’s immense privilege. Maybe my worries are misplaced… maybe OpenAI’s so-called “family of devices” will be accessible to all. But therein lies the rub: nobody knows. This is exactly the reason for the disabled community’s general apprehension towards new technology. I felt this way in 2023 about Apple Vision Pro, albeit buoyed by Apple’s proven track record in the accessibility arena. The disabled community are technologists at heart, as Dr. Victor Pineda said to me, but we also realize we are the minorities’ minority. As such, we’re naturally skeptical the abled powers-that-be will be mindful that building technology for ostensibly everyone to feel empowered—as Altman and Ive do in their video—in actuality should include people with disabilities.

I’ve neither met nor interviewed Altman. The same goes for Ive. I’d love to interview both of them, ideally simultaneously, and pepper them with the very questions I’ve laid out in this piece. Covering technology is unlike covering, say, the president as a member of the White House press corps. My friends such as CNN’s Alayna Treene absolutely are upholding the journalistic value of holding power to account because what an administration does obviously has enormous effect on the everyday lives of the citizenry. The stakes in tech journalism are markedly lower, but the journalistic value remains unchanged. In my case, I like to think my work is holding truth to power by questioning (and thus reporting on) whether a device like Altman and Ive’s will be accessible to those who need accessibility for usability. In other words, OpenAI ought to be held accountable for ensuring “everyone” is much more practice than platitude.

I’m happy to Waymo myself across town anytime to find out firsthand.

How AI Makes Coding More Accessible

Popular tech YouTuber Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs fame posted this on X recently:

I’m not the biggest AI/LLM guy in the world, but I did use Google Gemini to remake my email signature in HTML entirely by explaining in plain English how I wanted it to look. It even fetched all svg icons. Took 5 minutes. Pretty amazing! pic.twitter.com/DIlEI0o5zz

— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyLabs) May 17, 2025

Nelson’s sentiments struck a chord because he and I feel similarly about artificial intelligence and coding. As I’ve built out Curb Cuts, refining and tweaking its design, I’ve leaned on some custom CSS code to do things the otherwise robust tools Squarespace provides doesn’t allow. These are reflected in things like the tagline in the site’s header, as well as the title casing in the archives. I’m no web developer, so I’m not fluent in HTML or CSS; I know the building blocks, but admittedly need help doing anything requiring heavier lifting. This is where Nelson’s comment on AI and coding is relevant, as I used Google Gemini to help me with generating the CSS code I wanted.

Using Gemini in this way is genius from an accessibility standpoint. For one thing, typing up a quick description of what I need for Gemini is far more accessible than using Google proper to manually search for solutions. In my case, it isn’t so much that I can’t use Google to find a Reddit thread or GitHub repository with what I need; I certainly can, but it comes at a cost: namely, it saps a lot of energy from my eyes and hands from all the scanning and typing. Eye strain and fatigue is more prevalent for me as someone with low vision, since obviously my eyes need to work harder in order to see stuff on my computer—and that’s with accessibility features like Hover Text enabled on my iMac. Likewise, the partial paralysis on the right side of my body, caused by cerebral palsy, makes it that I’m decidedly not a touch typist. I’m more of a hunt-and-peck typist, which means I naturally must be looking at the keyboard to find the letter(s) I want to press.

A chatbot like Gemini is, again, worth its weight in gold given this context. All I need to do is cobble together a sentence or two with what I want to accomplish and send Gemini my prompt. Within a few seconds, it spits out the requested code and, in a nice fit of user interface design, a handy little “Copy Code” button in the top-right corner of the chat window. What’s more, there’s a bonus accessibility win: rather than doing the ⌘-C/V shuffle with my fingers, I instead click the aforementioned “Copy Code” control and easily paste it into my site’s CMS. No muss, no fuss. From a cognition perspective, Gemini’s assistance here has the potential to be even more profound for those who are neurodiverse or cope with other intellectual conditions. A person with a cognitive disability, who may not be able to search Google or write code without being overwhelmed by the how, what, and where involved in such tasks, may find tools like Gemini (or ChatGPT or whatever) invaluable to, in this case, building a website or doing research for various projects. This isn’t conjecture on my part; Jenny Lay-Flurrie, vice president and chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, told me in an interview last year about her teenage daughter, who’s neurodivergent, using the ChatGPT-powered Bing to do research for school essays because it’s more accessible. There surely are other examples, but the salient point is, whether for coding or something else, AI chatbots are bonafide assistive technologies for legions of people in the disability community. All the handwringing over chatbots in classrooms, what with concerns over cheating and an existential threat to pedagogy, fail—predictably so—to see not every student (or teacher) uses these AI tools out of sheer laziness or, more nefariously, a crave to cheat.

So it goes with software development. Whether a blog or iOS development in Xcode, using AI tools to generate code is not merely convenient or expedient—it makes coding downright more accessible too. That’s not at all trivial, especially if you’re an aspiring developer who copes with a disability of some sort that makes writing code difficult.

Speaking of code, while I’m not well-versed in HTML or CSS, I am versed in Markdown. With few exception, everything I write for the internet is written using Markdown—including this very article. I wrote about Markdown and accessibility for TidBITS a little over 12 years ago (!) now. What I wrote in June 2013 stands equally strong in May 2025.

“Markdown has changed my life for the better. Not only is it easier to work with than graphical interfaces given the limitations of my vision, but it has caused me to embrace plain text for nearly all of my documents. No longer do I have to work in bloated word processors with toolbars galore, or worry about rich-text formatting. Discovering Markdown has been liberating in the truest sense of the word,” I wrote of the syntax’s (lasting) influence on my writing. “Given Markdown’s nature, I came to the realization that it, however unintentionally, is in fact a wonderful accessibility tool, because it reduces eye strain while writing. The simplicity of Markdown’s syntax makes it possible to not have to look at the screen every time I want to italicize a word or insert a link.”

It was thrilling, soaking wet behind the ears as I was, to read I made John Gruber’s day.

“Vibe coding” is en vogue right now in the software development space. For me, it isn’t for the reason most assume. In my case, it’s accessibility—which is a vibe all its own.

Microsoft, Xbox Mark GAAD with Updates

In celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day last week, Redmond-based Microsoft shared a bunch of updates on the continued work it’s doing to amplify awareness of the disability community. The company’s vice president and chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie, wrote about this in a blog post. The thrust of her piece is the technology du jour in artificial intelligence and how it impacts accessibility.

“Today we celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) and work across the industry to make technology easier for everyone. At Microsoft, our journey with accessibility started in the 90’s, and is a cornerstone to our mission. We are committed to engraining accessibility into our culture, to build for all, and innovate to empower people around the world,” Flurrie said in the post’s introduction. “AI has been a game changer for accessibility. It is accelerating the accessibility journey in exciting ways. Making it easier to do everyday tasks and tackling some of the toughest problems of our times. Launching some new technologies and partnerships today. Let’s dig in!”

Flurrie’s first point highlights how disability-centric data “unlocks new opportunities for AI,” adding “high-quality and representative data can lead to more reliable outcomes from trustworthy AI systems.” She goes on to say Microsoft is “proud” to support two projects that are using disability-focused data to “drive change.” One is the Disability Data Hub run by World Bank Group, which Flurrie describes as “the first open data initiative to provide disability-disaggregated development data across 63 global economies [which] addresses the need for a single, comprehensive global dashboard to close data gaps that have historically excluded disabled individuals from development agendas.” Another is Answer ALS and ALS Therapy Development Institute, who’s working on finding a cure and therapies for ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Elsewhere, Flurrie writes about the importance of authentic disability representation in AI systems. “One of the most pressing challenges is that generated content, such as images, can misrepresent or stereotype disability, leading to harmful inaccuracies or even the exclusion of certain identities,” she said. “These gaps in representation data can reinforce bias and erode trust.” Flurries notes Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator now is capable of generating “more accurate depictions of disabilities” such as autism and Down syndrome. Microsoft, Flurrie went on to say, “collaborated with individuals with lived experience, trusted external partners, and AI researchers to better understand how disability is portrayed—both accurately and not—within AI models.”

Lastly, Flurrie mentions a few software enhancements that make products like Microsoft 365 more accessible to disabled people. For instance, the Accessibility Assistant is available in the Microsoft 365 web apps, as well as in Visio and OneNote.

In other news, Microsoft-owned Xbox last week announced updates which “[welcome] more players by increasing accessibility in games.” There are “new and exciting accessibility features” in titles such as DOOM: The Dark Ages, Candy Crush Soda Saga, and World of Warcraft. The company also shared news of its work in building the Accessible Games Initiative (AGI), as well as an accessibility-minded peripheral, the Xbox Adaptive Joystick, being available to buy. As to the AGI, I covered it back in early April with an interview with Entertainment Software Association SVP Aubrey Quinn.

Slack Gives Shoutout to Simplified Layout Mode

Last Thursday, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I was alerted to this X post by Slack:

Ever wish things were just a littler simpler? Cleaner? 😣

We hear you, friends. Introducing simplified layout mode in Slack! ✨

Designed with assistive tech users and neurodivergent colleagues in mind, it offers all the same functionality of Slack with a streamlined interface… pic.twitter.com/3z7gLVSCHo

— Slack (@SlackHQ) May 15, 2025

The post links to this page on Slack’s website wherein the Salesforce-owned company details its Simplified Layout mode in its desktop app. As Slack’s post says, the streamlined mode has been built with accessibility in mind—particularly helpful to those who are neurodivergent or cope with intellectual conditions affecting cognition.

“Simplified layout mode for the Slack desktop app helps you focus by showing one section of Slack at a time,” Slack writes about Simplified Layout on its website. “This mode provides simplified layouts and minimizes distractions, which may benefit single-taskers and people using assistive technology.”

In broad strokes, what Slack is doing here is neither novel nor revolutionary. Even for people without disabilities, the Slack user interface, whether on the desktop or on the web, can be inscrutable and incongruous at times. Companies such as Apple, what with its Assistive Access feature on iOS, have rightly recognized there exists a subset of users for whom their ostensibly “simple” UI paradigms remain complex and out of reach in terms of comprehensibility. Hence, that tools like Assistive Access—or, in this case, Slack’s Simplified Layout—have cropped up in the last few years is a conscious choice by platform owners to remedy the inaccessibility for a portion, however tiny it may be in absolute number, by stripping down its software to make it even more conceptually simpler. It’s also worth noting this particular nod to inclusivity is a prime example of accessibility’s return on investment being immaterial; to wit, companies like Apple and Slack care not about the financial coats it incurs to allocate resources to building something like Simplified Layout. It’s obvious the target demographic for the functionality is a fraction of the fraction who use accessibility software, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is something like Simplified Layout (or Assistive Access) worthwhile because it diversifies the platform even further by providing a service to those who can truly benefit from it. Put another way, tools like Simplified Layout exemplify what GAAD co-founder Joe Devon recently told me about why accessibility awareness is so crucial: it’s not only good for users, it’s also good for business. The more flexible and richer one’s product is, the more users one attracts—and the disability community comprises a lot of potential users to which companies can cater.

Assistive Access, by the way, is coming “later this year” to Apple’s TV app.

Google Celebrates GAAD With New Enhancements to TalkBack, Expressive Captions, More

Google marked this year’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day late last week by publishing a blog post wherein the Mountain View-based company announced numerous accessibility-oriented updates for its myriad platforms. The post was written by Angana Ghosh, who’s Google’s director of product management for Android.

“Advances in AI continue to make our world more and more accessible,” Ghosh wrote in the post’s introduction. “Today, in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we’re rolling out new updates to our products across Android and Chrome, as well as adding new resources for developers building speech recognition tools.”

Ghosh’s post begins by discussing “more AI-powered innovation with Android,” with Google’s screen reader, known as TalkBack, getting expanded Gemini integration such that users can ask the chatbot about imagery and get answers. Ghosh cites an example of a Blind user asking about a picture of a friend’s guitar, writing the user can ask for details about the musical instrument such as its color and manufacturer. Likewise, users also are able to query Gemini about product sales in their favorite shopping app(s) so they can be more informed about discounts and their overall buying power.

Google first brought Gemini to TalkBack last year, according to Ghosh.

Elsewhere, Expressive Captions, which uses AI to not only telegraph what people say but how they say it, is being updated such that Deaf and hard-of-hearing people can “understand mooooore of the emotion behind captions.” Ghosh notes Google has added a new “duration” feature to Expressive Captions that’s useful for times when, for instance, a sports announcer excitedly boasting about an “amaaazing shot” during a game. What’s more, there are new labels for sounds like whistling or throat-clearing. The updated version is available on devices running Android 15 or higher, with localization in English in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In other news, Ghosh writes Google has expanded availability of its Project Euphonia, announced in 2019 as a way to make speech recognition more accessible for those who have non-standard speech pattern (like yours truly). Google is making its own-source codebase available of the Project’s GitHub repo, as well as working with the University College London’s Centre for Digital Language Inclusion to strengthen speech recognition technology for non-English speakers in Africa. On the educational front, Google announced accessibility improvements to ChromeOS and the Chrome web browser, including more accessible PDF reading and page-zooming functionality.

I interviewed Ghosh back in December about building Expressive Captions.

New Video shows magnifier for Mac In Action

In complementing its Music Haptics video, Apple earlier this week posted a video to its YouTube channel which demonstrates the forthcoming Magnifier for Mac app in use. The software is a headliner amongst the slew of accessibility-focused enhancements the company previewed as part of its Global Accessibility Awareness Day celebration.

The Magnifier for Mac video, embedded here, shows a student using it during a lecture.

The quick glimpses of the new-to-macOS Magnifier app reveal the software to be quite robust. At a technical level, it’s also abundantly clear Apple took the building blocks for Continuity Camera to assemble Magnifier for Mac. I’m excited to try it out for myself on my M2 MacBook Air, but do wonder about clipping my iPhone to the laptop’s display. Will Apple be selling a first-party mount? My guess is no, considering the company already sells a Belkin-branded mount for Mac notebooks. There’s a similar accessory for Apple TV 4K to use for FaceTime calls. Whatever the case, it’ll be interesting to see how accessible these mounts are to manipulate, motor-wise. It’s important people realize not everyone can attach their phone to the mount, then to a display, so easily.

The moral is Magnifier for Mac has a multi-layered accessibility story that goes beyond sheer software. The app seems eminently capable, but is usable only if the mount is too.

On App Store Economics and Accessibility

I came across a post on Daring Fireball yesterday, written by my friend John Gruber, in which he links to a RevenueCat piece which reports the results of a test comparing conversion rates for App Store in-app purchases (IAP) versus outside web checkout. RevenueCat’s test used the same app for its experiment, comprising 5,600 users.

The big takeaway from RevenueCat’s testing is right there in the lede: “Turns out, in-app purchases are good for conversion rates. In fact, at least 30% better,” writes Jacob Eiting. Eiting explains the impetus came from the court order from earlier this month compelling Apple to allow customers in the United States to be alerted to external payment methods available outside of the App Store’s virtual walls. As Eiting notes, the ruling is of great import because it allows software developers to avoid Apple taking its 30% cut of all IAP transactions. Put another way, the recent ruling means Apple isn’t getting a considerable amount of money to line its already considerably large coffers.

The company said it plans to appeal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision.

As Gruber notes in his commentarial blurb, RevenueCat found through its testing the initial IAP conversion rate was approximately 28%, whereas the rate through the web flow was only 18%. Like Gruber said, that 10% represents a precipitous drop-off.

What inspired me to write this piece lies in his comments on the study.

“I don’t find it surprising at all though,” Gruber said. “[In-app purchase] really is more convenient. Apple’s built a great system, and they don’t need exclusivity to keep users preferring it, and thus keep developers using it.”

Ah, convenience. Gruber is undoubtedly correct when he says Apple’s IAP functionality is easy and convenient; it is truly more alluring to pay for something within an app than be kicked to a website. As I’ve argued innumerable times, however, convenience and accessibility, however close cousins they are, are not interchangeable concepts. They’re different words for a reason: they connote different meanings. For Gruber and others, in-app purchases indeed may be convenient; for others—namely disabled people—in-app purchases may be a de-facto accessibility feature that makes buying something more inclusive by being less of a barrier. See also: Apple Pay. For all the Apple community’s handwringing over this in-app purchase topic, the accessibility ramifications of Apple’s mechanism go (predictably) overlooked and undervalued.

I’m not here to rehash Apple’s hand in App Store economics. At a philosophical level, I agree Apple should let developers inform users of their options, and I believe most people—including many with disabilities—aren’t buying the notion that buying things on the web is the big, scary boogeyman Apple wants users to believe it is. And I understand no one has said Apple’s IAP system is bad in and of itself. My main point is simply that, as a practical matter, using Apple’s IAP system is arguably far more accessible for a not-insignificant number of people with disabilities. In this context, the economical aspects are irrelevant; I’d venture to say people just want to buy what they want and focus their attention on more important things in their lives. Again, I believe in transparency and consumer choice, but nonetheless think it’s not remarked upon often enough how genius the IAP system is for simplicity’s sake. Likewise for alternative app stores. There a lot of people, particularly in the European Union, who want to be able to install iOS (and iPadOS) software from anywhere, akin to how the Mac works. Hell, I do it myself; the text editor I’m writing these very words in, called MarkEdit, lives on GitHub and updates must be installed from there, with new versions needing to be manually moved from Downloads to the Applications folder. It’s not rocket science in an absolute sense, but does involve some technical know-how and is far less seamless than were I to use the Mac App Store. But I’m an avowed nerd, so I do it and it’s fine. But I don’t represent everyone; not everyone wants to, or can, download software from the internet. There are real considerations around cognition and motor skills that must be taken into account. For these people, outlets like the App Store, whether on an iPhone or an iMac, can be literal technological lifesavers. That is not at all a trivial matter.

Even if one isn’t disabled, I believe Eiting and team’s data is pretty clear: most people like Apple’s IAP. As Gruber said, to use it means one has a fast, efficient way to buy things. And I’m here to say accessibility is a meaningful component of that flow as well.

Netflix Reemphasizes ‘Commitment to making Entertainment More Accessible’ in GAAD blog post

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Netflix on Thursday published a blog post in which director of product accessibility Heather Dowdy reflects upon “a year of progress in accessibility” at the company. The executive, herself a fellow CODA, stresses the streaming giant is steadfastly committed to “making entertainment more accessible and celebrating the community of Netflix members who use these features every day.”

Dowdy’s words are laudatory in tone, with her boasting about the Bay Area-based company’s many achievements in accentuating the accessibility of its platform. Dowdy mentions the recent accessibility-centric enhancements—experiential improvements which, while obviously welcome, pale in comparison to the forthcoming redesign that will subsume said accessibility features. Moreover, Dowdy noted the company supported a workshop during which writers in the United States received trained on making good audio descriptions; such a move, she wrote, demonstrates an understanding of “the importance of not just developing features but also growing expertise.” This is essential work, Dowdy added, because quality audio descriptions are crucial for many in the Blind and low vision community to maximally enjoy movies and television shows on Netflix—or any other streaming service out there, for that matter.

Elsewhere, Dowdy says a goal of Netflix in the accessibility arena is to not only provide robust software features, but also raise awareness of disability-focused storytelling. To that end, she gives a shoutout to the company’s Amplifying Accessibility Awareness, described as “a collection of series and films that highlight the lives and perspectives of people living with disabilities.” Notably, the Accessibility Awareness collection includes the popular Love on the Spectrum show, about autistic people navigating the complexities of dating and romantic relationships. Olivia Harrison, writing for Netflix’s in-house Tudum publication, reported earlier this week the Emmy-winning documentary series has been renewed for a yet-to-be-announced fourth season. Additionally, Dowdy says Netflix was honored with an Eagle Award at last year’s Disability Rights Advocates Gala. The recognition, she said, was for the company’s “efforts to make entertainment more accessible for all audiences everywhere,” adding “it was humbling to see our progress acknowledged within the community, and a reminder that there’s still more to learn, improve, and celebrate with our members.”

New Video Puts Music Haptics in the Spotlight

Ryan Christoffel reports for 9to5 Mac Apple today has released a new video which shows off its Music Haptics accessibility feature. The 75-second video, embedded below, was posted to the Apple Music YouTube channel, according to Christoffel.

Music Haptics was introduced last year as an accessibility feature new to iOS 18.

“The new video highlights how Music Haptics can help users who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing still experience music in a unique way,” Christoffel writes of its raison d'être.

I wrote about Music Haptics last year, saying in part it has become one of my favorite accessibility features on my iPhone. Take a listen to From Zero, the latest album from my favorite band in Linkin Park—and the first featuring new singer Emily Armstrong—with Music Haptics enabled and you literally feel the hard drums, and Armstrong’s arguably even harder vocals, on a track like “Heavy is the Crown.” While I do have some congenital hearing loss, Music Haptics is ostensibly pointless because I don’t need it. On the contrary, however, I find the feature is lovely for all the ways it enriches my listening experience. To wit, it adds a tactile element to what’s an auditory medium. I don’t use Music Haptics all the time, but when I do, it’s a true pleasure to experience.

As Christoffel rightly notes, Music Haptics makes what’s normally an exclusionary piece of art—music—to those with little-to-no hearing and makes it inclusive by way of haptic feedback. Likewise, the same applies to Apple Podcasts getting transcripts; again, a sound-oriented medium is augmented such that it can be accessible. Moreover, it’s worth mentioning Music Haptics in particular is a quintessential example of the famed interplay of hardware and software that comprises Apple’s bread and butter. They built the so-called Taptic Engine in the iPhone, and they built the Apple Music service (with help from Beats, of course), so it makes sense they’d smush both together to create Music Haptics using its beloved vertical integration. What’s more, there’s a special playlist on Apple Music filled with songs that pair well with the feature.

Apple’s Music Haptics video comes just a couple days after the company celebrated this year’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day by sharing a preview of the new accessibility features coming to its platforms “later this year.” It’s classic Apple to not cop to it just yet, but if history is a guide, these enhancements are obviously going to appear in iOS 19, et al, when the updates are unveiled by the company next month.

GAAD Foundation, ServiceNow Announce AI Model Accessibility Checker API for Software developers

Apropos of today being Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the GAAD Foundation on Thursday announced an AI-powered accessibility checker called the AI Model Accessibility Checker (AIMAC). The tool, described as “[evaluating and comparing] how well coding-focused large language models (LLMs) generate accessible code [by providing] benchmarks for companies to test and demonstrate the accessibility of their models’ output.” AIMAC was developed in collaboration with the folks at ServiceNow.

The GAAD Foundation notes the primary purpose of the project is to “[help] the technology industry drive toward more inclusive standards that can lead to a more accessible world for the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities.”

At a technical level, AIMAC is characterized as “an open-source, extensible evaluation framework” which tests AI models by sending prompts and analyzing the accessibility of the returned HTML code. Furthermore, the GAAD Foundation says the AIMAC API “features fully customizable prompts, making it adaptable to different use cases—from design and layout to semantic structure. The system generates a comparative score to help users identify which models excel at producing accessible code.”

“Accessibility must be a foundational requirement as AI reshapes our digital future,” said GAAD co-founder Joe Devon in a statement for the announcement. "With AI adoption accelerating, there’s a risk of the industry becoming a ‘winner takes all’ space dominated by a handful of companies. If accessibility isn’t prioritized, people with disabilities risk being systematically excluded from AI’s transformative potential. AIMAC helps address this risk by embedding accessibility as a baseline standard in AI innovation. I’m honored to launch this with my friend and longtime collaborator, Eamon McErlean, whose leadership at ServiceNow reflects a deep commitment to accessibility and aligns with GAAD’s mission of building a more accessible digital world.”

For his part, McErlean agreed wholeheartedly with Devon in a statement of his own.

“Accessibility should never be an afterthought. It must be embedded into every phase of the product development lifecycle,” he said. “While the technology industry has made progress, accessibility was an afterthought for far too long. We can’t let history repeat itself with AI. That’s why I’m proud to launch AIMAC with Joe—a trusted advocate, expert, and ServiceNow collaborator—as we join forces to champion inclusive innovation and ensure AI experiences are equitable from the start.”

Devon and McErlean are familiar names. Devon sat down with me earlier this month for an interview about the recent State of Mobile App Accessibility Report, for which he worked with ArcTouch in an advisory capacity. In terms of artificial intelligence, Devon said “it’s too early to tell” if AI will make mobile apps more accessible (or not), but nonetheless did express bullishness on the technology’s potential in assisting the disability community. As to McErlean, who serves as ServiceNow’s vice president and global head of accessibility, spoke with me back in 2023 about digital inclusion and many more topics. Both men are co-hosts of the Accessibility and Gen AI Podcast.

AIMAC is available on the GAAD Foundation’s GitHub repository.

Amazon Shares ‘12 Ways’ It Assists On Accessibility

Amazon this week published a blog post in which it details a dozen ways in which its devices are accessible to disabled people. The Seattle-based company’s post, bylined by Deb Landau, boasts accessibility has been a top priority “for a decade,” and encompasses everything from Alexa to Fire TV to Kindle to Prime Video and more.

“According to the World Health Organization, 16% of all people—one in six of us—currently experience a significant disability. [That] fact is at the heart of Amazon’s approach to designing devices and services like Alexa,” Landau wrote in the lede. “For over a decade, Amazon has worked with and for people with disabilities, including world experts, on disability and accessibility, and advocated for accessible design throughout the company.”

Landau’s post discusses a litany of features, beginning with the doyenne of digital assistants in Alexa. Here, Landau highlights Eye Gaze on Amazon’s Fire tablets, which enables people who can’t use common methods like voice or touch to manipulate their device(s) to instead use their eyes. Similarly, Call Translation and Captioning on something like the Echo Show “allows customers to communicate across languages, but also allows customers customers who are Deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with loved ones, as they get live call captioning,” Landau said. Additionally, Landau mentions the aforementioned Fire tablets also support voice control and third-party switches for those who cope with gross-motor disabilities.

Amazon’s post makes frequent mention of accessibility features of its Fire TV platform, including Dual Audio support for users with hearing aids to more accessibly get sound from their television. I’ve covered Fire TV numerous times in the past, most recently about a year ago when I interviewed Amazon’s Peter Korn, who serves as director of accessibility for devices and services, to discuss the platform’s then-new AI Search functionality. Notably in context of this week’s blog post, Korn said AI Search encapsulates Amazon’s philosophy on accommodating the disability community vis-a-vis accessibility. It may not only be convenient to some—it may be accessible to others.

“It [AI search] really captures the things we do for everyone that may be especially valuable for people with disabilities and things we do for people with disabilities may also valuable for everyone else,” he said to me around this time a year ago. “What’s essential for some may be useful for someone else… like dialogue that’s essential for someone with hearing loss, but any number of times it may be hard in the mix of this particular movie to hear the dialogue or the explosions in an action scene. I view generative AI searching as another example of that.”

As with its contemporaries, Amazon maintains a webpage devoted to accessibility.