Accessibility an afterthought in media coverage of software updates

As promised last week, Apple on Monday released its “OS 27” class of software updates to the public.

There are “.0” releases for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. In addition, Apple also released iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 26.7, as well as macOS 15.8 Sequoia, for users who wish not to upgrade their device(s) just yet. Personally, I updated every device I’m regularly using right now after not riding the beta train over the summer. Even my beloved OG HomePod and its A8 processor in my office was updated to the newest version of the HomePod software.

As I wrote on Mastodon, I find it disappointing that nearly all of the OS 27 reviews at various publications give nary a mention to accessibility. The lone exception I’ve seen is John Voorhees’ review of macOS Golden Gate for MacStories, who mentions new features such as Accessibility Reader and more. I don’t expect these more “mainstream” reviewers to be accessibility aesthetes, but for the sake of completeness, it seems reasonable to at least include a few sentences on the new accessibility features in a given release. Apple announced its new suite of accessibility software weeks before WWDC happened, and of course the implication is the features the company officially and coyly said was coming “later this year” were destined for… the software updates released today. What’s ironic about the lack of acknowledgment of accessibility is, for all the breathlessness with which people have discussed Siri AI’s potential utility on blogs and podcasts, the all-new VoiceOver demonstrated in the spring indeed leverages a bunch of Apple Intelligence technology. And yet, these reviews—in and of themselves, comprehensive and well written—read as though accessibility doesn’t exist—despite accessibility getting ahead of the annual hoopla that is WWDC news. This is because Apple has commemorated Global Accessibility Awareness Day for the last several years.

These are not omissions of malice on the writers’ part, but they sting nonetheless—understandably so.