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Apple unveils new accessibility features

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Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#211

Post by jareds »

paul7986 wrote: post #172
JeremyHerrman wrote: post #168

Apple loves to stealth test new tech in full public view by sneaking it into relatively mundane places, so debuting agentic AI via accessibility is very on brand. A few other examples: - The Touch Bar was much more than an OLED strip, it was Apple’s first move in the transition to Apple Silicon on macs. The Apple T1 chip in the 2016 Touch Bar MacBooks was the first solely Apple-designed processor to appear in a Mac a…

And their upcoming smart glasses are the best UX for almost everything they showed the user holding up her phone for. I read their glasses when taking video or pics the lense will light up and or flash more prominently then Metas. Maybe that will help the whole privacy issue and also it's not Meta (do love my Meta or smart glasses as a whole will ditch Metas for Apple quickly as both pair of Metas broke & there's no…

I also am looking forward to Apple smart glasses. I use Meta glasses because thre useful since I'm totally blind. I'd much rather have on device recognission though if possible. I also trust Apple more then Meta. At least I'm technically enclined enough to realize I shouldn't wear them in the bathroom or bedroom. At least when humans look at my AI prompts there maily seeing food boxes or computer bios screens.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#212

Post by phatskat »

landr0id wrote: post #204
mjamesaustin wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hate was because it replaced function keys many people use by tactile touch, without looking. Doing the same on a touch screen is very difficult. If the bar had been added on top of those, I don't think there would've been the same kind of hate for it.

I didn't really mind the fn keys being there. I rarely use function keys unless I'm RDP'd to a Windows machine. What drove me crazy though was the escape key. They later added the physical escape key back but I think at that point it was a bit too late.

I’ve always been a “remap capslock to escape” kind of guy (vim), so I didn’t mind much. Access to the brightness (screen and keyboard) and volume slider was neat but superfluous with the OG fn keys. Context-driven controls were probably the best thing about the touch bar, and I don’t think it got enough love to make that stick.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#213

Post by bilater »

Aboutplants wrote: post #72
isityettime wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it takes quite a lot of practice to reach this speed. It's not rare among blind developers, but I think it still takes a lot of work to get there. Pretty impressive! I wish more people would watch videos like this just because having a realistic idea of how blind people do certain tasks can help you move from pity or even compassion to a more productive kind of understanding. I think sometimes when you haven'…

I listen to a lot of podcasts and listen at 1.5-2.0 speed and it’s to the point that I literally cannot stand listening to 1.0 speed anymore as they go too slowly (depending on the content of course).

Same haha. But for me 1.5x is the sweet spot. Anything more and I find myself rewinding a lot. I want to feel comfortable absorbing info and not on constant alert.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#214

Post by sscaryterry »

RobMurray wrote: post #205
sscaryterry wrote: post #199

Luckily the European Accessibility Act has pretty much made PDF/UA a requirement. This should really be the last resort.

Accessible PDFs are quite rare in reality. Especially if there are tables, graphics, maths, forms or anything more than plane text.

Agreed, it is a problem, but it is being legislated in as required for many businesses in the EU going forward.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#215

Post by phatskat »

Tagbert wrote: post #202
SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man I miss the touch bar. Never got why people hated it so much

Also, the Touch Bar seemed to be abandoned as soon as it launched. It only ever launched on the Pro line. There were never any feature updates. They never made it flexible enough for people to customize it.

> They never made it flexible enough for people to customize it.

I feel like it was fairly customizable - the Mac system settings let you do a lot of drag and drop of controls, and I recall iTerm having a similar interface for customizing the bar in its own settings.

I do think it should’ve been given a lot more love, but that’s Apple for ya I guess

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#216

Post by alwillis »

Barbing wrote: post #121
miki123211 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming soon very likely means iOS 27. This has been the typical pattern for Apple for the last few years. The flashy features are announced at WWDC, accessibility has a dedicated, earlier press release. Before this practice, accessibility announcements would usually be tucked in some WWDC slide that most people wouldn't even notice.

The thing that disappointed me about this amazing announcement was “coming later this year“. They should probably give us dates for a little while at least until we get the ( I just would not wanna promise anything. Except “available for download this Friday“ once the gold master is passing tests.

The "coming later this year" language is disappointing to some people, but that's just Apple propriety. Allow me to explain.

"Coming later this year" means it's part of a publicly committed release — iOS 27, macOS 27, etc. — not vaporware.

The annual pre-WWDC accessibility announcement is a tradition, and with the conference less than a month away, expect more detail then. New a11y features have a good chance of appearing in the 10am PT keynote or the Platforms State of the Union, the developer-focused follow-up at 1pm PT.

That said, things are still fluid with three weeks to go — features can be added or pulled at any time. If something gets bumped from the main presentations, there will almost certainly be a dedicated video session covering it.

As for availability: some of these features will land in the iOS 27 and macOS 27 betas, which drop during WWDC for Apple Developer Program members. The public beta follows in July, and there's a free tier of the developer program if you want early access.

Don't expect everything at once, though. Some features won't arrive until the September release candidates — and even then, a few may ship labeled "beta" or "experimental," or hold for a future dot release.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#217

Post by cloverich »

SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #194
JeremyHerrman wrote: post #168

Apple loves to stealth test new tech in full public view by sneaking it into relatively mundane places, so debuting agentic AI via accessibility is very on brand. A few other examples: - The Touch Bar was much more than an OLED strip, it was Apple’s first move in the transition to Apple Silicon on macs. The Apple T1 chip in the 2016 Touch Bar MacBooks was the first solely Apple-designed processor to appear in a Mac a…

Man I miss the touch bar. Never got why people hated it so much

One more on top of others. Many people felt it was a solution in search of a problem. As in, there was no problem i had that it solved. And it was forced on us, in place of something useful. From the start i read that as: This wont be here in a couple years. Which then made it annoying to deal with in the meantime (the hate).

Things that stick around, are generally value adding across a large or complete subset of their users. Touch bar was always niche, and thus always doomed. I think a good counter comparison is Apple VR headsets. For me, i have no use and little interest. But i can see them as a hedge at the very least, or as an enthusiast entrant into an emerging market, where future products in that segment may become interesting. And on top, it doesnt impact me - i can ignore their existence until it becomes useful.

If touch bar were launched like VR, i suspect it would have gotten similar level of dismisals, but less hate.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#218

Post by Angostura »

jareds wrote: post #207
brightbeige wrote: post #71

A while ago I signed up as a sighted person on Be My Eyes. I didn't get as many calls as I had hoped, but I was glad to help out on the few that I could. One call was to read envelopes of incoming mail, another was to read pill bottles, and then there was the two funny guys on big cozy chairs with shopping bags of cereal boxes and wanted to know what was what. I remember one guy really didn't like one type. The app h…

Ever since Be My Eyes introduced there AI features it's my understanding that there's been a lot less need for volunteers. I'm totally blind, and started using the app once they added in AI. It works great for for things like reading food labels after my kids have movved things around, determining if the tv has been left on, etc. I think I would use the volunteer feature if I still lived alone, but I don't.

I haven’t had a single alert from it since the AI stuff rolled out

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#219

Post by RobMurray »

Almondsetat wrote: post #24

I have difficulty trusting this. There are plenty of videos online of LLMs making up stuff like "I just ate a hot dog, is there mustard around my mouth?" "No, everything is clean" while there is a big yellow stain om the guy's face

Most of those videos are chatGPT voice mode, which still used gpt 4o last time I checked. it is far from SOTA.

Re: Apple unveils new accessibility features

#220

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

landr0id wrote: post #204
mjamesaustin wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hate was because it replaced function keys many people use by tactile touch, without looking. Doing the same on a touch screen is very difficult. If the bar had been added on top of those, I don't think there would've been the same kind of hate for it.

I didn't really mind the fn keys being there. I rarely use function keys unless I'm RDP'd to a Windows machine. What drove me crazy though was the escape key. They later added the physical escape key back but I think at that point it was a bit too late.

Ah yea, I've only owned one with the physical escape key. That would be annoying.
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