4 ms·

Say what you want about Apple, they hit the nail on the head when it comes to A11y APIs

1letterunixname 3y ago
Absolutely! On macOS, I use KeyCue to show every hotkey* in every app because it's able to inspect accessibility/automation data. Similarly, this is what permits scripting desktop apps from AppleScript. (There's a word or phrase meaning side-benefits from disability compliance, but it escapes me.) * Almost
- ttepasse 3y ago
  Oh, that’s nice to know, now that the CheatSheet has been discontinued. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114115948/http://mediaatelier.com/CheatSheet/ https://web.archive.org/web/20121114115948/http://mediaateli... I thought CheatSheet was the original indie app which Apple copied for its iPad menus, but it seems KeyCue seems far older and such more original. > Similarly, this is what permits scripting desktop apps from AppleScript. AppleScript also has a second interaction in which the App gives access to an API to its “logical” object model. Instead of “Select item in list, then click on the delete button” the programming model is more “Tell the app to delete the e-mail”. On more complicated scripting tasks that makes a huge difference. But that depends on the developer on providing an AppleScript dictionary – which not everyone does. And Electron apps are of course black boxes, in scripting and more often than not in accessibility.
jwells89 3y ago
Yes, even just using UIKit will take you a decent way for a11y, and if you try to use parameterized fonts and colors where possible, replace image assets with SF Symbols, and fill in accessibility labels it’ll take you into the home stretch. I’m still not perfect about it but have trying to make a habit to do these things and will periodically test apps I’m working on with e.g. large fonts enabled in Settings, which doubles as a layout robustness test and improves the experience for everybody since it prepares for edge cases that’d otherwise been missed.
freedomben 3y ago
Indeed, I'm a very big critic of Steve Jobs and Apple, but when they prioritize stuff, they can do some damn fine work, and to this day they still have some terrific a11y features. Relatedly, "I don't care about the bloody ROI" was quite an incredible moment.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  Well, I believe they are serious about privacy, despite constant insinuations that they are not. I believe that Cook is totally serious, because he's a gay man who supports his community of shared interest. If there's one community that has some serious "skin in the game," when it comes to privacy, it's gay folks. There's places in the world, where it's worth your life, to be outed. But he's just one man, and no spring chicken. His successor may not be as vigilant. Also, Peter Thiel runs Palantir, so there's that.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    I agree that they are serious about privacy, though I'm not sure it means the same thing to them that it does to me. To me. Privacy includes not collecting data that isn't strictly needed to provide the feature. At their scale, perhaps they could reasonably argue that they need all the data about you in order to provide their service, so my standards don't necessarily indict them as reckless with data, but I do worry that the features they want to provide are increasingly including features that I don't necessarily want, but they still collect the data. In preparation for machine learning, I suspect they have justified storing enormous amounts of data from device usage that will help them. As a software engineer, I totally appreciate the importance of data for making decisions, but once you get in the mode of collecting analytics and usage data, you cross somewhat of a line of privacy. Companies like apple justify this by saying that Apple doesn't sell or release any of the data, it's purely used internally, and this is clearly 100 times better than the sellers of data, but it is still collecting invasive data in the first place. I think ultimately the real Revelation will come when they either don't begin serious advertising, or they do.
    - 3y ago

Absolutely! On macOS, I use KeyCue to show every hotkey* in every app because it's able to inspect accessibility/automation data. Similarly, this is what permits scripting desktop apps from AppleScript. (There's a word or phrase meaning side-benefits from disability compliance, but it escapes me.) * Almost

ttepasse 3y ago
Oh, that’s nice to know, now that the CheatSheet has been discontinued. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114115948/http://mediaatelier.com/CheatSheet/ https://web.archive.org/web/20121114115948/http://mediaateli... I thought CheatSheet was the original indie app which Apple copied for its iPad menus, but it seems KeyCue seems far older and such more original. > Similarly, this is what permits scripting desktop apps from AppleScript. AppleScript also has a second interaction in which the App gives access to an API to its “logical” object model. Instead of “Select item in list, then click on the delete button” the programming model is more “Tell the app to delete the e-mail”. On more complicated scripting tasks that makes a huge difference. But that depends on the developer on providing an AppleScript dictionary – which not everyone does. And Electron apps are of course black boxes, in scripting and more often than not in accessibility.

jwells89 3y ago

Yes, even just using UIKit will take you a decent way for a11y, and if you try to use parameterized fonts and colors where possible, replace image assets with SF Symbols, and fill in accessibility labels it’ll take you into the home stretch. I’m still not perfect about it but have trying to make a habit to do these things and will periodically test apps I’m working on with e.g. large fonts enabled in Settings, which doubles as a layout robustness test and improves the experience for everybody since it prepares for edge cases that’d otherwise been missed.

freedomben 3y ago

Indeed, I'm a very big critic of Steve Jobs and Apple, but when they prioritize stuff, they can do some damn fine work, and to this day they still have some terrific a11y features. Relatedly, "I don't care about the bloody ROI" was quite an incredible moment.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
Well, I believe they are serious about privacy, despite constant insinuations that they are not. I believe that Cook is totally serious, because he's a gay man who supports his community of shared interest. If there's one community that has some serious "skin in the game," when it comes to privacy, it's gay folks. There's places in the world, where it's worth your life, to be outed. But he's just one man, and no spring chicken. His successor may not be as vigilant. Also, Peter Thiel runs Palantir, so there's that.
- freedomben 3y ago
  I agree that they are serious about privacy, though I'm not sure it means the same thing to them that it does to me. To me. Privacy includes not collecting data that isn't strictly needed to provide the feature. At their scale, perhaps they could reasonably argue that they need all the data about you in order to provide their service, so my standards don't necessarily indict them as reckless with data, but I do worry that the features they want to provide are increasingly including features that I don't necessarily want, but they still collect the data. In preparation for machine learning, I suspect they have justified storing enormous amounts of data from device usage that will help them. As a software engineer, I totally appreciate the importance of data for making decisions, but once you get in the mode of collecting analytics and usage data, you cross somewhat of a line of privacy. Companies like apple justify this by saying that Apple doesn't sell or release any of the data, it's purely used internally, and this is clearly 100 times better than the sellers of data, but it is still collecting invasive data in the first place. I think ultimately the real Revelation will come when they either don't begin serious advertising, or they do.
  - 3y ago