Tim, thanks for giving it a listen and for your thoughts.
While I fully understand what you are saying, I should explain the approach
taken.
Apple, like most large corporations, are extremely careful and considered
about what they put out there in the public domain. We simply did not have the
opportunity to ask such challenging questions. We required pre approval of what
areas would be discussed. You would get the same thing from Facebook, Google or
Amazon. How often have you heard a hard hitting interview with Tim Cook or
Larry Page, even by professional publications, let alone a volunteer run
website?
So why did we do the interview? Applevis has been in existence for over eight
years, and this is the first time they / we have been able to secure an
interview with someone so high up in Apple. We felt that her willingness, end
that of the PR team to give us this time, to acknowledge and reach out to our
community, was still very worthwhile.
Do Sarah and her colleagues know that Apple isn't perfect and that there are
problems, of course they do. But while they do encourage feedback, they simply
do not typically engage in those conversations on public platforms.
Sarah has recently joined the board of the American foundation for the blind,
and now we have begun to build a relationship. I believe that is of value and
something that can be built upon.
I certainly know that Apple isn't perfect, and yes we need to push them and
all companies to meet our needs, but honestly I also recognise the culture at
Apple as being broadly very positive in this space, and a culture that they
broadly at least try to live up to. Honestly we would be in a great place if
more companies and organizations had that culture.
But genuinely, thanks for the comment, I do absolutely recognise where you are
coming from, and hope my response is satisfactory.
Thanks and Regards,
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
On 7 Jun 2018, at 12:58, Tim Culhane <tim.j.culhane@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Dave,
Interesting listen.
I do, however, feel it turned into a bit of an Apple love in.
We all know the fantastic things that Apple have done to further
accessibility. However, there are still problems with apple devices and with
inaccessible apps.
I understand you didn’t want the podcast to focus on specific problems with
apple products, but I think you could have taken the opportunity to cross
examine the interviewee on what Apple is doing to address these problems.
One issue you touched on was the education work Apple is doing with
developers of third party apps to improve their accessibility.
However, would it have been good to ask Apple if they needed to provide a bit
more of the stick along with the carrots when it came to improving ap
accessibility?
All apps are reviewed before being allowed on the app store. Should it not
be a requirement that all controls in an app be properly labelled before an
app can be approved?
I’m sure there other issues, i.e braille support in iOS, problems with
Voiceover in the Mac OS etc.
On a general note, perhaps bringing up the poor performance of Siri as
compared similar services from Amazon and Microsoft.
The siri short cut functionality could live or die on whether siri can
actually understand what you are saying to it.
As I say, the interview was interesting, but I can’t help seeing it as a
missed opportunity to ask some difficult questions while at the same time
complimenting Apple on the work they have done for now.
In some ways we need to stop treating Apple and companies like them as some
sort of benevolent uncle dispensing sweets to his favourite nieces and
nephews.
What they are doing is fantastic, amazing etc, etc, but it is what they
should be doing and we, as people with disabilities shouldn’t be doing so
much as the obsequious thanking but a bit more of the demanding that this
should be the norm and what all companies of Apple’s size and resources
should be doing.
Sorry if this comes across as being over critical of Apple. I love my iPhone
and would be lost without it on many many levels.
But we still need to push for more and not expect what we are given as some
sort of gift from on high.
Tim
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Nason
Sent: 07 June 2018 10:40
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Interview with Apple's head of Accessibility
Hi All,
Hope you don't mind another plug, but myself and my colleague Thomas had the
great and rare opportunity yesterday to interview Apple's Director of Global
Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger.
It was an enjoyable and interesting conversation so I hope you enjoy it.
You can find the episode as AppleVis Extra 57 in the AppleVis podcast feed
in your podcast app of choice, or listen via the following direct link:
https://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/applevis-extra-57-sarah-herrlinger-director-global-accessibility-policy-and
Regards,
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
