I've been meaning to write about the state of #accessibility support in #tech for a while now but figured it was a good time to do it now since The Register published this article.
As a #parent of a child with #disabilities, as well as being a #disability #advocate and #technology professional, I appreciate The Register's coverage of Global Accessibility Awareness Day and Apple's pursuit in improving accessibility in their OSes. Accessibility support is simultaneously necessary and perpetually a challenge. Often it seems like a clumsy afterthought or just prohibitively expensive.
As much as I am an #opensource advocate, the reality is out of all the mainstream OSes, #Microsoft#Windows has, unquestionably, the best support. #Apple has some catching up to do. The open source world trails behind with projects in various states of quality.
One of the areas needing serious improvement is eye gaze technology. Users who have serious motor impairments (spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, ALS) rely on this technology to communicate. Windows 10 supports this functionality natively yet #Linux still treats it as a #DIY project, at best. There is little coordination between desktop environments like #KDE#GNOME and #XFCE nor is there any kind of unified API.
It's 2025, we have reached the first quarter of the 21st century and accessibility support is still an afterthought. We can and must do better.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/18/apple_accessibility_features_2025/
#news #technews #technology