Sunday means a late breakfast, some straightening-up around the house and a plan – that didn’t work out – to do some prep cooking for the week. Instead of cooking, I sat down with my iPhone 18 Pro Max to read some stacked-up news articles from the week. And that’s where our story begins and ends. Incident 1 I received an iPhone 18 Pro Max review unit from Apple, and promptly set it up as my daily driver. Trouble was, I just couldn’t work with a phone that large for hours at a time. So I switched back to my…
Shelly's Web of Wonder Posts
If you missed my previous post, you might want to go back and learn why I’m so annoyed with user interface elements right now. This is the first of a week’s worth of posts about how dark modes of various kinds are ignored, and why that matters. It’s not a workday, so the theoretical stakes of inaccessible UI elements are lower than they might otherwise be. Also, I’m not at the computer or on my phone all day, either. I have some TV to catch up on. But I am working on a couple of projects, using unfamiliar tools, so…
Welcome to a week of screenshots. Each day, I’ll post here to tell you about my experiences with poor contrast dialogs, buttons and other interface items I encounter in my daily life. I got the idea for this project when I started noticing how often I’ve been nable to properly read an item onscreen, even though I use native dark mode, and a browser extension designed to bring a dark appearance to Web pages that don’t respond to the system’s own dark mode. {If you’re just catching up, I’m visually-impaired, my eyes are quite sensitive to light – I’m photophobic…
Who really follows accessibility? A small test.
Posted in Access and Disability, and New Media and Tech
I made a slightly provocative social media post yesterday. Rarely for me, I used the identical text and external link on both Mastodon and Bluesky. Apologies to anyone who saw both and felt their time had been wasted. It was for science. Let’s broaden that definition of “low-quality” apps to include any app that doesn’t provide (and claim) basic accessibility. Why else does Apple have nutrition labels? https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/09/app-store-guidelines-low-quality-apps/ https://zeppelin.flights/@Shelly/116726159352735031 I wanted to know two things when I made the post: first, how are my audiences on Mastodon and Bluesky different, both in terms of raw reactivity to what I have…
Pulling More Apple-at-50 Accessibility Threads
Posted in Access and Disability, New Media and Tech, Podcasting, and Random Personal Nonsense
I’ve had several opportunities to reflect on 50 years of Apple in the past week. I’ve also been reading my share or recollections by others – many of whom are friends. And I’ve noticed that the loopbacks come in two flavors – stories about bumping up against Apple, the company, in the person of executives or memorable product moments. Or, people have written personal stories about how things that Apple made changed their own lives. I didn’t know this when I wrote about my own beginnings as a Mac user. But I quickly realized that I preferred stories about users,…
On the anniversary of Apple’s founding, I wrote for Six Colors about my Mac nerd origin story. I soon discovered I was far from the only one moved to do so. I’ve told versions of it on podcasts over the years, but it was good to write it out with a bit more detail. Actually, I left out a few things that I later threaded up for social media. In case you missed those bits, I offer them below: I wanted to aim higher with my brand-new journalism degree, but most starting-out reporter jobs in those days would have sent…
The Blog Returns
Posted in Announcements, and Random Personal Nonsense
Lately, I’ve had a lot of thoughts about technology, accessibility and the world at large that have no natural place to go. So I’m going to try and blog about it. Wish me luck!
Updating iOS Access for All
Posted in Access and Disability, and Announcements
It’s fall tech season again. Even before the calendar confirms the season’s change, Apple has given us one of the traditional markers – new hardware and a date on which we’ll all be downloading the new versions of its software. And I’m working on the update to my book, iOS Access for All, like I do each autumn. Anyone who buys the current (iOS 14 edition) from now until the update is released will receive the brand-new iOS 15 edition when it’s ready. Such a deal!
NanciNet Days: How Nanci Griffith’s Music And The People Who Loved It Kept Me Going
Posted in Random Personal Nonsense
Gonna pack up my two-steppin’ shoes And head for the Gulf Coast plain Gonna walk the streets of my own hometown Where everybody knows my name. – Nanci Griffith, “I Wish it would Rain” I typed the above lyric from memory. Admittedly, that recollection has been made sharper during the week since Nanci Griffith passed away. I’ve been listening to her music a lot, and I produced a radio remembrance about her. But I think my memory would’ve been just as accurate before I heard the sad news. The song meant so much to me when I was living in…
Quite an Honor
Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, New Media and Tech, and Pods and Presos
I got a phone call a couple of months ago letting my know that my audio documentary, 36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk won a Barbara Jordan Media Award. These honors are presented annually to media professionals and students in recognition of positive and inclusive representations of people with disabilities, here in Texas. There was to be an awards ceremony at Texas A&M, last month, but the pandemic put a stop to that. The folks at the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities had award recipients record messages, which have been assembled into a (very…