Swiping With a Ghost Limb

This past spring, after nine years of early retirement, a part-time job unexpectedly landed in my lap. It’s tempting to pat myself on the back and accept this as normal, simply the result of an employer who finally recognized my abilities, talents, and genius. It’s all me, baby. Yeah.

Not.

Even my ego isn’t that big.

To be honest with you, and with myself, I had to admit I never would’ve landed this freelance writing job if it weren’t for AppleVis. After nine years of doing pretty much nothing, my resumé was thin. Really thin. It contained only a single bullet point: “technology blogger”. AppleVis provided me with a platform, and one that carried weight. If I’d never blogged here, that employer would have never reached out to me.

AppleVis helped in another way. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to accept the job offer without this website. The project involved describing how blind users access new features in iOS 18, something that’s not yet publicly documented. Where else could I meet and converse with other blind users on the leading edge of technology, ferreting out iOS 18’s secrets, just like me?

And the work required me to use MS Word rather than my tried-and-true Scrivener. When I inevitably encountered MS Word’s many accessibility issues on MacOS, AppleVis would be that indispensable resource to keep me productive.

AppleVis made me employable, simply by being there.

Then the lights went out.

On July 27, I had drafted a comment for a forum topic, as I had hundreds of times previously. I clicked Submit, as I had hundreds of times previously. Then I saw a message I had never seen before. AppleVis was in maintenance mode. When it came back online, another oddity—I couldn’t post. None of us could.

For the next forty-four days, I contacted a few of you. We shared our grief and bemoaned our inability to help. I poured over David’s farewell post. Perhaps it was a spell book or grimoire. If I read and reread it, if I searched between the lines, I might find an incantation to bring AppleVis back to life. Many times, I thought of a question or topic to post, only to remember that AppleVis was no more. I might feel the same if I lost my arm and tried to swipe my phone.

To the Be My Eyes team—

The announcement of this brilliant partnership stunned me. It’s beyond perfect. Thank you for providing AppleVis with stability and support, recognizing this website’s value, and creating an award-winning app with infinite uses. (It helped me find my Joy Division t-shirt this morning!)

To David—

I wish you all strength and peace. Thank you for setting a high bar for quality, sacrificing your time and health, creating a website with unparalleled accessibility, and providing a platform rich with unique information.

To the community—

Very soon after AppleVis went offline, I found myself missing you—a global community composed entirely of blind Apple users, the only people who understand what I’m saying. A community that exists nowhere else on the internet. A community just like me. Thank you for posting the tips and tricks that made me employable, providing an ear when I just needed to rant, and making AppleVis the one-of-a-kind place that it is.

I’m glad we’re back.