I see us all having some great discussions about a wide variety of iOS and Macintosh issues with voiceover and braille readers. Is anyone actually contacting Apple accessibility about these issues, or is it just a bunch of us building endless threads about our experiences? Do members of Apple's accessibility team regularly review this site? Do the AppleViz administrators regularly contact Apple accessibility with the top issues? Just wanting to understand how all of this effort translates into improvements for us. For example, I have seen many users report the issue where voiceover speaks aloud while trying to use dictation. I have also noticed that this problem has made it through the last several updates of iOS, so I am wondering if somebody has actually reported it to Apple. Thanks for helping me understand how these mechanics of the forum work.
Comments
Just us talking
Apple's accessibility team might look at the forums, but I do not think they do much unless we report the problems; it's the same with sighted users. I think that most of the people who write on the forums have never contacted Apple Accessibility, and only a few have. The only time I think that the AppleVis administrators contact Apple Accessibility is when they report bugs, or serious frustrations that they personally have with Apple products.
Oh goodness
If what you say is true, then it is no wonder why it takes so long to see corrections and bug fixes take place in iOS. For what it is worth, I always report bugs with VoiceOver to Apple accessibility. Just to make sure everyone has that email address, here it is: accessibility@apple.com
I was under the impression that once a particular bug or problem was "trending," as it were, the administrators would reach out to Apple when they had enough feedback. I am rather surprised to learn that this is not the case. I do believe it would be more effective for us to take an approach such as that, compiling all similar feedback into one clear, organized email to the support team rather than a bunch of individual emails. If we want to really see meaningful change, we need to get more organized as a community. This will help us keep track of issues already reported as well as not cause too many headaches for the hard-working team over there at Apple. What are your thoughts?
Too lazy
I would suspect that most people prefer complaining and are too lazy to send a formal email to Apple Accessibility.
I report bugs as often as possible
Hi there! I just thought I'd respond, for what it's worth. When IOS 8 came out, I encountered a number of bugs that were pretty major, at least in my little world. I remember calling the Apple Accessibility phone number on at least two or three occasions to discuss a couple of the more serious bugs I was encountering on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say that as of this writing: only one of the four original issues I reported over a year ago has actually been resolved. I recently enrolled in the Apple public beta program for IOS, and again, I have reported a number of issues, some of which are the same issues I was reporting when IOS 8 came out. Without getting too specific, as discussion of betas really isn't encouraged here, I will say that so far, none of my issues have been addressed yet even though I'm using Apple's feedback app. To the best of my admittedly limited knowledge, most of us *try* to report the problems we experience with Apple products. The question is when or if Apple will address said issues and fix them.
I like Joe's idea a lot!
The idea of compiling more detailed bug reports from multiple users and submitting as in depth reports to apple accessibility is a great one. The question is: who would have the time, ability and technical know-how to undertake such a project. As I said in my previous post, I have been making every effort to report the bugs I encounter on a regular basis, but Apple is more likely to listen and take action if they can get more information regarding specific bugs from as many users as possible.
Not only bugs
I hope that people are not only reporting bugs to Apple; I hope that feature requests and suggestions are also being reported. Apple aren't mind-readers.
Reporting bugs etc.
Your idea certainly has merit. Personally, I absolutely report bugs that I consider fundamentally detrimental to the user experience to accessibility@apple.com.
Broadly, they are generally responsive in terms of acknowledging your communication, but ultimately, addressing issues, very likely comes down to the severity of individual bugs, level of contact, and resources both human and time related. For sure accessibility although important, isn't the most significant priority, and that is why bugs remain and can persist for many software cycles. In the main, most of the bugs have been fixed that I've reported. However, an immediate fix is really never forthcoming and patience is essential. Generally, IOS9 is relatively solid at the moment, with some exceptions.
An interesting discussion.
yes we have to report the
yes we have to report the bugs to apple because if we wont report then how they know and solve them, i know they take to much time to solve the bugs but same go's with sited people as well if they report any bug to apple it does not mean that there problim will be solved in next softwhere version and do remember that apple is a only company who has a calling helpline for all of us if we cant email them then we have to call the helpline and report the bug there but sending email is better
Email is Apple’s preferred way
We have previously looked into potential ways of using AppleVis as a tool for increasing both the quantity and quality of bug reporting to Apple. However, discussions with the appropriate people at Apple made it very clear that they would not endorse or support any initiative which sought to coordinate or channel bug reporting. Without Apple’s approval, this made everything that we had considered a non-starter.
So, as already stated by others in this thread, the preferred and most effective way to report bugs and make feature requests is by email to accessibility@apple.com.
One of our posts elsewhere on this site stresses the importance of reporting accessibility-related bugs to Apple and offers a few suggestions for the best way to do so: http://www.applevis.com/blog/advocacy-apple-applevis-ios/found-accessibility-bug-ios-or-os-x-here-s-how-let-apple-know-and
understanding the period of time for fixing the bugs
thank you for an interesting topic for discussion! I wonder if there is some social or any other responsibility stated in law for the period of time when any improvement should be done if users ask for such improvements from the company? Maybe there is some ways to make the bugs fixed faster?
I believe that the power of this community is stronger then individual emails and we just have to lern how to use this power.