With Apple constantly working on updates to its software, I thought that it
would be both timely and appropriate to remind people of the importance of
reporting accessibility bugs to Apple and to make a few suggestions for the
best way to do so.
AppleVis is a great platform for talking about accessibility bugs: to
confirm with others that what you are experiencing is actually a bug; to
seek and share workarounds; or to simply vent the occasional frustration.
But we also need to make sure that the Accessibility Team at Apple is aware
of each and every bug so that they can hopefully get them fixed in a future
software update.
It's tempting to assume that somebody else will have reported the bug that
you are encountering, or that Apple's developers must surely already know
about it. However, this may not always be the case. There is also the
possibility that you can provide a specific piece of information that will
help the developers to isolate and fix the cause of the problem. Lastly, the
reality is that numbers do matter; the more people who report a specific
problem, the more likely it is that Apple will allocate developer time into
finding a fix.
So, please do make a point of letting Apple know of any bugs that you find
in iOS or OS X. If it's an accessibility-specific bug, the best way to do
this is by sending an email to Apple's Accessibility Team at:
accessibility@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:accessibility@xxxxxxxxx> .
It is important that you provide enough information in your email for the
Accessibility Team to be able to replicate the problem, so be sure to
include the following:
1. A brief description of the problem.
2. State the frequency of the problem - for example, does it always
happen, only sometimes, or very infrequently.
3. Give details of the steps necessary to reproduce the problem.
4. State what you would expect to happen after taking the steps above.
5. Explain what actually happens after taking the steps above.
6. Give details of the software and hardware that you are using.
This should be all that the Accessibility Team needs to know, but they will
contact you if they need additional information.
As a general rule, it's good practice to send a seperate email for each bug
if you have more than one to report. Doing so makes it easier for Apple to
log and track specific bugs and also reduces the possibility of any
confusion.
Don't be surprised or disappointed if you don't get a response to your
email. I can understand why people would want to at least receive an
acknowledgement that the report had been received and that the problem is
being investigated, but this doesn't appear to be Apple's normal practice.
So, sit back, and accept that you would be happier that their time was spent
working to find fixes and add new features rather than writing emails.
If you want to provide feedback to Apple which isn't specifically related to
accessibility, you will need to use one of the feedback forms available on
their website at:
www.apple.com/feedback <http://www.apple.com/feedback> .
Submitted by David Goodwin - Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team at:
www.applevis.com
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