[mac4theblind] RE: [mac4theblind] Three Reasons Apple’s M1 Computers Make For More Accessible Macs
- From: <craybay3198@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mac4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2020 09:32:33 -0500
Now this is nice right here. I love this article.
From: mac4theblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mac4theblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of John Panarese
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 9:31 AM
To: mac4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx mac4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mac4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [mac4theblind] Three Reasons Apple’s M1 Computers Make For More
Accessible Macs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenaquino/2020/11/20/three-reasons-apples-m1-computers-make-for-more-accessible-macs/?sh=244d281610c9
Three Reasons Apple’s M1 Computers Make For More Accessible Macs
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenaquino/> Steven Aquino01:58pm EST
Apple
Apple’s newly-released M1 Macs—the <https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/>
MacBook Air, <https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/> MacBook Pro, and
<https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/> Mac Mini—have been met with
<https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-m1-mac-review-roundup-big-performance-and-battery-gains/>
near-universal acclaim. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber said it best in
<https://daringfireball.net/2020/11/the_m1_macs> his review, writing in a
footnote of all places: “Steve Jobs would have f****** loved these M1 Macs.”
For a major architectural transition, the praise can get no higher.
While coverage of Apple’s newest machines have focused entirely—rightfully so—
on the Apple-designed system-on-a-chip that power them, the computers do have
implications for accessibility and the disabled community. From macOS Big Sur’s
visual redesign to the MacBooks’ better battery and more, these qualities all
stand to have a positive influence on the user experience for people with
disabilities.
Big Sur’s Big Facelift
Apple has updated the look of macOS before in recent history, in 2014’s
<https://512pixels.net/2014/10/os-x-yosemite-review/> macOS Yosemite. While
Yosemite more or less brought design parity to match iOS at the time, Big Sur’s
new design is much more radical. If ever there was a semi-homogeneous “Apple
aesthetic” to their five software platforms, Big Sur exemplifies that ideal; in
other words, there is an unmistakable family resemblance in Big Sur to iOS and
the rest of the lot. This matters for accessibility in two ways.
First, and perhaps most obviously, is the visual properties of Big Sur. The new
operating system is full of transparency, which have varying degrees of
usability depending on your needs and tolerances. There also are new icons,
system alerts, and a Control Center that are virtually copied from iOS and
“Mac-ified” for the Mac. This is not a pejorative statement; these elements
contribute to Big Sur’s look that have ramifications for accessibility. Whether
the look is nice is in the eye of the beholder, but they certainly are stark
changes especially if you’re visually impaired.
Secondly, UI designers and wannabe armchair UI designers have taken to Twitter
to complain about the look of Big Sur. There’s nothing inherently wrong with
this, it’s the lifeblood of Twitter. But a key point people miss in critiquing
Big Sur’s design is how much it offers cognitively. That is to say, the
aforementioned family resemblance to iOS is far more than a
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klM4NmB_CTY> “back to the Mac” redux. For many
people with certain cognitive delays, the cohesiveness of icons and apps—the
new Messages being a prime example—goes a long way in making the Mac more
comfortable and usable. To have the macOS Messages app look almost identical to
its iOS brethren is a good thing for legions of users. The continuity can do
much to lessen cognitive load for someone who often moves between platforms,
yet has trouble at times remembering differentiating characteristics of their
respective operating systems.
Of course, the opposite is true as well. Big Sur isn’t a perfect product. It
could be argued Apple was too liberal in using transparency, for instance.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away from the fact Big Sur’s redesign will
undoubtedly have a positive impact overall. The future of the Mac is bright, in
no small part to Big Sur.
Better Battery, Brighter Screens
Besides raving about how performant the M1 chip is, the other notable part of
the M1 Mac reviews has been the battery life in the new MacBook Air and MacBook
Pro.
That the new laptops can run longer is great, but there’s another benefit aside
from productivity. The considerably longer battery life means a user can have
their screen brightness at the maximum setting without much penalty. For many
visually impaired people, a screen—be it a MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch,
even a television—needs to be as bright as possible (or at least as bright as
they can handle) in order to see well. In a laptop’s case, the tradeoff is
worse battery life because the screen consumes so much energy. But therein lies
the rub—that’s the sacrifice we make in order to actually use our devices. It’s
the same rationale behind choosing the iPhone Max; it may be an aircraft
carrier of a phone, but that’s the ergonomic price to pay for its ginormous
display. Accessibility is as much about tradeoffs as it is access.
Thus, for a visually impaired person considering one of the new MacBooks,
Apple’s battery life claims should be extraordinarily exciting. A new MacBook
Air running at full brightness still will chew through battery faster, but the
power efficiency of Apple’s custom silicon ensures it can run brighter for
longer—that’s a huge deal.
So much of the talk about the M1 Macs has been dominated by numbers: speeds and
RAM limits and battery hours and comparisons to Intel chips. Those are obvious
metrics. A less obvious metric, certainly to mainstream reviewers, are the
intangible qualities that a better battery has for accessibility. It goes to
show charts and graphs and benchmarks aren’t everything. Cold, hard data isn’t
everything.
Touching on the Touch Bar
Those in the tech community seem to have a universally visceral disdain for the
Touch Bar; it’s useless, it’s gimmicky, whatever. It has been definitely
disappointing to see Apple not improve the feature a little more than four
years after <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA8vDBY6bCs> its debut.
And yet, the Touch Bar may very well be the reason someone with disabilities
spends the extra money on a MacBook Pro. Despite everyone’s loathing, the Touch
Bar’s strengths are non-trivial for accessibility. The Touch Bar cuts down on a
lot of excess mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts, particularly for those who
perhaps cannot perform a keyboard shortcut at all for dexterity reasons. The
Touch Bar also helps reduce cognitive load by utilizing iOS-style icons for
tasks that someone would otherwise need to remember how to do. Better to tap
the Send icon in Mail on the Touch Bar than sit there and try to remember to
hit ⌘-S. The Touch Bar is better.
For people who may have issues seeing the Touch Bar itself but still want to
use it, <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207258> Touch Bar Zoom is one of
the finest pieces of software Apple has ever shipped. That the company packed
so much functionality for disabled people in that thin strip of screen is
nothing short of remarkable and vastly unappreciated.
In the end, what happens to the Touch Bar long-term is anyone’s guess. Maybe
Apple makes it better, maybe they kill it. But so long as it exists, it is
wrong to call it an abject failure. The Touch Bar can make the Mac more
accessible for many people. That is significant, no matter how maligned the
feature has been.
Take Care
John D. Panarese
Director
Mac for the Blind
Tel, (631) 724-4479
Email, john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Website, http://www.macfortheblind.com
APPLE CERTIFIED SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL, ACSP
Apple Certified Trainer, ACT
Apple Performance Partner
MAC and iOS VOICEOVER TRAINING AND SUPPORT
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