A few years ago, I attended a Devops Days conference in Minneapolis. For one of the afternoon unconference sessions, I let some fellow attendees try to use my white cane. We were in a big room and there was a wide space with no furniture. I asked the volunteers to close their eyes and set off across the room doing the cane sweeping technique I had shown them. They all set off confidently but slowed after a few paces as they started to lose their orientation and their confidence with it. I would then start to talk to them and ask them to turn around and come back by following the sound of my voice. After a few volunteers, we all sat down and I asked them to describe how they felt. They all agreed that they quickly started to feel lost and adrift. I then shared with them that unlike sighted people who navigate my missing things, blind people use touch as a tool to orient them selves. To put it bluntly, by hitting things, you know where you are.

Of course, this was a revelation and a completely new point of view to my colleagues and a very interesting conversation ignited on accessibility, UX and design in general.

This week, Apple released their new operating systems. They come with a new user Interface; a minimalist, low contrast design with vast empty spaces of black or white. There are no visible distinctions between side-bars and content, or between stacked items of content, like email threads. The separation between toolbar and content is indistinct or worse. It all adds up to a screen that is difficult to navigate.

For screen magnification users like me, those edges that break up the screen are guides used to navigate the screen. They tell you where you are and direct you to where you want to go. They provide context and feedback. They are like hitting something with your white-cane.

I have had to spend a fair amount of time and effort to make the new MacIS usable for me. I have done my best and it is better than it was. However, there are some aspects of the new UI (grey on grey? Really?) that I can do nothing about and I have to live with. I think Apple, who clearly do take accessibility seriously, took a couple steps back with their UI.