I’ve just finished the Access On that will be published on April 1, 50 years to the day that Apple was founded. And I’m really happy with it.
We can celebrate all that Apple has done while also ensuring that their massive marketing machine doesn’t rewrite or obscure the history, which is that blind people have been leading every step of the way. It was blind people and our allies who initiated the first golden era of Apple
#accessibility in the 1980s. I’m joined by a panel comprising people who used the technology back then, and most significantly, by Caryn Navy, a blind person who, through Raised Dot Computing, played a pivotal role in that accessibility era. The stories she can tell are fascinating, and at times, very moving.
Thanks to the stellar work of
@jaybird110127, I’ll even fire up an Apple IIE, an emulated one, so you can hear what it all sounded like back then, play a couple of games, and even hear the Apple IIE play a tune or two.
And in case you weren’t around, or weren’t paying attention during the formative stages of this current Apple accessibility era, I think it is absolutely vital that we record the role blind people played in that, too. Apple didn’t wake up one morning and decide to do all this out of the goodness of its heart. It was a business imperative, and the organized blind movement created that environment and then insisted that Apple comply.
Telling the full story doesn’t take anything away from the brilliant engineers who brought about the revolution that saw blind people being able to buy a computer or a smartphone, take it home and use it on terms of equality at no extra cost. No one had done that before and it was a game changer. But what blind people achieved through collective action speaks to the kinds of outcomes that are possible when we know our worth and join together to organize as a strong force.
When it’s published on Wednesday, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed producing it, and I hope you feel a justifiable sense of blind pride in what we encouraged Apple to deliver.
There are, of course, still many tech accessibility victories to win, and there is a place for everyone who wants to help us win them in the National Federation of the Blind.
Just Osw
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