Sam Proulx

" Understanding how assistive technology evolves is crucial because it foretells the future of interface design. "

" The disability time tax means that everything takes longer, so removing friction and reducing cognitive load is critical for accessibility. "

" People with disabilities often pay more to buy from stores they trust are accessible and where they feel confident. "

" Apple has thought hard about letting people unbox and set up their phone entirely without help, including turning on VoiceOver. "

" Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you run automated tests for; you must involve people with disabilities to benchmark success. "

" Screen curtain mode isn’t for sighted people simulating blindness; it’s a privacy feature to keep screens safe from prying eyes. "

" If it didn’t come from Amazon or Costco, I probably don’t own it because I know the experience will be consistent. "

" Typing on a mobile screen reader requires exploring the keyboard and double tapping keys, which can be cumbersome. "

" The first organization to solve accessibility for new modalities like AR/VR will gain a massive, lasting advantage. "

" Apple really premiered mobile accessibility in a very exciting way with the iPhone 3GS and VoiceOver. "

" The electric toothbrush started as an accessibility solution but became better for everyone. "

" In early computing, all you had to do was intercept text and put it in braille or text-to-speech, because everything was text-based. "

" Disability isn't rare; one in five people have a disability right now. "

" Mobile interaction with gestures and touch was revolutionary for accessibility. "

" Accessibility was considered kind of an inspiring hack, an inspirational rarity. "

" Starting your accessibility efforts on mobile makes the process simpler and easier to reuse when expanding to other platforms. "

" Separate accessible designs are never equal, so we must design inclusively from the start to unlock all the benefits of accessibility. "

" No company has a dominant advantage in AR/VR accessibility yet, but that will change in the coming years. "

" Mobile has some of the most mature built-in assistive technology that just comes installed. "

" Accessibility is not a shackle; it’s a way to expand our minds and innovate. "

" Screen readers navigate based on the code and semantics, not on visual layout or appearance. "

" No assistive technology user uses default settings; we spend years customizing everything to work for us. "

" Fixing problems found for one disability group often helps fix problems for others too. "

" Involving people with disabilities throughout the product development cycle is crucial, from prototype reviews through to acceptance testing. "

" The more complicated a web app becomes, the more necessary the ARIA application attribute is. "

" Screen reader users scored in the low to mid 50s on our scale while magnification users scored around 70 and alternative navigation users around 60. "

" Testing with the tab key is important, but it has nothing to do with a screen reader user’s actual experience. "

" Accessibility is a spectrum; if frequent tasks require assistance, the product is inaccessible for me. "