Sam Proulx

" Assistive technology innovations today are the foundation for tomorrow's mainstream user interfaces. "

" If your checkout isn’t giving me confidence, I’ll just go to your competitor. "

" Consistency really drives the success of many, many major brands among people with accessibility. "

" VoiceOver tells you what you’re touching but you have to double tap to activate. "

" If the purchase process feels inaccessible or confusing, people assume the product will be inaccessible too. "

" Testing with real users is the only way to build empathy and create appropriate outcomes. "

" Accessible experiences are better experiences for everyone whether you are a person with a disability or not. "

" You explore the keyboard with your finger until you find the letter that you are interested in and then you need to double tap on that letter. "

" Cloud-based apps don’t let you stay on older, accessible versions, which creates challenges for users relying on accessibility. "

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

" Compliance is a guideline, not a checklist to robotically go through — focus on building good experiences. "

" Those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. "

" Everyone already uses accessibility features, whether they realize it or not. "

" Mobile’s clearer guidelines, like Apple’s App Store rules, help make accessible design more straightforward. "

" AI must communicate its confidence levels so users can trust what it tells them, especially when they cannot double-check visually. "

" Accessibility is about building accessible, customizable experiences that allow users to pick the best tool for the job. "

" Voice assistance gave people with disabilities independence that they had never previously had before but also made the world better for everyone. "

" With Apple, I could pick up any phone and triple-click the home button and VoiceOver would come on. "

" On mobile, you know if you're on iOS 15, you have the latest version of VoiceOver because it updates with the operating system. "

" Diverse teams build diverse products. "

" If you press a button and the semantics haven’t changed or the focus hasn’t moved, as far as I’m concerned, nothing has happened. "

" Breaking tasks into little chunks avoids the confusion of talking while the screen reader is talking. "

" Always aim to work with at least one user per platform where your product will be used to cover differences in assistive technology. "

" Including people with disabilities in prototype reviews can be a little different based on the assistive technology someone uses and their needs. "

" Most people listen to 250 words per minute; I listen to my screen reader at between 400 to 800 words per minute. "

" The original SUS questions don’t consider the extra layer of technology that gets in the way for people with disabilities. "

" I don’t know anyone who uses the default out-of-the-box configuration without customizing it extensively. "

" Remote testing helps users be in comfortable, accessible environments with fully customized assistive technology setups. "