My sister shared me this story and I thought it was so neat that I wanted to share it with all of you. Note, when activating this link, you may need to find an unmute button as for me anyway, the video starts playing on mute.

[www.today.com/video/art...](https://www.today.com/video/artist-sculpts-famous-works-of-art-for-visually-impaired-to-enjoy-202579525608)

I'm truly honored to appear in AccessWorld, Summer 2023 edition. Also, n extra thank-you to Steve Kelley for taking an interest in helping to tell my story.

https://www.afb.org/aw/24/6/18363

About The American Foundation for the Blind

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a non-profit organization that has been working tirelessly since 1921 to create a world of inclusion, independence, and opportunity for individuals with vision loss. They provide advocacy, resources, and programs to support the blind and visually impaired community.

One of AFB's flagship publications is AccessWorld, a magazine dedicated to technology and accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired. AccessWorld covers a wide range of topics, including assistive technology, accessible websites and apps, educational resources, employment opportunities, and more.

AccessWorld serves as a source of information and inspiration for the blind and visually impaired community, as well as professionals and advocates in the field. It features in-depth articles, product reviews, and expert opinions to help its readers navigate the ever-evolving landscape of accessible technology.

To learn more, you can visit the AccessWorld website at https://www.afb.org/aw/

I don't remember if I've posted this before, but even if I have, I think it's always good to have a reminder when it comes to making blog and other content more accessible.

I recently heard about this fantastic app, available for both Mac OS and iOS, called Aiko which leverages AI technology to transcribe audio. What sets Aiko apart from similar solutions though include, in part:

• It's free, totally free.
• Audio can be dictated directly into the app, or a pre-recorded file can be imported. I'm particularly excited about this second piece.
• Everything happens on the end-user's device, nothing is sent to the cloud.
• Multiple languages are supported, we're talking a lot of languages: 100 languages according to Aiko's home page.

I was excited to test out this fascinating technology and so to really put it through it's paces, in a sub-optimal recording environment, I decided to record some audio using my Apple Watch, while standing outside with lots of traffic and other background noise. What follows is the unedited output of my little experiment. I'm also adding the actual recorded audio, so that you can get a sense of the crummy audio I gave Aiko to work with.

For years, I've been a fan of YNAB, You Need a Budget. I love the principles behind their budgeting methodology, I love the app, I love the company, I'm just a really huge fan. YNAB has helped me to pay down debt, feel more confident about where my money is coming from, and going to, and generally feel way more in control of my financial life. Unfortunately, on 07/14, I downloaded an update to YNAB's iOS app, an update that contained significant accessibility issues.

I was hurt. I was up-set. I was not sure if I had set enough money aside to cover my rent payment -- in short, it was not a very good day.

When it comes to making products and services accessible, it's really important to understand that accessibility isn't a nice-to-have, or a feature request. This is especially true if you offer a product or service that people might depend on. Sure I could have changed to another app, but I also would likely have had to change my budgeting method to one that would align with whatever new app I had chosen. That would have been especially challenging as I couldn't put my financial life on pause while I figured it all out.

Fortunately, the fine folks at YNAB were extremely responsive and understanding, indicating that they were already working on fixes and, more importantly, were working to ensure that issues like this wouldn't happen again.

And so here we are, roughly three weeks later, and I again get a notification that an update to the YNAB app is available. Even better, the "What's new" section of YNAB's App Store entry mentions:

• Two major accessibility wins:

◦ We made many improvements to VoiceOver interactions.

◦ We changed our background colors so that the Increase Contrast accessibility setting will now apply to the YNAB app and actually increase the contrast.

What's New section in YNAB's Apple App Store entry for version 3.01

I downloaded the app and was absolutely blown away. YNAB is now more accessible than ever, it's a complete accessibility transformation. Because of their work on accessibility, I can use the YNAB iOS app way more efficiently than ever before.

So, what does all this mean? Certainly this is a win for me personally, but it goes way beyond that. By

working to improve our approach to accessibility concerns to prevent instances like this in the future

Mentioned by YNAB in a follow-up tweet

YNAB has helped ensure that I remain a loyal customer: I'm happy to continue using their product, and I'm happy to continue paying for it because I feel listened to and I feel valued. And that's a big part of accessibility that often gets left out of the conversation; accessibility is about equal access to products and services, but it's also about listening to, and responding to, customer needs; and isn't that a key component of many brands? When a company values me, and goes the extra mile to show me that I am valued, they create loyalty because like most consumers, I appreciate companies and brands that appreciate me.

So Thank you, YNAB team, for your work on accessibility over these past few weeks. Not only have you transformed your iOS app in an incredible way, but you've also demonstrated, by taking action, that you value me and others who use assistive technologies. I'm proud of the tremendous amount you've accomplished and am excited to see what comes next.

Update

On July 26, I received yet another support Email saying in part,

Dear Steve, Thank you for contacting Weight Watchers.  My name is [Name redacted] and I will be more than happy to assist you with troubleshooting your application. I do apologize for this inconvenience.  Your email has been escalated to me. In order for us to be sure we offer you the best support for Weight Watchers Mobile, please answer the following questions for us: * Are you using a mobile device or a computer? * What is your device model and Operating System? * If you are using an iPhone, iPad or iPod, please confirm whether you are using the Weight Watchers Mobile app for iPhone App or accessing our mobile site [a.weightwatchers.com](http://a.weightwatchers.com/) ? * If you are using a computer, what internet browser are you using. * If you have not already done so in your initial Email to us, please let us know what error you are receiving. * If your issue is technical in nature and you have not already done so in your initial Email to us, please describe as best you can what is occurring and what steps you took prior to running into the problem.  Also please provide any error messages you may have received. As soon as we receive your response we will investigate on your behalf.

While the title of this post may seem a bit dramatic, I assure you it isn’t, at least not to me.  In a nut shell, the situation is this:  I pay for an app or service, use the app or service and then, with one update, it suddenly becomes impossible to use the app or service any longer.  This may not seem like that big a deal to those who are able to see, but for those of us who depend on VoiceOver or other assistive technologies, it’s a situation that is very real.

As many of my social media followers know, I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers for quite a few months.  After all, I can definitely stand to lose a few pounds and I’ve seen the program be successful with many who have benefited greatly from it.  I was also very encouraged to learn that Weight Watchers has a page dedicated to accessibility which says in part::

In our ongoing commitment to help as many people as possible to lose weight, including those with disabilities, Weight Watchers is dedicated to improving accessibility for people with visual impairments in the following ways.

For those unfamiliar with Weight Watchers, the program is essentially a points-based system where by individuals are allocated a number of points to be used throughout the day and foods are also given a point value, healthier foods receiving lower values than non-healthy foods.  A person can eat whatever they wish, the goal being to stay within their allocated number of points.  In short, it’s totally fine to have a big slab of chocolate cake, but because that slab of cake has a high point value, a smarter decision might be to opt for different, more healthier foods.  Using their iOS app, it’s possible to look up a food’s point value and to track it against the daily total.  Not only is this an efficient system, but the app can be instrumental in making healthy food choices by allowing the user to look up point values before deciding what to eat.

Like many of their customers, I update the Weight Watcher’s app regularly.  I certainly didn’t anticipate any problems when installing the latest version described as:

What's New in Version 4.9.1 Fixed an issue with the barcode scanner.

We’re always working to improve the app and maximize your experience — thanks for sharing your thoughts so we can make it even better. More exciting improvements to come!

After getting over my initial euphoria over chocolate cake suddenly having a ‘0’ point value, I realized that the problem was in fact an accessibility one.  For whatever reason, VoiceOver is no longer able to read point values accurately.  What this means is that in search results, when adding foods, when reviewing meals and anywhere else a point value might present itself, it is simply read as ‘0’.  Given the critical part the point values play in the program, this is a real problem.  How can I utilize a system based on points when I can’t read the actual points?

So, what to do?  My first step was to utilize live chat functionality which is built directly into the Weight Watchers app.  This chat system is pleasantly accessible and since it’s available around the clock, I thought it would be a quick way to describe the issue and see if it had already been reported.  After explaining the situation to the chat representative, my chat was “transferred”; I never knew a chat could be transferred.  Anyway, I get a new representative to whom I again explain the situation only to have my chat disconnected.  By this point my hands hurt from all the typing in addition to my already-mounting frustration, so I figure the next best thing to do is to contact them via the web site.  I do this, being sure to mention that I’m blind, this is an accessibility issue followed by a descriptive explanation of the problem.  Over a day later, I receive this response:

Dear Steve, Thank you for contacting Weight Watchers. My name is [name redacted] and I'm sorry about the challenges that you have encountered in accessing your account through the WW Mobile App. Rest assured, that I will help you with your concern. I appreciate your subscription with our Online Plus  plan.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for trying our site and for making us a part of your weight loss journey. Please try the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Please log out from the App and log back in.
2. If that does not work, force close the App if you have an Android device. Then relaunch the App. For iOS, close the App by double-clicking on the home button, swipe up on app snapshot, and click home button. Then relaunch the App.
3. If steps 1 and 2 do not work, delete the App and reinstall. Please note that recently scanned items are stored locally on the device and will be lost when you uninstall. If you would like to keep a recently scanned item, please save it as a favorite. The Mobile App requires iOS 8.0 or later. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. For Android users, it requires Android 4.0.3 and up. While it might also work on an Android tablet, it is not yet fully supported and may not be compatible. Let us know how things go! If the troubleshooting steps do not help, please reply here with details about what you are experiencing. We’ll investigate further and reach out should we need to gather additional details.