Report: Zoox expands San francisco Service Area
My friend Rya Jetha reports for The San Francisco Standard today Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox is expanding its service area in San Francisco so as to serve more neighborhoods. Zoox’s HQ is located on the peninsula, in Foster City.
“Zoox is quadrupling its San Francisco service area for select riders, with operations in the Marina, North Beach, Chinatown, Pacific Heights, and along the Embarcadero,” Jetha wrote on Tuesday.
Of the new neighborhoods, Pac Heights is closest to my former home in the Richmond. I signed up for Zoox long ago, but never was willing to literally go across the city to the Mission or SoMA to try it out. By contrast, Waymo is available city-wide. I was in Las Vegas for a few days (post-CES) back in January, but never booked a Zoox while there. I’d love to try them out someday, ideally sooner than later, but at this point, I’m longing for Waymo to expand its own service area and start serving my corner of the East Bay—incidentally just over the bridge from tech hotbeds like Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and more. Regardless of the purveyor, autonomous vehicles as a category have utterly revolutionized my own autonomous, agentic, transportation needs—Lyft and Uber have their place, but Waymo takes the experience to the next level. Journalistically speaking, I’ve been in touch with Zoox’s PR team in the recent past, and my understanding is the company cares very much about accessibility, but that’s the extent of my interaction thus far. I’d love for the dynamic to change sometime soon.
Back to Jetha. Her dek is really good: “[Most] San Franciscans still can’t catch a ride—unless they work at Zoox, know someone who does, or make it off the waitlist.”
In Defense of macOS Tahoe’s menu icons
Over the weekend, Stephen Hackett linked to a post by Steve Troughton-Smith on how to hide the menu icons in macOS Tahoe. The trick involves a Terminal command.
defaults write -g NSMenuEnableActionImages -bool NO
“It [the command] even preserves the couple of instances you do want icons, like for window zoom/resize,” Troughton-Smith said in his post on Mastodon.
The SF Symbols menu icons, a flourish new to Tahoe’s visual design alongside Liquid Glass, have been the subject of much consternation amongst Apple watchers, with most people who revile them describing them as a crime against user interface design. But I disagree with the Apple community’s consensus, at least to an extent.
As a person with severe visual disabilities, two things are true here in my opinion: (1) the little glyphs are unattractive and nonsensical in places, adding clutter to the already cramped menu real estate; and (2) on the flip side, it’s plausible the menu icons can make identifying options more accessible because the icons act as a pictorial element which augments the written text. For my use, I don’t mind the menu icons at all, but will concede, as Hackett suggests in his commentary, Apple ought to “roll this change back in macOS 27, or offer a proper setting to disable these icons for those of us who find them distracting.” An eminently reasonable compromise to ask of Apple.
Preference notwithstanding, the accessibility story deserves some spotlight. To me, the former Early Childhood Development major sees Tahoe’s menu icons as simply a more highfalutin implementation of the High-Scope philosophy. Without getting too deep into the weeds on the curriculum’s inner workings, the Cliff’s Notes version is High-Scope classrooms prioritize bimodal sensory integration while also promoting literacy. To wit, it’s beneficial for young children to not only see images of the materials available to them in a particular center area, it’s also a boon to have the written word of said material(s). At a high level, this concept is what I’d presume drove Apple’s UI designers to add the icons in the first place; better for people to have a picture which reinforces the text. Disability-wise, while you can make a cogent argument that the icons are too “busy” in terms of visual and cognitive needs for some, the salient point I’m making here is just that the reality is probably—likely, even—more nuanced than that. The fact most restaurant menus omit pictures in their dishes’ description is commonplace, I’ll grant you, but commonality doesn’t necessarily equate to accessibleness. In other words, the people who loathe Tahoe’s menu icons are clutching their proverbial pearls because they think it’s an aesthetic regression—the problem is, aesthetics don’t, or shouldn’t trump, accessibility. By the menu icons logic, showers shouldn’t have grab bars because they make them look shittier, god forbid.
Here’s my one and only gripe with Apple’s current implementation of menu icons. I use Hover Text on my Mac, and while it does include keyboard shortcuts in the enlarged “tooltip,” it does not include the much-maligned icons. It seems like a curious oversight, making the Hover Text experience feel inconsistent and half-baked. That’s a surefire feature enhancement I’d love to see announced for macOS 27 come early June.
Apple announces this year’s WWDC Dates
Apple on Monday announced WWDC 2026. The week-long event will run June 8–12.
“WWDC26 will spotlight incredible updates for Apple platforms, including AI advancements and exciting new software and developer tools,” the company said in the press release posted to its Newsroom site. “As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting developers, WWDC will also provide unique access to Apple engineers and designers, and insight into new tools, frameworks, and features.”
This year’s WWDC will begin on Monday, June 8 with what Apple describes as “a special in-person event” at Apple Park. The main keynote, as well as the colloquially known “developer keynote” in the Platforms State of the Union, will be watchable by developers and students alike. Apple doesn’t say so, but the in-person event includes a sizable number of media in attendance as well—historically including yours truly.
Historically is an apt descriptor; WWDC26 will be my 14th as a member of the press.
“WWDC is one of the most exciting times for us at Apple because it’s a chance for our incredible global developer community to come together for an electrifying week that celebrates technology, innovation, and collaboration,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, said in a statement included in the company’s announcement. “We can’t wait to see many of you online and in person for what is sure to be one of our best WWDC events yet.”
Accessibility is a big part of WWDC, and you’ll see all my news and analysis right here.
Where Does John Ternus Land on accessibility?
Ben Lovejoy posted a synopsis for 9to5 Mac of Mark Gurman’s profile of John Ternus for Bloomberg. I don’t have a Bloomberg subscription, so I can neither read the story nor Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Thus, Lovejoy’s Cliff’s Notes version was helpful.
One bit about Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, stood out to me.
“Last year he took control of a secretive unit developing robots, including a tabletop device with a screen that swirls to focus on a speaker moving around the room during a FaceTime call. (It’s slated for release as early as next year.) He has taken a bigger role in Apple’s product marketing, sometimes personally editing copy for the website and product event materials, and has become central to the company’s work to make its devices more environmentally sustainable,” Gurman reported. “Ternus has also assumed oversight of the hardware and software design teams, making him the key liaison between Apple’s vaunted design organization and senior management—meaning he’s already one of the most influential people in the company’s history.”
The immense potential for robotics to engender greater accessibility notwithstanding, reading this passage got me wondering about how, if and when Apple publicly announces its succession plan for Tim Cook, Ternus will embrace disability inclusion vis-a-vis accessibility. To a man, I’m confident Ternus, as with everyone else on the company’s executive team, is all-in on supporting Sarah Herrlinger and team in their truly life-changing efforts. Ternus is someone I’ve not yet met in person, but if and when he fills Cook’s shoes, I’d love to interview him on-the-record about his thoughts on Apple’s accessibility software and stewarding the company here into the foreseeable future. As one data point, it is not small potatoes that Cook heartily gave accessibility an explicit shoutout in his recent interview with David Pogue; indeed, to have members of the disability community acknowledged on a national news program (by way of CBS Sunday Morning) wasn’t an implementation detail. It mattered a lot to someone like yours truly, never mind the journalistic interest behind it. I’m just curious as to whether Ternus, as the purported CEO-in-waiting, will end up following Cook’s lead in standing shoulder-to-shoulder with disabled people for not only the internal work, but externally as well during occasions like Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Later, Lovejoy continues about Ternus’ reputation inside Apple Park: “Ternus is also said to have a management and communication style very similar to that of Cook and to have a similar attitude to risk. Not everyone will see that latter point as a good thing, of course, with some arguing that the company needs to be significantly bolder. However, after initially seeming to fail to appreciate the importance of AI to the company’s future, the piece says that is no longer the case.”
‘The case for an Ultralight Mac’
David Sparks, aka MacSparky, published a blog post in which he contends Apple should make an ultralight Mac laptop fitted with Apple silicon inside. Mac fans like him rightly proclaim such a computer would be the long-awaited successor to the beleaguered but beloved 12” MacBook, introduced in 2015 alongside the OG iPad Pro.
Sparks longs not for “the MacBook [Neo] for everyone,” but the esoteric Mac for few.
“The MacBook Neo is here, and it’s already obvious it will be a massive hit for Apple. People are going to buy so many of these. It will be transformative and bring lots of new users into the Apple ecosystem,” he said. “But I want to talk about what the Neo isn’t. If you’ve been waiting for Apple to make a truly ultralight Mac, something more premium, smaller, and yes, more expensive, the Neo isn’t that machine. The Neo is about accessibility and volume. It’s the MacBook for everyone… I want the other thing.”
Famously, the MacBook Air in 2008 was positioned as a premium, ultralight laptop.
Although I’d love to get my hands on a MacBook Neo, count me in with Sparks’ feelings here on wanting a true MacBook successor. In the five years of its life (2015–2019), I lusted hard after that thing; each and every time I’d visit an Apple Store, I’d make a beeline for the MacBook table and gawk at its diminutive figure. For a time in college working towards my (unfinished) degree in Early Childhood Studies, I toted around the 11.6” MacBook Air, first introduced in late 2010. I have a vivid memory of sitting down at my group’s table one night in English class and pulling the MacBook out of my backpack and the girl across from me asking incredulously “That’s your computer?!”
The 12” MacBook refined that form to its Platonic ideal. The MacBook Neo refines nothing in this regard, rather astonishing sheerly for price and value proposition.
The original MacBook Air cost $1799. The 12” MacBook cost $1299. It’s not unusual for smaller and denser things to carry premium price tags because it’s actually harder to engineer things to fit nicely and correctly within smaller spaces (yay, physics). In contemporary times, look no further for evidence than the 9-month-old iPhone Air. I have one as my everyday phone this year, choosing it precisely for its thin-and-light profile. As a smartphone, it’s no slouch, but remains objectively worse than the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro; most meaningfully worse is economical—the Air is, at $999, $200 more expensive than the base iPhone 17 ($799). Ah, but therein lies the rub: you, like I did, paid the price because you prioritized thinness and lightness. Maybe $999 is beyond your wallet’s ken, and that’s okay, but it doesn’t detract from the core of my contention.
Consider the object lesson here. I love the Air despite knowing it’s a technologically inferior product compared to its brethren on a spec sheet. I accept that trade-off because I so adore the size. Likewise, I’d relish an opportunity to get my hands on the 12” MacBook’s progeny primarily because of its svelteness. Indeed, from an accessibility perspective, the benefits (for me, anyway) would be similar to those of my iPhone Air: a “good enough” computer whose greatest attribute is how I accessibly carry it to and fro. However splendid the MacBook Air and Neo are in their own rights, their dimensions—pointedly its 2.7lb weight—makes them heifers by comparison.
The salient point? A revived 12” MacBook (and iPhone Air) are in classes all their own.
Apple watchers can, and undoubtedly do, engage in spirited, nerdy debates over whether Apple should, or would, expand the MacBook lineup once more to accommodate an ultralight. That’s valid. In an accessibility context, though, equally valid is the conclusion a new 12” MacBook would redefine the Mac’s accessibility story.
Season 2 of ‘Wonder pets: in the city’ Hits Apple TV
I typically don’t cover TV news on Curb Cuts, but I’ll make an exception today.
Marcus Mendes reported this week for 9to5 Mac the Apple TV children’s program, Wonder Pets: In the City, dropped its 13-episode second season on the platform. The series debuted in 2024, with adventures following a band of humble classroom pets by day, who, by night, transform into heroic, opera-singing superheroes who “answer calls from animals in need all over the world” in their Batmobile-esque “Jetcar.”
Fortuitously, I wrote about Wonder Pets: In the City last March. I published a story which featured a brief interview with Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and director Jennifer Oxley, who developed the show alongside Nickelodeon Animation. Wonder Pets, she told me, is targeted at preschoolers but is “adorable” to any one of any age.
Adorability aside, the show features characters coping with disability in some way.
“Ultimately, we’ve got these three pets who have very different personalities and they’re different types of animals—yet they’re best friends and they come together as one,” Oxley said of her protagonists. “They can work together and find a way to bring all of their strengths to save the day. I’m hoping audience will feel that sort of love and heart and joy of helping others. I’m hoping that will be a takeaway message for them.”
Moreover, Oxley described working with Apple, notably children’s programming boss Tara Sorensen, as “a fun challenge and collaboration” because, as you’d expect, the company has its own sensibilities that absolutely translate to its streaming service.
I know it’s not an either/or scenario, yet for all the acclaim Apple TV receives from critics and audiences alike, the streamer’s embrace of disability inclusion is criminally underrated. I love Severance as much as the next person, but there is so much good disability-centric content on Apple TV that gets barely any buzz. Like its work in advancing disability inclusion on the software side, Apple deserves far greater roses for their efforts—especially from reviewers and journalists who critique the company.
Tim Cook: Mac Enjoyed ‘Best Launch Week Ever’
Tim Cook took to social media on Friday morning to boast about the Mac platform seeing immense enthusiasm in recent times from “first-time Mac customers.” The Apple CEO’s X laudatory post has thus far garnered 1.5 million views as of this writing.
As Ryan Christoffel writes for 9to5 Mac, March been momentous for the Mac, as Apple has announced the M5-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as well as the newest darling in the A18 Pro-powered MacBook Neo. Of the three laptops, the Neo has (rightly) grabbed the lion’s share of the buzz and adulation. I wasn’t in New York City for Apple’s soirée intime earlier this month, nor was I part of the review cycle this time around, but I’m as excited for the Neo as any one of my peers in the reviewers’ racket.
Indeed, the MacBook Neo arguably is most interesting, and pertinent, from an accessibility perspective. The computer’s $599 price tag, coupled with its premium build and macOS software, is an uber-compelling piece of kit for those in the disability community who, for instance, needs or wants a new Mac but can’t stretch further to nab the $1099, base model Air. There’s zero shame in being budget-conscious—and make no mistake, the majority of us fall into that category—but the salient point is a disabled person could pay a relative pittance for what’s, for all intents and purposes, a fully-fledged, fully capable Mac laptop. Technical pedantry notwithstanding, the Neo seems eminently capable of doing all the typical things most people want to do with a Mac every day; Apple obviously cut corners in an effort to meet a price point, but they did not cut corners in regards to fit and finish and user experience. All things considered, the MacBook Neo’s value proposition is extraordinarily high if, again, you’re someone with disabilities who (a) prefers the Mac; and (b) commensurately depends on the Mac’s accessibility features. For my druthers, I’d prefer the pricier $699 configuration so I could get not only more disk space (512GB versus 256GB), but, more crucially for accessibility, the Touch ID sensor for biometric authentication.
The MacBook Air is objectively superior, but the Neo’s value is nigh untouchable.
Back to Cook. My good friend iJustine, whom I interviewed back in 2023, got the opportunity to interview him again this past week in New York City as part of Apple’s 50th anniversary festivities. Their conversation is available on YouTube, of course.
Latest Overcast Beta Adds support for transcripts
In an exciting development for podcast fiends like yours truly, Marco Arment’s Overcast player soon will be getting support for transcripts of episodes. The announcement of the functionality was made earlier this week in the app’s Reddit, with Arment noting it’s currently a TestFlight beta and is “the first phase” of the work.
The functionality will support “most podcasts,” according to Arment’s post, with users able to swipe on the show artwork to access the text. Moreover, he noted there’s also support for live scrolling, a “tap to seek” feature, as well as music detection. Moreover, as Zac Hall reports for 9to5 Mac, Overcast’s transcripts will apply even to privatized podcast feeds—feeds like Arment’s venerable Accidental Tech Podcast members feed.
(Note to self: Absolutely resubscribe to ATP membership posthaste.)
Overcast has a special place in my heart, as has Arment himself. I’ve interviewed him about Overcast and accessibility in the past, and was part of the first beta-testing group prior to its 2014 debut. More broadly, Arment’s long been an ardent supporter of supporting disability inclusion, in principle and in practice, and I’ve shot the breeze with him several times over the years at Apple events like WWDC. He also played a seminal role in easing my transition into tech journalism in 2013, as it was he who green-lighted my first-ever byline for his Overcast predecessor in The Magazine. Nonetheless, I switched to Apple Podcasts once it gained support for transcripts because it was such as great accessibility feature that gave an audio-centric medium a bimodal dimensionality, sensory-wise. As I wrote on Mastodon earlier today, that Arment is (finally) adding transcripts to Overcast is going to woo me back to the app.
Arment also noted in his announcement post the impending transcripts will provide “the foundation of lots of great feature ideas” which include things like search, AI-powered analysis, and—in another nod to accessibility—clip-sharing with captions.
“For now, I can’t wait to get transcripts in everyone’s hands,” he said.
AppleVis Posts ‘Vision Accessibility Report Card’
My friend and fellow accessibility aesthete Shelly Brisbin reports today for Six Colors AppleVis has shared the 2025 edition of its Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card. The scorecard is, of course, a riff on the annual, canonical Six Colors Apple Report Card.
I’m not involved with AppleVis, but am a longtime contributor to the Six Colors one.
“A primary goal of our Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card is to provide blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users a platform where they can speak openly and honestly about their experience using Apple products and services. Each rating included a question that invited participants to provide written comments on the aspect being evaluated; included is an expansive and wide-ranging selection of the responses we received. Participants were given the option to have their comments be quoted anonymously or attributed to their AppleVis display name,” AppleVis said of its fourth annual survey. “Selected comments are presented in the order in which they were submitted. To ensure accurate and authentic representation of user voices, AppleVis did not edit the content (diction, grammar, spelling, etc.) of participant comments. Comments were lightly formatted to ensure readability and content accessibility.”
The so-called “executive summary” AppleVis provides at the outset is a cogent, and I think, highly instructive read. AppleVis notes, amongst other things, “dissatisfaction with software quality” among Braille and VoiceOver users, adding low vision users—a lot I’m rightly included in by association—felt strongly Liquid Glass “had a significant negative impact on the user experience for many.” Such a comment raised an eyebrow for me in context of Mark Gurman reporting for Bloomberg this past weekend the UI design language “isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Depending on your feelings, Gurman’s story may be seen as Apple essentially putting lipstick on the proverbial pig.
(For the record, it’s my unbiased opinion pigs can be pretty damn adorable.)
Back to the AppleVis report card. The grades are interesting, but I find the commentary even more intriguing. I’ve been covering Apple at extremely close range for close to 13 years now, and I’ve definitely heard from readers who bemoan Apple’s software quality vis-a-vis accessibility. I’m not a VoiceOver user, so I can’t speak to the bugs that apparently continue to infest the screen reader, but I believe those users who speak their own truth. If nothing else, this quip from participant “Young” speaks volumes when they say “accessibility QA is becoming worse… [there are] too many bugs whenever [an] OS gets upgraded.” Their statement speaks in a tone eerily similar to those macOS diehards in the community who’ve perpetually lamented a perceived, and precipitous, decline in the quality of their beloved desktop operating system.
AppleVis, by the way, is owned by Be My Eyes, who I wrote about this morning.
Be My Eyes Announces New Accessibility Features for Meta Smart Glasses
Last week, San Francisco-based Be My Eyes (BME) announced it’s working alongside Meta to develop new accessibility features for Meta’s ever-popular Ray-Bans and Oakley smart glasses. Be My Eyes said wearers now are able to “connect hands-free to trusted friends and family groups and corporate service centers through voice.”
“The announcement builds on BME’s integration of its ‘Call a Volunteer’ capability on AI glasses at Meta Connect in September 2024,” the company wrote of the news in its press release published last Wednesday. “Since then the two companies have continued to evolve the wearable experience. Now for the first time, blind and low-vision consumers will be able to connect hands-free to trained service representatives who can see and describe what is in front of the customer and guide them step by step—whether configuring broadband equipment, navigating a hotel room, troubleshooting a device, or locating products in-store.”
The features will make tapping “trusted groups” more accessible, Be My Eyes said.
“Be My Eyes users have long been able to create private ‘Groups’—curated lists of trusted individuals such as friends, family members, or colleagues. When initiating a group call, the connection is made to the first available member rather than to an anonymous volunteer. This feature is particularly valuable for sensitive conversations, ongoing personal support, or situations requiring specialized expertise.”
In practice, Be My Eyes explained users are able to use their voice to convey a command such as “Hey Meta, Be My Eyes with [name of group or company].” The prompt then triggers the software to “recognize the request, search the user’s private groups or the public Service Directory, and initiate the appropriate connection—delivering seamless, hands-free access to human support when it’s needed most.”
As you’d expect, executives at both companies are excited by the new capabilities.
“Our collaboration with Meta goes from strength to strength, and we are proud to work alongside a partner that shares our vision of a more accessible world,” said Mike Buckley, Be My Eyes’ chief executive. “By bringing expanded group and enterprise capabilities to Meta AI glasses, we are delivering even greater independence and confidence to our community, and importantly, new strategic opportunities for global brands wanting to connect with their blind and low-vision customers”
For Meta’s part, vice president of accessibility Maxine Williams said in a statement included in the announcement “inclusive innovation guides how we build and design our products” while adding that Meta is working hand-in-hand with Buckley and his team “reflects our commitment to ensuring that emerging technologies are accessible and representative of the diversity of our more than three billion global users.”
In a similar vein, Be My Eyes also recently announced a similar project with Amtrak.
Relatedly, my friend Scott Stein wrote this week for CNET about being “still worried” about Meta’s privacy stance as it pertains to the aforementioned smart glasses. He reached out to Meta PR for more information, writing in his story the company commented in part by saying, specific to using AI, “unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device.”
“I still like the camera and audio features of smart glasses and am intrigued by the AI features coming. But I’m also very concerned by the uncertainty about where the line is drawn between what gets annotated by a third party, potentially, and what stays private. Meta’s using those third parties to help train AI, or to possibly moderate content. It’s a reminder of how cloud-based and out of our control so many AI services are,” Stein wrote this past Monday. “I get even more worried thinking about reports of Meta wanting to add facial recognition and more to its smart glasses.”
Beats Announces ‘Beats × nike’ Powerbeats Pro
Beats on Tuesday unveiled its newest collab: the $249 Beats × Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
The earbuds will be out Friday, March 20. There’s a video with LeBron wearing them.
“Keep your head in the game (and everyone else out) with the ultimate earbuds for athletes,” Beats said of the Powerbeats in its brief product description. “The first official collaboration between two powerhouses in sport, these special-edition Nike Powerbeats Pro 2 comfortably lock onto your ears for ultimate stability and focus.”
Functionally, there’s nothing “special edition” about these earbuds apart from some obvious external visual flourishes. For all intents and purposes, they’re the exact same Powerbeats Pro 2 that came out a little over a year ago. Like the AirPods Pro 3 and refreshed AirPods Max, the Nike Powerbeats Pro feature the exact same H2 chip, USB-C and Qi charging, built-in heart rate monitoring, and sweat and water resistance.
As a journalist and avowed gadget nerd who’s also a big Nike fan, I really want to get my ears on these special Powerbeats Pro. I’ve long been intrigued by the Powerbeats Pro’s ear-hook design from an accessibility standpoint, as I’ve never used such a style of earbuds. Broadly speaking, I make it a point to somewhat keep my finger on the pulse of Apple’s subsidiary, most recently with the Beats Studio Buds+. I find Beats to be a compelling, more “sporty” alternative to AirPods and, as it turns out, iPhone cases and charging cables. In particular, the Beats-branded cables are interesting from an accessibility perspective insofar as the various colors (and braided cord) can make for more accessible use in terms of identification and grip for visual and motor acuities.
New AirPods Max Includes ‘Useful New Feature’
In more AirPods Max news, Joe Rossignol reports today for MacRumors the newly-announced headphones has a clever new feature up its proverbial sleeve. The Digital Crown on the AirPods Max 2 supports “a new Camera Remote [which] allows you to press the Digital Crown to take a photo and start or stop video recording while using Apple’s Camera app or compatible third-party camera apps on an iPhone or iPad.”
The forthcoming functionality requires iOS and iPadOS 26.4, according to Apple, of which Rossignol’s colleague in Juli Clover says today ought to be out very soon.
According to Rossignol’s story, the Digital Crown also supports the following controls:
Turn for volume control
Press once to play or pause media
Press once to answer a call or mute or unmute
Press once for camera remote
Press twice to end a call
Press twice to skip forward
Press three times to skip back
Press and hold for Siri
As to the camera shutter function, it’s interesting from an accessibility perspective. It’s reminiscent of the similarly-scoped feature of Apple’s old Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 11 line, which I wrote about back in 2020 insofar as, because Apple builds both hardware and software, it can map buttons to do what it wants in software. In the Smart Battery Case’s case, not to mention the new AirPods Max, that someone can lean on a button to take a picture or record video can be far more accessible than relying on the virtual counterpart. Especially when trying to capture a fleeting moment like a photo, a misplaced tap and/or physical tic can sometimes cause the system not to register the action—thus, you’ve missed your opportunity for preserving what may be a golden moment. By contrast, what the Digital Crown does is give users an “anchor” in the form of a tactile button to deliberately press to snap a photo or begin recording. It’s more margin, which has the byproduct of lessening cognitive load and concentration by letting the person frame the moment, etc. Is this feature worth $549? In isolation, absolutely not. But if you are someone with a disability who does like AirPods Max, that its Digital Crown can now be a shutter button simply serves adds a nice bit of extra polish to an otherwise highly accessible user experience for lots of people like me.
The more cynical lot may roll their eyes at company officials like CEO Tim Cook claiming this type of vertical integration as “something only Apple can do,” but the thing is—he’s not wrong! Apple’s almost obsessive-compulsive insistence on controlling everything it possibly can actually reaps not-insignificant benefits for accessibility. Because the company does famously control both hardware and software, it can do things like turn the AirPods Max’s Digital Crown into a shutter button—which becomes an invaluable de-facto accessibility feature in the process.
Apple Announces Next-Generation AirPods Max
In a surprise bit of news, Apple on Monday announced the AirPods Max 2. The high-end headphones, which cost $549 and will be available for purchase beginning March 25, is powered by the very same custom H2 chip found in the AirPods Pro 3, with Apple boasting the new silicon enables “more effective ANC [active noise cancellation], enhanced sound quality, and new features like Adaptive Audio and Live Translation.”
Finish-wise, the AirPods Max come in blue, midnight, orange, purple, and starlight.
“With the incredible performance of H2, AirPods Max are upgraded with up to 1.5x more effective ANC for the ultimate all-day listening experience,” Eric Treski, Apple’s director of audio product marketing, said in a statement included in the company’s Newsroom announcement. “The sound quality is remarkably clean, rich, and acoustically detailed—and when combined with capabilities like Personalized Spatial Audio, AirPods Max 2 deliver a profoundly immersive experience.”
The H2 chip, while ostensibly a minor “spec bump,” is in actuality a big deal. For one thing, AirPods Max have never been capable of driving features like Adaptive Audio and Live Translation; that they do now brings them to feature parity with their earbud siblings. Moreover, the advent of Live Translation in AirPods Max is a de-facto accessibility feature insofar as wearers can now accessibly communicate with other people in situations where a language barrier may prove insurmountable. Sometime last year, Apple sent me a pair of the then-“new” AirPods Max—in midnight, no less—so I could try out the Personalized Spatial Audio functionality. Alas, I never got around to writing about it, but I do use those AirPods Max all the time at my desk and like them better than the OG AirPods Max (in blue) I received as a birthday present back in 2022.
My quibbles with the headphones involve accessibility. Ergonomically, AirPods Max are decidedly not for the weak—literally so as they’re extremely heavy on my head. And yes, the USB-C port is a nightmare in terms of hand-eye coordination despite the nerdy drumbeat of One Cable To Rule Them All across one’s expanse of Apple products and beyond. I’m telling you, industry-wide standardization be damned, true innovation would be Apple designing a proprietary USB-C spec wherein the company somehow fuses MagSafe and USB-C. As a person with disabilities, actual practical benefits in everyday usage matter exponentially more to me than some pseudo-political interoperability standard. As it stands today, although there is a cromulent case for USB-C everywhere being a bonafide accessibility boon in terms of cognition, the usability sucks major ass unless you have typical visual acuity and fine-motor skills.
Yes, I said “sucks ass”—sometimes a well-placed curse word conveys the effect.
Anyway, AirPods Max obviously aren’t for everyone. They’re pricey, and sensory-wise, could be out for weightiness alone; regardless, I can confirm AirPods Max sound terrific and are worth the investment. Anecdotally, I see them everywhere on the heads of normal people, in the real world and on social media. To me, they can’t be that exorbitantly expensive if they’ve managed to somewhat pervade the cultural zeitgeist.
Recalling The Mac Pro Wheels’ Accessibility Story
My friend Stephen Hackett posted a linked item to 512 Pixels today about the Mac Pro Wheels Kit, which Apple sells for $699, costing just $199 on Woot today. Reading his post instantly reminded me of a story I wrote for iMore (RIP) back in June 2019 about the Mac Pro to which the wheels attach, as well as the accompanying Pro Display XDR.
“While the new Mac Pro and accompanying Pro Display XDR seemingly don’t scream ‘accessibility’ at first blush, the truth is they can prove accessible in some interesting ways,” I wrote shortly after covering WWDC—in San Jose, no less—nearly 7 years ago.
Specific to the Mac Pro’s wheels, I wrote, in part, “these wheels just may be perfect from a disability point of view” because professionals with disabilities who work in a studio environment may find the wheels make moving the computer more accessible than lifting it. As I noted, you theoretically could ask for help, but the wheels’ presence offer agency and independence—which makes $700 feel like a veritable bargain, not to mention they’re affixed to a still-for-sale $6999 machine running Apple silicon that’s almost four generations old with the M5 family shipping and the M6 on the horizon.
I continued in my iMore piece: “It sounds trivial, but wheels have the potential to be a serious assistive tool for a certain type of user. Instead of lifting, someone could just push their computer around when it’s necessary to move it. And of course, the convenience for people without disabilities stands too. The wheel is arguably the greatest invention in human history, after all.”
As to the Pro Display, what I wrote in 2019 holds up in 2026 given my experience.
“Suppose you’re visually impaired and working at Pixar or some other high-end production shop. With the release of the Mac Pro and the Pro Display XDR, you could theoretically request one of the displays as a reasonable accommodation in order for you to do your job,” I proffered presciently, as it turned out. “(Budgets will vary from company to company, but I doubt Pixar needs to pinch pennies.) The monitor’s super high resolution, contrast, and colors—combined with the Mac’s accessibility software—would make doing video work or other types of visual work much more accessible.”
The Pro Display’s resolution, contrast, colors, and size all help me do better journalism.
On the Studio Display and accessibility
Jason Snell posted his review of the refreshed Studio Display. His overall take on the “new” $1599 monitor is right there in the headline: It’s “the smallest of upgrades.”
Apple announced the second-generation Studio Display back on March 3.
What particularly caught my eye about Snell’s review is his mention of accessibility.
“Apple claims it’s a champion of accessibility,” Snell wrote this week. “But in my opinion, part of accessibility is ergonomics. Different people need displays at different heights, and we are all shaped differently. Apple’s continued insistence on shipping displays and iMacs that aren’t height-adjustable by default is frustrating. You spend all this money on a pricey Apple display and then, what, put it on an old dictionary? Meanwhile, even the cut-rate competition offers height adjustments.”
I’d argue Apple’s commitment to accessibility isn’t sheerly about offering practicality—sure, make your computers easier to use in absolute terms—but rather about offering dignity. It’s certainly laudable how Apple sells phones and laptops and earbuds and headsets that can be used by people with disabilities like myself, but it’s more laudable Apple has chosen to allocate significant resources in this way in the first place. The Americans with Disabilities Act regulates a lot, but it does not compel technology companies to make accessible products. The salient point is simply accessibility features aren’t soulless means to an end; they’re a direct reflection of a company’s value system and priorities. In Apple’s case, they’re recognizing those in the disability community as human beings who use technology like anyone else. That’s dignifying in a way, for all its warts operating as a for-profit, money-making machine, that’s absolutely non-trivial for people who already exist on the margin’s margin societally.
Philosophy aside, Snell’s critique about ergonomics is well taken. It’s true “different people need displays at different heights, and we are all shaped differently,” and as such, paying a premium for what ostensibly should be basic functionality feels needlessly punitive. Ask someone at Apple and they’d probably say the markup is due to component costs or something, but Snell is spot-on when he says height adjustability should be standard. For my usage with the discontinued Pro Display XDR, the ($5999) peripheral came with the tilt- and height-adjustable stand out of the box, and I use the feature literally every single day. In fact, I have the height at the lowest possible setting, while the display itself is ever-so-slightly tilted backwards. This setup makes the screen more accessible to me given my short-statured nature and visual tolerances. Granted, my Pro Display was an (extremely generous) Christmas gift, but even Snell’s “normal” Studio Display would be a financial stretch were I in the market and wanted the tilt-and-height customizability—and I would. Ergo, the monitor could be inaccessible both literally and practically; these are facts which, to Snell’s larger point here, sorta belie Apple’s oft-cited claim it makes its stuff accessible to everyone.
“The review unit Studio Display Apple sent me came with the height-adjustable display, and it’s glorious. That thing is a smooth, pivoting marvel of mechanical engineering, and Apple should be proud of how nice it feels to use. But it’s essentially a failure, because it adds $400 to the price of the already-expensive display. Apple should be working to engineer affordable ergonomic features on its displays and iMacs, not building luxury stands that make a $800 display cost $2000,” Snell said. “If Apple wants to charge users more for a smooth, luxury display stand, who am I to stop them? But basic height adjustment should be built in, period.”
Snell’s piece, as usual, is well worth a read in its entirety.
‘50 Years of Thinking Different’
Apple on Thursday posted a letter written by Tim Cook in which the company’s chief executive waxes romantic about Apple tuning 50 soon. As he says, the milestone birthday will come on April 1; it’s a significant event for a company that prides itself not on retrospecting the past, but instead focuses on pioneering the future above all else.
“Every invention we bring into the world is just the beginning of a story. The most meaningful chapters are written by all of you—the people who use our technology to work, learn, dream, and discover. You’ve made breakthroughs and launched businesses. You’ve cheered up loved ones in the hospital and captured your toddler’s first steps. You’ve run marathons, written books, and rekindled friendships. You’ve chased your curiosity, found your new favorite song, and shared stories that connect us all,” Cook said in his brief essay. “In your hands, the tools we make have improved lives, and sometimes even saved them. And that is what inspires us—not what technology can do alone, but everything you can do with it.”
As a lifelong disabled person and longtime Apple fan, never mind an objective technology journalist, improved lives obviously resonates deeply with me.
Apple’s accessibility efforts is an exemplar of its “make the world better” ethos.
In related news, Ryan Christoffel reports today for 9to5 Mac Apple has a new Instagram account. The @helloapple account is described as showcasing “our stories and yours,” with the account already amassing nearly 50,000 followers. As Christoffel notes, @helloapple joins the canonical @apple space and its over 36 million followers.
“The new ‘Hello Apple’ account currently has just six posts, all of which started appearing today,” Christoffel writes. “They range from a reel showing various Apple logo designs to a MacBook Neo promo, a repost of an Apple TV-F1 video, and more.”
Apple Updates Corporate Leadership Page
Marcus Mendes reported last week for 9to5 Mac Apple updated its leadership page to include Steve Lemay and Molly Anderson as vice presidents of human interface design and industrial design, respectively. (Also, Joe Rossignol reported for MacRumors SVP of services and health Eddy Cue got a new headshot to boot.) The additions of Lemay and Anderson come not long after former design boss Alan Dye departed for Meta.
At first blush, any adjustments to Apple’s corporate leadership page have ostensibly zero pertinence to accessibility. In my particular case, however, there are layers of relevance. For one thing, longtime environmental and social programs boss Lisa Jackson—whose purview included accessibility—resigned due to retirement. Jackson is someone I’d interacted with several times over the years, on social media and in person whilst at various Apple events. Perhaps the zenith of my almost 13-year journalistic career involves CEO Tim Cook, whom I interviewed for TechCrunch in 2018 for a few brief but utterly exhilarating minutes about the natural confluence of the company’s—and to this day, ongoing—accessibility and educational initiatives.
Lemay and Anderson’s ascension to Apple’s leadership ranks reminded me how, for a while, I used to stoke a feather in my cap I knew, or talked to on- and off-the-record, most everyone listed on that webpage. Besides Cook and Jackson, they include:
Craig Federighi
Greg Joswiak
Phil Schiller
Not bad for someone who, to my extremely humbled knowledge, virtually pioneered covering accessibility in the technology industry as a credibly newsworthy beat.
Relatedly, Cook recently sat down at Apple Park with journalist David Pogue—whose book on Apple came out this week—to discuss, amongst other things, Apple turning 50 next month and, pertinently here, accessibility vis-a-vis technology. Say what you will about Cook’s obsequious choice to gift President Trump a gold bauble, but his comments about empowering me, as well as others in the disability community, is no empty bromide. Apple truly does see accessibility as one of its core values. As I’ve noted here and there over time, it’s long been my understanding from sources that previewing and shipping new and improved accessibility software ranks right up there with the obvious internal imperative to ship a new flagship iPhone each and every year.
Anyway, Pogue’s full conversation with Cook is well worth a watch.
Eulogizing the Pro Display XDR
I missed it last week, but my pal Chance Miller at 9to5 Mac published a eulogy of sorts for the Pro Display XDR. His piece resonated because (a) I have a Pro Display XDR; and (b) the reviews for its successor, the Studio Display XDR, dropped earlier this week.
Indeed, Apple has officially put the Pro Display XDR out to pasture.
“The Pro Display XDR has officially been discontinued. Apple’s high-end external display was first introduced in 2019 alongside a new Mac Pro, but has now been replaced by the cheaper (but better in many ways) Studio Display XDR,” Miller wrote. “The Pro Display XDR sold for a whopping $5,999 in its standard configuration. The adjustable ‘Pro Stand’ was sold separately for an additional $1,000. Until the first Studio Display launched in 2022, it was the only external display Apple made.”
Although you could perhaps argue the standard Studio Display, of either generation, would be “good enough” for my needs, I love my Pro Display so much. As I wrote in my first impressions story, I compared both while in Apple Stores many, many times over the years; for my visual needs, the Pro Display’s brightness, size, and resolution all literally looked better to me. Granted, the monitor was a (belated) Christmas gift, but that doesn’t change the core of my assessment—the Pro Display is simply more accessible. I’ve used the Pro Display for two months now, spanning two cities and two desk setups, and there’s nothing about the device I find substandard or would change.
For my needs, the circa 2019 Pro Display remains an elite screen in 2026.
Relatedly, Miller reports today the Studio Display XDR, which goes on sale tomorrow for $3299, is purportedly going to receive a software update which adds support for the monitor to be fully calibrated. The news comes from The Verge’s John Higgins, who unearthed a white paper detailing the product’s calibration options and color system. There’s no timeline for exactly when the update will be released by Apple, Miller said.
In his review posted on Monday, Higgins wrote, in part, “[users will be] able to calibrate the Studio Display XDR, which I fully expect every professional or studio to do,” adding full calibration via the forthcoming software update will enable more granular control over visual elements such as white point, color primaries, luminance, and gamma.
Fun Fact: 🇨🇦 Has a chief Accessibility Officer
One delightful factoid I recently learned is Canada has a chief accessibility officer.
According to the country’s official website, the Office of the Chief Accessibility Officer exists to “support the efforts of the CAO to monitor and report on accessibility outcomes.” The site further explains the role of CAO was established by the Canadian federal government by way of the 2019 Accessible Canada Act; Stephanie Cadieux is the first-ever CAO, having taken office in May 2022 to serve a 4-year term. Her office is under the country’s Employment and Social Development Canada agency, with her purview identified as “[acting] as a special, independent advisor to the Minister.”
The CAO will report on progress made under the Act, as well as any challenges or impediments to success, and any emerging issues with regards to accessibility. Thousands of federal departments and federally-regulated industries share responsibility for implementing the Act. The CAO will work to bring cohesion and oversight to their efforts. She will also act as a convener, collaborator, challenger, and champion for accessibility,” the government writes. “The CAO and her office will be the focal point for monitoring and reporting on progress and outcomes achieved under the Act. The office will also report on issues as they emerge or grow in scope.”
It continues: “Importantly, the CAO will also work to raise public awareness about the importance of accessibility and to change public perceptions of disability. Attitudinal barriers and unconscious biases remain some of the greatest obstacles standing in the way of an accessible future. For this reason, the CAO will frequently speak publicly and candidly about the importance of accessibility throughout society.”
Meanwhile, the United States has a Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas.
Given the current administration, it makes sense accessibility would be a low priority.
Back to our northerly neighbors. Last month, Cadieux’s office released a statement regarding the country’s third report on greater accessibility for all Canadians. In particular, Cadieux said in part maintaining accessible transport is “critical” for the 27% of citizens who cope with disabilities. Without suitable accessible transit, she added, “they are excluded from participating fully in society.”
“Being able to get where you need and want to go is key to quality of life, but for too many people with disabilities, reliable, accessible transportation remains unavailable, resulting in continuous anxiety and uncertainty in their day-to-day lives,” Cadieux said in her fuller remarks. “If people can’t even get out the door, if just getting to work safely requires extreme effort and planning around factors and barriers beyond their control, then we are missing the mark.”
Pittsburgh International Airport Nabs Universal Design Certification for Accessibility Efforts
Last month, AirportImprovement reported Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) “made history” as the first-ever airport to be awarded with a Universal Design Certification from the University of Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access, or IDEA Center. The honor “[underscores] its global leadership in accessibility, inclusivity, and human-centered design.”
“This recognition establishes PIT as a benchmark for universal design and family-friendly travel in the airport sector. It reinforces PIT’s position as not just a transportation hub, but a model for universal access and inclusive design worldwide. The certification recognizes the airport’s unwavering commitment to creating an environment that is functional, flexible, and welcoming for all travelers—regardless of age, size, ability or circumstance,” the announcement reads. “This certification also directly aligns with the airport’s newly reimagined Kids Play Area, which sets a new standard for inclusive public spaces in airports. Improvements such as the Kids Play Area reflect PIT’s dedication to making travel happier, healthier and more seamless for all.”
As you’d imagine, PIT was understandably psyched by the recognition.
“Receiving Universal Design Certification from the IDEA Center is a tremendous honor,” Siri Betts-Sonstegard, PIT’s senior vice president of experience and design, said of the news. “Our goal has always been to make Pittsburgh International Airport a place where everyone feels comfortable and capable of traveling independently. This recognition validates years of thoughtful planning, collaboration and innovation.”
As noted, PIT’s commitment to inclusivity vis-a-vis accessibility extends beyond the physical realm. The airport, through partnerships with advocacy groups, technology companies, and travelers themselves, “continues to pioneer initiatives that make flying more accessible and comfortable for families and travelers of all abilities.”
“We continue to partner with organizations that will help us uphold PIT’s mission to redefine the airport experience for everyone,” Betts-Sonstegard said.
It was this time last year when I first wrote about Pittsburgh International and interviewed CEO Christina Cassotis. My story profiled PIT employee Jason Rudge, whose son, Presley, is disabled and is namesake of the airport’s Presley’s Place. The Place is described by PIT as a “calming respite for travelers with sensory sensitivities and their families to de-escalate prior to getting on a plane or even after landing.”