When Great Technology Isn’t Accessible, Everyone Loses

I recently bought a piece of technology that seemed almost tailor-made for me.

It was called Pocket, a small recording device that could capture a conversation and turn it into a transcript, action items, and a to-do list. It was small enough to carry around easily and attached to an iPhone using MagSafe.

For me, one feature was particularly exciting: using it with phone calls.

The Problem Pocket Could Have Solved

I’ve had countless hour-long phone conversations where I hang up and realize I’ve forgotten something important that was discussed 30 or 40 minutes earlier.

Taking notes during those calls isn’t necessarily the answer.

As someone who is blind and uses a screen reader, trying to listen to someone on the phone while simultaneously listening to VoiceOver or another screen reader tell me what I’m typing can be incredibly distracting. I might get the notes right while completely missing what the person says next.

Pocket seemed to eliminate that problem.

I could record the conversation and afterward review the transcript and, even more importantly, the action items.

I was excited enough about it that I ordered the device in May and waited until June 30 for it to arrive.

Then I discovered the problem.

Great Hardware, Inaccessible Software

The Pocket hardware couldn’t have been much simpler. There was basically one button: record.

The problem was the iPhone app.

While portions of the app worked with VoiceOver, many of the features I actually needed did not. Controls weren’t properly identified, and navigating the interface became confusing enough that even having a sighted person look at the screen didn’t solve everything I was encountering.

The device itself might have been accessible.

The complete product wasn’t.

And that’s an important distinction.

A company can design brilliant hardware, but if customers need an inaccessible app to use that hardware, the product is inaccessible.

Eventually, I returned Pocket.

That’s disappointing not because it was simply another gadget I couldn’t use, but because this gadget could have solved a genuine accessibility problem for me.

The Question I Have to Ask Before Buying Technology

Experiences like this change the way I look at every new piece of technology.

I’ve been considering smaller cameras and 360-degree cameras because framing a traditional camera can be difficult when you can’t see what’s inside the frame.

A 360-degree camera is particularly interesting because it captures everything around it. If I didn’t frame someone correctly while recording, theoretically I could fix that later.

But there’s another question I need answered first:

Is the editing app accessible?

That’s the gamble.

For many consumers, the questions might be image quality, battery life, durability, or price.

For me, there’s another item at the top of that list: Can I independently operate the thing?

Then AI Helped Save My Mac

Ironically, another technology experience around the same time demonstrated exactly how powerful accessible technology can be.

My Mac was running critically low on storage. Eventually, I had so little free space that I couldn’t properly move files, import video into CapCut, or complete normal work.

I spent hours trying different solutions.

Then a friend suggested asking AI.

I used ChatGPT to troubleshoot the problem. It helped me diagnose what was happening and guided me through commands in Terminal.

Using Terminal to make changes to my computer isn’t something I normally approach casually. But I needed the computer to work.

And it worked.

Instead of potentially spending hours working through the problem with Apple support, I was able to diagnose and resolve it myself.

That is accessibility.

Why AI Matters to Me

There’s a lot of debate about artificial intelligence, and there are legitimate conversations to have about privacy and how the technology is used.

But there’s another part of the conversation that shouldn’t be ignored.

For people who are blind or have low vision, AI can create independence.

I can give an image to Be My AI and ask what’s in it. I can ask ChatGPT to help troubleshoot a computer problem. Smart glasses and other AI-powered tools can provide information that previously might have required finding a sighted person and asking for help.

That’s not theoretical accessibility.

That’s accessibility affecting everyday life.

The contrast couldn’t have been clearer.

One piece of technology had tremendous potential but became unusable because accessibility wasn’t incorporated throughout the experience.

Another technology gave me the information I needed to independently solve a major problem.

That’s why accessibility cannot be an afterthought.

Build it in from the beginning, and technology can open doors.

Leave it out, and even the coolest gadget in the world may end up back in the box.