Applevis to launch community bug tracking initiatives

We are very happy to announce the upcoming launch of the new community bug tracking initiative in Applevis.

Since at least 2012, Applevis has regularly published a list of new accessibility bugs and remains in Apple software that affects blind, deaf, and low vision users. As an independent editorial organization, we see that tracking and reporting of bugs is one of the more impacts in which we undergo our mission to serve and empower our community.

While our testing and reporting efforts in the past provide valuable information to blind, deaf, and low information about changes in Apple software, they are always, because of the needs, somewhat limited in the scope. We are a small team, and our bug identification is generally limited to our personal devices and cases of use. As we always say in our release announcement every year, it is impossible for us to test every device, configuration, and case of use.

While we feel that we have done our best with what we have in the testing and reporting efforts so far, we believe there is more we can do with the help of the community. Today, we are very happy to share details about the new initiative in this regard.

In 2022, we developed our guidelines on discussions about the Beta and Preview version of Apple software to meet the needs of our community and reflect the current landscape. As part of this change, we make a special “Beta Apple release” area from the forum for users to discuss beta software. Over the past three years, this forum section has been proven to be very popular; With many people in our community sharing their experiences (and their bug reports) during the beta cycle. From reading the Utas forum, it is clear that many people in our community use beta software and enjoy sharing their findings with others.

With all this in mind, we are very happy to announce the launch of the upcoming program for tracking community bugs in Applevis. Through this program, we hope to offer our community a more direct way to contribute to our coverage of the Bug Accessibility in the release of our software and reporting to Apple.

While the specifics are still being worked on, we hope that our community bug program will look like this:

• The program will initially be open to iOS and MacOS users who are expected to be released this summer.
• Participants must first submit all the bugs they share with us directly with Apple using the feedback application. This will ensure that Apple was made aware of the Bug Community Meeting (S). Submission will not be received without feedback number.
• Participants will fill in and send forms, describe the problems they experience, the platform where they find problems, steps to reproduce the problem, and Apple’s feedback number.
• Our team will try to reproduce the problems raised to us by the community. If we can reproduce bugs, we will report it to Apple and start tracking this problem throughout the beta cycle. If the problem remains in the Golden Master version of the software (version to be sent to consumers), we will put it in our post that announces bugs and improvements for release.
• If we cannot reproduce the problems that are shared with us by community members, we unfortunately cannot track it internally or put it in our release announcement (if it applies). However, community members are invited to continue to share their findings in comments for the announcement of the release as they always do.
• All who participate in our community bug tracking program will be recognized in the final release announcement, unless they want to remain anonymous.

We currently hope that the community bug tracking program will be launched in the second week of June. Please watch this post and comments for additional information when and when available.

Applevis’s biggest asset is and will always be a community, and we really appreciate everyone who has helped make Applevis as it is today. We are waiting for this new initiative and encourages all who are interested in participating.