AppleVis to Launch Community Bug Tracking Initiative

We are excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new community bug tracking initiative at AppleVis.

Since at least 2012, AppleVis has regularly published lists of new and fixed accessibility bugs in Apple software impacting blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users. As an independent editorial organization, we see the tracking and reporting of these bugs to be one of the more impactful ways in which we live out our mission to serve and empower our community.

While our past testing and reporting efforts provided valuable information to blind, DeafBlind, and low vision users about changes in Apple software, they were always, by necessity, somewhat limited in scope. We are a small team, and our bug identification has generally been limited to our own personal devices and use cases. As we always say in our release announcements every year, it is impossible for us to test every device, configuration, and use case.

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

In 2022, we evolved our guidelines regarding the discussion of Beta and Preview versions of Apple software to meet the needs of our community and reflect the current landscape. As part of this change, we created a dedicated "Apple Beta Releases" area of the forum for users to discuss beta software. Over the last three years, this section of the forum has proved immensely popular; with many in our community sharing their experiences (and their bug reports) during beta cycles. From reading those forum threads, it is clear that many in our community both use beta software and enjoy sharing their findings with others.

With all of this in mind, we are very excited to announce the upcoming launch of a program for community bug tracking on AppleVis. Through this program, we hope to offer our community a more direct way to contribute to our coverage of accessibility bugs in software releases and our reporting to Apple.

While the specifics are still being worked out, we expect that our Community Bug Program will look something like this:

• The program will initially be open to users of the iOS and macOS betas expected to be released this summer.
• Participants must first file all bugs they share with us directly with Apple using the Feedback App. This will ensure that Apple is made aware of the bug(s) community members encounter. Submissions will not be accepted without a Feedback Number.
• Participants will complete and submit a form, describing the issue they are experiencing, the platform on which they encounter the issue, the steps to reproduce the issue, and the Apple Feedback Number.
• Our team will attempt to reproduce the issues submitted to us by the community. If we are able to reproduce the bug, we will report it to Apple and begin tracking the issue throughout the beta cycle. If the issue persists in the Golden Master version of the software (the version that will ship to consumers), we will include it in our post announcing bugs and fixes for the release.
• If we are unable to reproduce an issue shared with us by a member of the community, we will unfortunately not be able to track it internally or include it in our release announcement (if applicable). However, community members are welcome to continue sharing their findings in comments to the release announcement just as they have always done.
• All who participate in our Community Bug Tracking Program will be recognized in the final release announcement, unless they wish to remain anonymous.

We currently expect that the Community Bug Tracking Program will launch in the second week of June. Please watch this post and the comments for additional information as and when it becomes available.

AppleVis' greatest asset has been and will always be the community, and we greatly appreciate each and every person who has helped make AppleVis what it is today. We look forward to this new initiative and encourage all who are interested to participate.