My journey with the Apple Ecosystem started in 2011. This coincided with a major loss of vision due to cataracts.
After the cataracts developed I could no longer read the computer screen let alone even see the computer in front of me. I explored accessibility options for Microsoft Windows as I was using a Windows PC at the time.
Microsoft’s default screen reader, Narrator, was basically useless at the time. I couldn’t even use it with Microsoft Office. Much credit does need to go to the Microsoft Accessibility Team as Narrator has made major advances over the years. I believe it is now a very usable product.
I looked at third party screen readers such as JAWS – Job Access With Speech, and NVDA. JAWS was too expensive. I was not prepared to pay that amount of money for a piece of software. NVDA didn’t work for me either. It had promise but I couldn’t use it at the time to access a website let alone work with WordPress. Once again much credit needs to go to the team as NVDA has made major advances over the years. It would be interesting to see how far this product has come in 2025.
I was watching a tech show called, “The Lab with Leo”. This was Leo LePort, who now runs the This Week In Tech or TWIT network. Leo discontinued this TV show many years ago. This show episode was demonstrating Apple’s screen reader VoiceOver on a Macbook Pro. I was excited to see that I could buy a computer and have a screen reader running out of the box with no additional cost besides burying the computer. I decided to give VoiceOver a tryand bought a Macbook Pro in October 2011. I am still using VoiceOver and Apple’s products some fourteen years later.
I have continually updated my Apple products over the last fourteen years. I recently did another upgrade of all devices during 2024 and probably won’t be updating my products for at least several years.
My first Macbook was bought in October 2011. I bought my first iPad in April 2012, an iPad Air 2. That iPad was still working fine until only last year. Not bad for a piece of hardware to last over ten years. My first iPhone came later in 2012, the iPhone 5S.
Today my Apple setup is as follows: I have given away my Macbook Air M1 due to VoiceOver issues. I then purchased an iPad Air M1 11” in 2024. I then purchased the new entry level iPad in April 2025. I upgraded my iPhone to the iPhone 16+ in November 2024. I purchased the Apple Watch 10 in 2024.
I am very happy with my current setup. I am waiting for OS 26 to released to the public and see what accessibility improvements Apple has made to what is a pretty good ecosystem.