* i would love to sit down Apple's UX team and ask them why they thought this in particular was a good change to make to my notifications drawer
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* i really liked being able to, i don't know, see my notifications, and tell that there is more than one, and not have to do a weird swipe-from-top-then-swipe-from-bottom to check if there is more than only one notification
* it rules that i swapped from android because it just started randomly nuking my chat notifs and pill reminders and then like six months later apple changed the entire notification drawer so i can't keep track of my chat apps and pill reminders
cw: f slur
* if you want to kill autistic fags like me you can just say so, Apple, i get it.
This user can say it.
* here, i took these when i was posting on mastodon. here's the three "settings" for how this space looks. Then look! I waited five minutes and the notifications are now "stale" apparently! I have to swipe up on the notification area to see my notifications!!
* a friend pointed out to me that this is probably all in service of making the lock screen look "way more clean!" and i think that observation is right on the money.
I’m going to break character for a minute here just to emphasize it is actually way less accessible to me, and the fact that it cannot be reverted to disable staleness causes active problems for me because of memory issues and RSI. Having to swipe down then up every time i want to check my notifications is very hard on my thumb, as opposed to just being able to swipe once as before.
I’m on an iPhone 8. It’s a reasonably sized phone that does not need more than one hand to operate. This doesn’t do anything for me other than add more steps to a process that worked perfectly for me before.
The key crux of the argument “if it’s physically easier to use” is the whole point. It isn’t, it’s harder to use, and adds a cognitive impairment by hiding notifications before they have been dismissed.
Apple doesn’t need anybody’s defence, and before throwing around “Accessibility” like a get-out-of-jail-free-card maybe consider that when a disabled autistic person says “This is making my life actively worse” it isn’t being accessible.
But you have a point. Perhaps I was being too subjective.
Accessibility isn't one size fits all. In my case, I was struggling to use my phone (Xʀ), and it wasn't until recently I was able to get something smaller (13 Mini), which meant I was straining myself reaching across the screen. The most recent changes to the OS over the past year or so have meant that I can easily access my notifications without having to strain, to the point I almost wish they'd invent a new gesture to view them without having to drag down from the top!
Likewise, when my screen is flooded with notifications, I'm less likely to read them, and more likely to clear it out. My Autistic, ADHD, PTSD riddled brain cannot handle a long stream of notifications. Features like only showing the most recent notifications, grouping notifications as part of a "summary", and delaying less critical notifications has made notifications greatly more accessible psychologically to myself, as I am no longer overwhelmed, and I've tuned my notification preferences to the point that usually only the most relevant notifications are readily accessible.
But it would seem that it does not apply to everyone. You make very fair point. Accessibility cannot be one size fits all, and whilst Apple tends to lead the pack in terms of accessibility features, they also tend to over-generalize the needs of their average user, resulting in one-way changes which only benefit some, not all, users.
Not only that, but these features are clearly tailored for newer hardware, where long stretching screens and no hardware accessibility for accessing upper halves are the norm. Once again, whilst Apple tends to fair better in supporting older hardware, frequently this is at the cost of adding features or making changes which benefit newer devices at the detriment of older ones.
But being an also disabled autistic person, I wasn't being cheeky and throwing out a response as if I was Apple's personal PR spokesmonster. I was speaking from my very own, personal experience.
Apologies.