When I T muppets...

Want to make a name for themselves in the ITD department. They come up with great ways of adding a knob on top of a whistle on top of a flute on top of the bell because they can.

But for those of us who are on our spectrum, is it really helpful? To have to learn how to do what we used to be able to do without any problem suddenly becomes a huge amount of unnecessary work.

my telephone now insists on displaying categories of photographs. I do not want categories. I do not want any computer to do something I can do unless I instructed it to do it. Yet I cannot stop this telephone from identifying people, memories, reasons, everything under the Sun I did not want.

Why are we forced to put up with this?

Why are we forced to put up with this?

And how much does this actually comply with the requirement to not put somebody with a recognise characteristic as a disadvantage? 

Parents
  • I completely get your frustration. I was a computer geek in the 80s and 90s and pursued IT and software development as a career, but over time my patience with technology has worn down to almost nothing. Particularly so since the arrival of the first iPhone and later the iPad. Ever since then, there has been a race to come up with new ways to 'help' people that often do the exact opposite.

    In the bad old days, at least if something went wrong you'd get a message, even if it was meaningless. Now, rather than interrupt you, apps will just silently fail to do background tasks for you.

    Notifications, oh how many apps what to notify you of things. Often in the most blaring way imaginable. And never the chance to tell them to do so discreetly and only for certain things, it's all or nothing until you track down the settings and dial them down.

    I make full use of all the accessibility features that are available to me on my phone and computer, not because I'm disabled but because it makes makes stuff more legible and less distracting. I'm currently refusing to upgrade my iDevices to the '26 releases due to the dog's dinner that Apple have made of their user interface, apparently forgetting their own Human Interface Guidelines in the process. (And I hear from others that Windows 11 has also messed things around.)

    Unfortunately, I don't see things improving any time soon, so I'm switching over wherever possible to using apps whose developers actually give a damn about usability and accessibility.

    /steps off soapbox.

Reply
  • I completely get your frustration. I was a computer geek in the 80s and 90s and pursued IT and software development as a career, but over time my patience with technology has worn down to almost nothing. Particularly so since the arrival of the first iPhone and later the iPad. Ever since then, there has been a race to come up with new ways to 'help' people that often do the exact opposite.

    In the bad old days, at least if something went wrong you'd get a message, even if it was meaningless. Now, rather than interrupt you, apps will just silently fail to do background tasks for you.

    Notifications, oh how many apps what to notify you of things. Often in the most blaring way imaginable. And never the chance to tell them to do so discreetly and only for certain things, it's all or nothing until you track down the settings and dial them down.

    I make full use of all the accessibility features that are available to me on my phone and computer, not because I'm disabled but because it makes makes stuff more legible and less distracting. I'm currently refusing to upgrade my iDevices to the '26 releases due to the dog's dinner that Apple have made of their user interface, apparently forgetting their own Human Interface Guidelines in the process. (And I hear from others that Windows 11 has also messed things around.)

    Unfortunately, I don't see things improving any time soon, so I'm switching over wherever possible to using apps whose developers actually give a damn about usability and accessibility.

    /steps off soapbox.

Children
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