A Journey of Empathy: Navigating Apple’s Reminders App as a Visually Impaired User

Awhile ago, I worked on an assignment aimed at cultivating empathy. My experience evoked an unexpected memory along with enough frustration to want to launch my phone out the window.

The Mission:

Use my iPhone to perform tasks on the Reminders app while simulating blindness

I create new reminders using Siri all the time, so this should be quick and easy.

Some tasks were straightforward and easy:

Hey Siri…

• Create a reminder — easy, like I expected

Okay so a single task was straightforward and easy.

The remaining tasks I attempted did not work as expected…

Hey Siri…

• Delete a reminder — “Sorry, I can’t help with that.”
• Create a list — “Sorry, I can’t help with that.”
• Delete a list — “Sorry, I can’t help with that.” — …Omggg wtf can Siri do, I hate this
• Mark a reminder as complete — WHY IS IT JUST ADDING THE SAME REMINDER TO THE LIST
• Retrieve a list of existing lists in the Reminders app — “You have more than 50 reminders and 20 lists, on your Grocery list, apples, mangoes, almond butter, do you want to hear the next note?” — THIS IS NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR 😭
• Find what’s on my default Reminders list — “You have more than 50 reminders and 20 lists, on your Grocery list, apples, mangoes, almonds…do you want to hear the next note?” (or, when locked, “You’ll need to unlock your iPhone first”) — NOOO STOP SAYING THIS

These were just some tasks that I tried, Siri’s responses, and some of the kinder thoughts that went through my mind.

The original plan was to spend 30 to 60 minutes using the Reminders app, but after 15 minutes I was ready to throw in the towel. I didn’t realize I had entered into a battle with Siri until Siri had already defeated me.

Though disheartened, I resolved to find a better solution and turned to a source who rarely fails me: Google. I felt lucky that I was able to search for support when I needed it. My expert Googling led me to this semi-helpful YouTube link. Semi-helpful, because I kept getting the same, unhelpful responses from Siri as mentioned above for commands that worked perfectly fine for the YouTube guy.

Ted and Marshall stuck listening to 500 Miles on repeat on a road trip in How I Met Your Mother

After this final endeavor, I imagine my face looked very much like Ted and Marshall’s faces as they listen to “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” for the trillionth time because of the car’s broken cassette player.

This, however, was nothing in comparison to how horrifying I found the VoiceOver voice (a great feature, in theory). Listening to this irritating, robotic voice repeat the same words over and over and over suddenly triggered a flashback to a tormentous night I’d had a while ago.

WHY WAS HE WEARING EAR PLUGS AND PLAYING THIS BOOK ON MAX VOLUME?!

It was the first night of a trip, sharing a room with this friend for the first time. He warned me that he had trouble sleeping and asked if he could play an audiobook. As someone who generally has no trouble falling asleep, I conceded. The fan was on max speed for some background noise. He turned on Steve Jobs’ biography and we settled in. Then he took out some ear plugs, which felt VERY confusing to me since we had just agreed to have all this noise on in the background. Then, he proceeded to turn on the audiobook to MAX VOLUME. WHY WAS HE WEARING EAR PLUGS AND PLAYING THIS BOOK ON MAX VOLUME?! WHY DIDN’T I SAY ANYTHING?! Luckily, I was able to fall asleep as usual.

Phoebe smashes her relentless fire alarm in Friends

Unluckily, morning came and I desperately wanted to wake up and react pretty similarly to how Phoebe reacts to her fire alarm in Friends. However, I was trapped in that limbo between waking and dreaming when you can’t fully wake up but you’re not fully asleep, bombarded by Mr. Baker’s droning voice. PLEASE, SOMEBODY, MAKE IT STOP!

That feeling of desperation for silence is precisely how I felt after only 10 minutes of listening to Apple’s Voiceover voice. I commend anyone who must use this feature on a regular basis.

Please, Apple, do something about the VoiceOver feature. There are so many decent Voice Assistant voices out there, why is this feature oh, so terrible?!

Grateful for My Vision

I would have to drastically change how I interact with my phone if I were blind. I’d probably avoid using abbreviations that I currently commonly use in my notes, and I would have to find alternative ways to communicate effectively with Siri. It would also be much more difficult to find support and available features. While I’m sure I’d adapt, the experience would undoubtedly be different and require a significant adjustment.

I definitely gained a new appreciation for my ability to see and am now much more aware of just some of the struggles someone with vision impairment may face when interacting with their phone. I hope to always keep in mind the importance of incorporating accessibility features seamlessly into apps to ensure a truly inclusive experience for all users.