Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on Big Tech
For the past couple weeks I’ve been dealing with my Samsung
phone, seven months old, becoming unusable after Samsung’s software update took
away the Voice Access feature I rely on. It’s giving me major déjà vu. Why?
Because it’s the second time in a year this has happened to me, the other time being
with an iPhone. I messed around for 2.5 months with that one, jumping through
all the customer service hoops — I had no phone access that entire time as well,
which makes work pretty difficult. By the end of that process I was disgusted
enough to jump platforms to Android and the Samsung, only to find the treatment
here is no different. So now I’ve been dumped on with both platforms: How’s
that for equal opportunity?
 |
| #*$@%! |
Last year I also lost a laptop to a Windows 11 update. For a couple of years now I have relied on a combination of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Windows Voice Access to start and run my computer. In spring 2025, I updated Windows per Microsoft’s recommendations, because I wanted to stay current on my computer security. However, after the update, you guessed it: Voice Access no longer worked the same way. I I lost the ability to turn on my laptop by myself. Now I was losing 2-4 hours of work time every morning. This happened at the worst time, with work deadlines looming and as we were preparing to move across the country. I fiddled with system fixes for a couple of days. Then I tried setting my computer to a restore point before the update, a Windows process I’ve used a few times over the years. This time, the computer never came back on again. It cost a few hundred bucks to buy a replacement. So Microsoft is in the same circle of shame with the other two.
Obviously the software engineers at big tech companies don’t
bring accessibility specialists or considerations into their software upgrade designs.
Because I’m so reliant on hands-free features, if software updates muck around
with only one or two key accessibility items, it can sink my entire work system.
This story has a semi-happy ending. With the help of my
nondisabled wife, we were able to restore Voice Access. It wasn’t easy, and it’s
not stable either because today it’s not usable again. (Thank god for Link to
Windows, which enables me to use my phone from my laptop.) Obviously this isn’t
over. What I do know right now is that I don’t want to update anything. Do
better, #Samsung #Apple #Microsoft!
Has anyone else had post-updating accessibility problems?
