I am a totally blind software engineer with many years of experience in coding and a couple of published book sections and articles to my credit.
I have taken an iOS course so I’m not completely new to iOS.
I am having a struggle with the Getting Started project. I don’t know if there is something that has changed with Xcode 9.3 and later or it is an accessibility issue.
My starting project storyboard outline doesn’t look like the one in the book. I have followed all the steps as outlined in the book. Is this a significant issue?
After placing the first button in the storyboard, this was done with great difficulty probably relating to an accessibility issue, I find that I can’t change the location of the button from the inspector or even have someone sighted move it where I want it. The items in the inspector are dimmed. Is there something I’ve missed here?
If Apple wasn’t so excited about the storyboard thing I’d abandon it in a New York second.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Also, I’d be happy to share any guidance or help I can to make this book easier to use by a blind software developer.
Hi James, my apologies, I had not considered a totally blind person doing the tutorials and so had not taken accessibility into consideration. However, since you start the first project (and each of the subsequent ones too) from scratch, I am not sure that there’s much in the way of accessibility that I could have added to make your life easier. If there is something I have missed, please do let me know and I’ll add the necessary changes in the next release.
With regards to the specific issue you’re running into, I am not sure what is happening to dim the relevant sections of the inspector. Only things I can think of are:
The button (or any other relevant item) is not selected.
Xcode issues - this does happen from time to time on Interface Builder where you get only two of the inspector tabs - usually File inspector and Quick Help inspector - but the other tabs do not show up or they do not show all the information for the selected item. I’ve generally found that if I quit Xcode and restart it, this issue goes away.
If the issue is neither of the above, either a video showing the issue or a copy of your project as a ZIP file might help me see what is going on and help you further.
@jrw2 I want to thank you for taking the time to write us, and also for your patronage. I can only speak for myself, but I am humbled to hear how someone who is blind, is a software engineer despite the obstacles you face. Developers, including myself at times get frustrated with their progress, and also with the constant change in technology, which forces us to constantly learn new concepts. People like yourself are an inspiration (to me anyway), because you show that it is indeed possible to overcome whatever challenges we face and move forward.
I want to apologize if, in any way, you found that my comment was patronizing.
Thank you for sharing, and you are most welcome to participate on our forums.
@jrw2 On a more relevant note to your question, believe it or not, many, many companies are moving away from storyboards in spite of what Apple advocates. There are many benefits to NOT using storyboards:
Easier Git management.
Better understanding of your code base.
In some cases, better ability to troubleshoot.
Remember that anything you do in storyboards, can be done in code, so don’t feel compelled to use them just because Apple encourages it. In my opinion, it is wrong to assume that there is a silver bullet to solve all problems. At the end of the day, YOU should decide what works best for YOU.
