[Trainer-Talk] Reprogramming the iOS Rotor Gesture to Something Easier

[Brian Vogel]

When I first started out in assistive technology, I was an extreme
customizer, trying to make everything "perfect" for the client.  But what I
found out very quickly is that the old saw, "The perfect is the enemy of
the good," is more true in regard to technology than almost anywhere else.

Most of us using anything, be it an iPhone, PC, Mac, Android-powered
device, etc., will not always be using our own.  And when your own has been
customized so much as to make its workings utterly divorced from the entire
"out of the box" conditions of all other devices, that really restricts
what one can do "in a pinch" when you've got to grab your friend's device
when away from home or when your battery has died, etc., to accomplish
something.

I've completely reversed my approach to be a customizing minimalist,
avoiding it almost completely except in cases where specific ones are a
reasonable accommodation.  I'd rather have something be "slightly clunkier
to use" but able to be used on any device handed to one of my clients than
it being absolutely easiest to use, but locking them in to a technique that
cannot be set up quickly and easily "on the fly."

Ultra-customization is, in my opinion, a trap.  It constrains more than it
frees with rare specific exceptions.  Regardless of the platform, the more
of the native UI you can use, the better.

Brian