Author: Colin Hughes
Labour promised to fix the NHS. So why am I, a vulnerable housebound patient, still waiting for a flu jab?
Flu season has arrived early. BBC News reports a sharp rise in infections, prompting ministers and public health officials to issue their annual directive: get vaccinated now. Hospitals are already bracing for a gruelling winter, and the message to the vulnerable is urgent. Yet while the rhetoric is clear, the reality for those of us who cannot leave home is anything but. This winter, securing a f...
Budget 2025: Motability cuts that betray disabled people’s independence
The Autumn Budget delivered many of the usual headlines — duties rising on cigarettes and alcohol, eye-catching giveaways, and a handful of announcements clearly shaped for the early evening news. But beneath all that theatre came something far more damaging: the confirmation of significant Motability cuts, changes that strike at the heart of independence for thousands of disabled people. The gove...
Voice Control in macOS 26.1 fixes some bugs — but Apple should add “Background Accessibility Improvements”
Voice Control in macOS 26.1: progress, but key bugs remain After six weeks of waiting, Voice Control in macOS 26.1 has arrived — and it’s a story of progress mixed with frustration. The good news: Apple has finally fixed long-standing issues with “delete that”, “lower case that”, and the missing in-sentence cursor. These are small but meaningful improvements for those who rely entirely on voice to...
A picture paints a thousand words: why cutting Motability would be a betrayal
They say every picture tells a story. In this old family photo from the 1990s, I’m sitting outside our home in rural Wales with my brother Ian and sister Lyn. My brother Alan isn’t in the photo. Behind us stand three Chrysler Voyagers — wheelchair-accessible Motability vehicles that gave us the freedom to live, work, and stay connected with the world. All four of us were born with muscular dystrop...
Meta visited me to test the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and Neural Band
Meta brought the future to my doorstep Two weeks ago, something quite extraordinary happened. Meta Reality Labs visited my London home to let me try the new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses — the first model with a built-in display — bundled with the Meta Neural Band wristband. Officially released in the US on 30 September 2025, and priced from $799, the devices aren’t yet available in the UK— so havi...
Apple’s Voice Control has stalled — but AI dictation is racing ahead
Last month I reported on a series of serious Voice Control bugs in macOS 26 that Apple quietly acknowledged but has yet to fix. You can read that piece here. The story struck a nerve because these weren’t minor quirks — they broke the core promise of Voice Control for people who depend on it to use their Macs hands-free. Frankly, it’s astonishing that Apple allowed these bugs to ship. The glitches...
Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses gen 2 review: power, promise, and what’s next
The battery, for real this time Let me start with what works: battery life. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses Gen 2 claims up to 2× the battery life over Gen 1. In my use — a few photos, a video, message readouts, a couple of calls — I got through most of the day without panic about dying power. For someone with a disability who depends on the glasses to stay connected, that’s a game-changer: on Gen ...
iPhone Air review: why Apple’s lightest phone might be the perfect ‘bed phone’
When Wall Street Journal tech columnist Joanna Stern remarked on Threads that the iPhone Air might be the perfect “bed phone,” it wasn’t just a throwaway comment. It captured something millions of us do every day — using our phones in bed. Whether it’s late-night doomscrolling, a quick YouTube binge, or simply setting an alarm, phones have become bedtime companions. The iPhone Air itself is Apple’...
Apple confirms Voice Control bugs in macOS 26
Apple has acknowledged a series of bugs affecting Voice Control in macOS 26, the company’s built-in accessibility feature that allows people to fully operate a Mac by voice. Over the past week, users have reported that several key commands are not working as expected, with some issues seriously impacting productivity. After a detailed bug report was submitted, Apple’s accessibility team confirmed ...
Why Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses feel like the next step for accessibility
This line from Meta’s announcement of the new Ray-Ban Display glasses with Neural Band really struck me. “Think of the potential impact it could have for people with spinal cord injuries, limb differences, tremors, or other neuromotor conditions.” I haven’t tried them yet — they don’t launch until 30 September, and only in the US and select stores at first — but as someone with very limited upper ...
Aqua Voice delivers what Apple’s dictation still lacks
Dictation on the Mac has often felt like a leap of faith. Apple’s native Dictation and Voice Control offer a path to speech-to-text, but accuracy issues, sluggish input, and awkward editing frequently interrupt productivity. Aqua Voice, a third-party, AI-powered dictation tool, aims to redress these shortcomings—and largely succeeds. How Aqua Voice elevates Mac Dictation Aqua Voice presents as a f...
WWDC 2025: accessibility gains, missed chances, and what Apple still needs to fix
Yesterday’s WWDC 2025 keynote brought Apple’s bold new Liquid Glass design, system-wide renaming (e.g., iOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26), and a big push for on-device Apple Intelligence—available now in eight more languages, and open to developers everywhere . We also saw major updates to iPad multitasking, Spotlight, Xcode 26 with foundation LLM support, and even lighter Game controls thanks to Liquid Gl...