Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers SE Radio 737: Owen McGirr on Software Accessibility
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Sep 9, 2026 
Owen McGirr, an AAC user with cerebral palsy and creator of assistive apps SayIt and Switchify, explores software accessibility from both lived and engineering perspectives. They discuss eye gaze, switches, voice, scanning, platform differences, AAC design, AI-assisted testing, and how developers can build more flexible, reliable experiences for everyone.
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Accessibility Means Supporting Real User Workflows
- Accessibility means enabling people to use software through methods that fit them, including touch, switches, voice, eye gaze, or screen readers.
- Owen McGirr evaluates fatigue, timing, cognitive load, error recovery, and independent task completion—not merely whether a feature technically works.
Test Complete Workflows Without A Mouse
- Build workflows around native controls, meaningful labels, logical focus, large targets, dynamic text, clear errors, and timeout extensions.
- Test complete tasks with Tab, Shift-Tab, Enter, Escape, screen readers, and switch navigation—not isolated components alone.
Accessibility Failures Hide Inside Complete Tasks
- Automated checks catch obvious defects, but they miss whether a workflow is exhausting, ambiguous, or impossible with indirect access.
- Owen McGirr’s screenshot-based AI experiments exposed UX confusion while still requiring validation with disabled users.