Dani Devesa

A gray MacBook covered in stickers, including SwiftLeeds, a grumpy blue rain cloud (“please don’t rain” icon), a holographic ice-lollipop shaped like a book (“study snacks”), a colorful mandarin duck (“the art of fauna”), an ARCTIC conference logo, and an Apple logo. In the blurred background, a child’s colorful painting with red, green, blue, yellow, and brown brushstrokes is visible on the wall.

So great to meet you!

And I can prove we did meet! 😁

This is me with the best company possible! So great to see you all! 😊

Thanks to everyone who came to the accessibility drop in sessions at #SwiftLeeds this week with myself and @dadederk.bsky.social. I had so much fun talking about accessibility, keep in touch and let us know what you’ve improved from what we talked about.

Leeds Swifts - Start Birding Leeds Swifts - Aiming to make Leeds the swift capital of the UK! Help and advice about how to set up new swift colonies and conserve existing nest sites.

We hope you all have a great time at #SwiftLeeds this week. Why not check out some Leeds Swifts while you’re there?
www.startbirding.co.uk/leeds-swifts/

If (or not just but especially if) you are an iOS dev, check out this very cool initiative!

A small project me and a handful of folks have been working on over the summer.
We love Swift and we love swifts.
We want to show support for the namesake of our language, and to get you out into nature.
Follow for more.
#SwiftForSwifts

It’s very cool to be able to say I’ll be guest-hosting a tiny part of this year’s ID24 as we discover how the BBC is baking accessibility into their iOS and Android apps.
At 13:00 UTC 25 September - but of course the whole 24 hours will be great 😌

Screenshot showing the Supported Accessibility Features of an app in the App Store. It lists VoiceOver, Dark Interface, Sufficient Contrast, Larger Text, Differentiate Without Color Alone and Reduce Motion

iOS 26 is almost here - So this is a friendly reminder to fill out your Accessibility Nutrition Labels 🦾 #a11y #iOS26

Having worked at big companies lately, it’s been years since I’ve had the thrilling (and terrifying) chance of pressing “Submit for Review.” Or of clicking “Create a new Xcode project” confident it would lead to a released app!

Here’s to making this a far more frequent habit. 🚀

iPhone lock screen. Two App Store Connect notifications are shown for Xarra (iOS): one says “The status of version 1.0 has changed to Waiting for Review,” and the next says “The status of version 1.0 has changed to Ready for Review.”

Don’t think it’ll be ready by Monday. And am I ready? Probably not… 😅

But here we go! Version 1.0 is officially submitted for review.
This is the worst it’s ever going to be. From here it only gets better.

Hope you enjoy using it as much as I’ve enjoyed building it!

#BuildInPublic

Exploring the Navigation Split View Explore the NavigationSplitView on different platforms, how to use it and the related modifiers.

If you want to dive deeper, check out this excellent guide from @createwithswift.bsky.social:
www.createwithswift.com/exploring-th...

Screenshot of Xarra running on iPad in landscape orientation. On the left, a sidebar list shows audio documents with titles and progress bars. On the right, the transcript view is open for a sample document titled “Welcome to Xarra,” with the current line highlighted in indigo and playback controls floating at the bottom.

Creating adaptive apps that feel great across devices and configurations is easier than ever!

Next: giving some love to the iPadOS version.

Switch from a List to a NavigationSplitView that holds the List and displays the Transcript in the Detail pane... and voilà, magic!

#BuildInPublic

YouTube video by macessentials The Lost 1984 Video: young Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh

Here's where the text comes from... It is similar to what the Macintosh said when Steve Jobs took it out the bag, when it was introduced in 1984. Genius!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-X...

I’ve added some sample content to Xarra, so the app isn’t empty on first launch, but also to serve as a little onboarding that shows what it does and how to use it.

Let’s play a game! Can you guess where I got the inspiration for the first few lines? 👀

#BuildInPublic #iOSDev

@swiftleeds.co.uk is almost here, and it’s looking 🔥!

I’m super excited to be back running accessibility drop-in sessions with my friend @rob-w.bsky.social!

Book a slot and come chat with us. We love nothing more than talking all things iOS accessibility with devs!

swiftleeds.co.uk/ticket#dropin

✅ Venue confirmed
✅ MC confirmed
✅ House band confirmed
✅ Aurora order placed
❌ Webpages updated
❌ Sauna booked
❌ Listed at Cocoa Conferences
❌ CFP open

Slowly slowly ARCtic vol. 2 is cooking.

All I want for Christmas is... for macOS to remember my spaces configuration after restart.

Join the Xarra beta Available on iOS

With Reduce Motion enabled, you still see where you’ll land on the slider, but the transcript doesn’t scroll until you release it.

There's less going on the screen, while still getting the same information and functionality.

testflight.apple.com/join/sjk3n7y6

#BuildInPublic #iOSDev

Hey! I’ll be in Napoli for a couple of days next week and couldn’t be more excited! What shouldn’t I miss while I’m there?

Also, any local iOS devs or accessibility enthusiasts (or both!) up for meeting? Preferably over a caffè, a cuoppo, a cuzzetiello, some pizza fritta, a sfogliatella...! 😋

This isn’t the typical implementation of Reduce Motion, but I think I like it!

Normally, when scrubbing the slider to jump around an audio document, the transcript view scrolls in real time, which can feel useful, but also a bit overwhelming with so much movement on screen.

Join the Xarra beta Available on iOS

With Reduce Motion enabled, you still see where you’ll land on the slider, but the transcript doesn’t scroll until you release it.

There's less going on the screen, while still getting the same information and functionality.

testflight.apple.com/join/sjk3n7y6

#BuildInPublic #iOSDev

This isn’t the typical implementation of Reduce Motion, but I think I like it!

Normally, when scrubbing the slider to jump around an audio document, the transcript view scrolls in real time, which can feel useful, but also a bit overwhelming with so much movement on screen.

Hey! I’ll be in Napoli for a couple of days next week and couldn’t be more excited! What shouldn’t I miss while I’m there?

Also, any local iOS devs or accessibility enthusiasts (or both!) up for meeting? Preferably over a caffè, a cuoppo, a cuzzetiello, some pizza fritta, a sfogliatella...! 😋

YouTube video by Haben Girma Disability & Innovation: The Universal Benefits of Accessible Design, by Haben Girma @ WWDC 2016

That idea stuck with me. I’ll admit it, I discovered I was full of preconceptions about disability. From then on, I’ve tried to stay curious, ask questions, and leave assumptions aside.

Her talk is worth watching from beginning to end:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bC7...

It completely changed how I approach accessibility.

Her message was clear:
"Don’t assume what people with disabilities can or can’t do. Instead, strive for inclusion."

In 2016, I was lucky to attend WWDC for the first time. I was just beginning my journey in accessibility.

As an introvert, I found it easier to attend the lunch sessions than to mingle in the crowded food areas. @habengirma.bsky.social gave a talk on Disability & Innovation.

Collage showing the Xarra app in landscape orientation. The top screenshot displays the transcript view with a new playback controls button in the navigation bar. An orange arrow points from that button to the bottom screenshot, which shows the floating playback control panel overlay with play, skip, progress slider, and speed controls.

First, I tried a split-screen approach (transcript on one side, controls on the other). But with Dynamic Type, that left very little room for text.

In the end: when in landscape, there’s now a button in the navigation bar to show/hide a floating playback control panel.

#BuildInPublic #iOSDev

I haven’t worked on an app that supports both screen orientations in a while. And sadly, this feels too often overlooked by iOS devs.

But this is my app, so I get to give it a go! 😁

The main challenge: where to put the playback controls in landscape.

Photo taken during a morning walk in Puebla de San Miguel, a rural village in Spain. The foreground shows a hand holding an iPhone with the Xarra app open, playing back text with the current line highlighted and playback controls at the bottom. Behind the phone, the village sits in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains, under a perfectly blue morning sky with soft light.

I think I can already call Xarra a success! I haven’t even shipped it yet, but it’s become part of my morning walk routine.

If I’m finding it this useful, I’m sure others will too.

Next: making it work with the system’s playback controls.

testflight.apple.com/join/sjk3n7y6

#BuildInPublic

Join the Xarra beta Available on iOS

And a big one: the app now supports system playback controls, both on the Lock Screen and in Control Center. Still some ironing to do, but feels like a huge step forward.

As always, you can find the latest version in TestFlight:
testflight.apple.com/join/sjk3n7y6

#BuildInPublic #iOSDev