Apple's App Store gatekeeping is catching accessibility tools

A founder shared today that Apple rejected their dictation app for using the accessibility API. The rejection is not a bug, it is policy. Apple and Google are both tightening access to accessibility APIs, and the HN thread connected this to a broader pattern of platform control creeping into the tools that disabled users depend on most.

The comments were pointed. One said this is what happens when you run an OS controlled by a big corporation and you should not rely on Apple. Another noted that Google is doing the same thing with its accessibility API. The convergence of both major mobile platforms restricting accessibility access in the same direction is not a coincidence. It reflects a broader tightening of what third-party apps can observe and control on a device, driven partly by privacy concerns and partly by competition with first-party features.

For founders, the practical lesson is the same one that keeps getting learned the hard way: if your product's core function depends on a platform API that the platform also uses internally, you are one policy update away from rejection or forced pivot.