I was expecting some sort of systemic problem across the operating system, but it seems to be just one specific bug in WebKit—though there is also a link to “our recent post on problems in macOS Sonoma and the replies”, and though it does sound to be a rather debilitating bug for affected users, and though this sort of bug making it to production can be a symptom of systemic problems in the organisation.
They mention another post covering broader issues, just highlighting this as the worst:
> I want to emphasise that the “Safari not responding” bug is far from the only issue effecting VoiceOver users on Mac. As our recent post on problems in macOS Sonoma and the replies outline, there are numerous other VoiceOver frustrations and failures impacting users.
As a web developer who is committed to supporting blind and disabled users in general, I'm just getting deep into all of this now, and so far I can say that VO is the worst of the three screen readers for web usage. It has fallen far behind on standards support for modern aria attributes, completely ignoring many of them in practice, to the point where it's not possible to always achieve intended screen reader behaviour in VO.
Much as with Safari, Apple only seems to pays lip service to support of VO, completely blind users seem to only ever use VO if given no other option, but many online stats muddy OS usage with web usage to make this less obvious.
This broadly seems -- for a blind user -- like the monitor periodically taking a break for a sighted user. Seems like it would get real old by, like, the 3rd time or so.
