Meet the Fable Community: James B.
- Pronouns: He/him
- Time zone: GMT
- Languages spoken: English
James is in his thirties and is partially sighted. He was born with achromatopsia, a condition that causes severe light sensitivity, poor color vision, and reduced clarity. He also has nystagmus, a condition that makes his eyes move involuntarily in rapid, repeated motions. James wears contact lenses and very dark glasses daily.
James relies on Apple’s built-in Zoom screen magnification feature to navigate digital experiences. He also turns on Dark Mode and enlarges text to improve readability.
James’s background and interests
James is a paralympic track cyclist who has been training in the sport since 2015. He and his para-cycling pilot, Steffan Lloyd, won a gold medal at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris for the Men’s B 1000m time trial. In his spare time, James enjoys traveling with his wife and gaming with friends.
James’s assistive technology and adaptations
As a loyal Apple products user, James has personally experienced the evolution of the platform’s built-in accessibility features. He continues to discover new features that help him navigate digital experiences.
“Since working with Fable I’ve actually learned a few new things my MacBook can do,” he says. “Recently discovering the Hover Text setting has made my life so much easier!”
James’s top accessibility pain points
For someone with achromatopsia, white backgrounds can be painfully bright. While some websites have a toggle switch for Dark Mode, it’s often poorly implemented, altering image colors rather than providing a true inversion. James also finds websites with too much information extremely challenging to navigate.
“I prefer to use the banking app on my phone,” he says. “But sometimes I can’t find what I need and I’m forced to my desktop. That’s my worst nightmare. I don’t think I’ve ever found a search bar helpful because I’ll be looking for something very specific and it just pulls everything it has from the website.”
What James wishes more design and product teams knew about digital accessibility
Large Text, Inverted Colors, and Dark Mode are the three biggest accessibility features James relies on every day. He loves it when developers include toggles for these features in the top navigation bar.
“I’m a big gamer and it can be very frustrating because I often struggle with seeing the UI,” he says. “The first thing I do with every new game is look at the accessibility settings. Nine times out of ten it’s just subtitles. So, it’s really nice when companies add the toggles. That’s really important to me.”
Why James chose to work with Fable
James was introduced to Fable by a colleague at British Cycling. He loves the company mission paired with the flexible nature of the work, particularly as he’s currently training to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games.
“To actually have the chance to give back and help product developers look at accessibility in a completely new way is absolutely fantastic,” he says.
