Basecamp made HEY Email to be super simple and super fast.  Likewise, HEY World (the tool that sends this newsletter) was made to be super simple and super fast.  Basecamp founders, Jason and David, have talked about how the HEY World newsletter tool is a return to Web 1.0.  This means that it's built with basic HTML and CSS with no Javascript, trackers, advertisements, SEO metadata, column design, etc.  This is great for a number of reasons and there has been plenty of discussion online regarding these development traits. 

One thing that I haven't heard is any mention of the benefits to accessibility.  Simple and straightforward design means that screen-readers and other assistive technology can easily determine the true content of a website from whatever other text is on the screen. 

I'm not visually impaired, but I benefit from the built in iPhone Screen Reader feature frequently.  Most of the time this is a frustrating exercise, which results in me having to listen to menu headings, tags, superfluous descriptions, advertisements, and metadata of all kinds.  I still use it though, because I like to listen while doing something physical.

I found out today that the simple and clean design in HEY World means that screen readers work like a charm.  During a drive today I listened to Tassia Pellegrini's latest post.  It was amazing. 

Web 1.0, meet 2021 iOS.

If you don't know how to activate the iOS Screen Reader feature, try navigating to a webpage and pulling down from the top of the screen with two fingers.  Magic!

More directions here.