If I could add my two cents here, I am quadriplegic and if I want to use a modern mobile phone and laptop or desktop I have to use Apple products. Their accessibility software is second to none and no other company comes close, I can take a new device out-of-the-box and have an able-bodied person set it up for me in about five minutes and from then on I need no other help.
Everything an able-bodied person can do with an iPhone I can do with my chin, usually with Microsoft and android and other open source offerings the accessibility software is always some subset of options and not the full experience. With Apple I get to use every aspect of every device despite the fact I can't move my arms and legs.
I would absolutely love to switch to Linux as my daily operating system, but I can't because the development has been done and it just isn't possible for me to use them as they are. So stuck with Apple I am. If Linux had the kind of support Apple did, I would switch in a heartbeat but they don't unfortunately.
They really are world leading in providing accessibility software for those of us with profound disabilities, and I've spent a decade looking.
Full disclosure: I help beta test the last couple of versions of the accessibility software for iOS.
Preface: I'm able-bodied, have reasonable sight, etc. In other words, I'm commenting on things I'm certainly not qualified to.
As someone who's used Linux for many, many, many years... I want to find fault with your conclusion that Linux and Open Source in general can't do this, but everything I've seen suggests I'm not very likely to be able to.
Even for able-bodied people, Linux isn't all that accessible - Some examples include poor font rendering (Yes, chrome renders nicely, but it's nowhere near consistent across all the applications I use day to day), another example is the fractured UI landscape, where apps tend to either be KDE, Gnome or Java, and each platforms idiosyncrasies leaks in leaving things like iconography, menu placement and organisation, and general UI styles different between each application.
I can't help but think, until we can sort this style of issue out, we have no chance of sorting out true accessibility. I'm reminded of XKCD's competing standards comic, where the most likely outcome here is probably yet another competing "standard".
Everything an able-bodied person can do with an iPhone I can do with my chin, usually with Microsoft and android and other open source offerings the accessibility software is always some subset of options and not the full experience. With Apple I get to use every aspect of every device despite the fact I can't move my arms and legs.
I would absolutely love to switch to Linux as my daily operating system, but I can't because the development has been done and it just isn't possible for me to use them as they are. So stuck with Apple I am. If Linux had the kind of support Apple did, I would switch in a heartbeat but they don't unfortunately.
They really are world leading in providing accessibility software for those of us with profound disabilities, and I've spent a decade looking.
Full disclosure: I help beta test the last couple of versions of the accessibility software for iOS.