Apple Rejected My Dictation App for Misusing the Accessibility API

An indie developer with a repetitive strain injury built WhisperPad, a Mac menu-bar app that locally transcribes speech via Whisper and injects the text wherever the cursor sits. After shipping version 1.0 successfully, Apple rejected the paid 1.5 update under Guideline 2.4.5, arguing that using the accessibility API to paste into other apps was not a legitimate accessibility use, despite earlier identical versions having been approved. An appeal citing the developer’s hand injury was denied a month later with little clarification.

Rather than abandoning the app, the developer split it in two. The App Store build complies with Apple’s reading of the rule by dropping auto-paste in favor of clipboard hand-off plus Command-V, roughly a 50% increase in keystrokes for the core flow. The original auto-paste version ships through direct distribution, using Paddle for payments, Sparkle for updates, and license-key validation against a small server.

The episode highlights the recurring tension between Apple’s platform gatekeeping and assistive-use cases that sit in gray zones of policy. It also illustrates the practical playbook for indie Mac developers when App Review says no: comply where the store demands it, then ship the fuller product through the well-worn direct-distribution stack.