What apps have you tried to use but can't?(self.Blind)
submitted by swissy23
I work for a mobile app company that is doing research into how visually impaired and blind users use apps. What I'm specifically looking for is, are there certain apps or types of apps that you can't use at all but really want to?
Specific apps are fine or industries work too, i.e. banking apps, news apps, entertainment apps.
OR if you have an app that you think works really well and wasn't necessarily built for blind users like KNFB.
Thanks!
LarryWren3 points5y ago
Discord doesn't seem accessible. :( I don't quite get why, though... it seems like it would be so easy to make it screen-reader friendly, since it is mostly just text.
webgurl832 points5y ago
I've tried with discord, it's definitely inaccessible.
[deleted]1 points5y ago
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webgurl831 points5y ago
Yeah exactly. I didn't just mean inefficient. Inaccessible and inefficient are two different things that most people combine into one. I use a lot of sites that are inefficient and/or inconvenient, but I'm still able to use them fairly successfully. That isn't the case with Discord and/or Coinbase.
Amonwilde3 points5y ago
Pocket (now run by Mozilla) is a good example of a somewhat usable app that has a ton of basic problems.
Inkle's 80 Days is a good example of an app that *could* be accessible, but isn't, probably because they used Unity. Same with Sorcery! (Steve Jackson).
Games in general are not very accessible and are something it seems a lot of blind people appreciate when they're done right. (King of Dragon Pass is probably the best example of how to do it.)
jofish221 points5y ago
Hey, sorry to hear that about Pocket. I work with those guys and I’ll be meeting them next week and I’ll see if I can help anything happen.
Amonwilde1 points5y ago
If they implemented the back button, labelled all their buttons, and made the reading list work properly (items turn invisible to VO if you go off the first page), then it would be better to use. I'm low vision and use it every day, but it is kind of annoying currently. It's accidentally almost accessible, though.
jofish221 points5y ago
Noted. Thanks.
fastfinge2 points5y ago
1. Discord. People have been requesting Discord become accessible since 2015. Both via there feedback forum, via there Reddit, and via there Twitter. The developers are quite clear when they respond that they will never fix the app to include even basic accessibility, as it is not a priority for them. As a moderator of several subs on Reddit that run discord servers, this problem effects me enormously. Even Slack created an IRC gateway to at least give us access to the text chat, if not voice and everything else. Discord won't even do that much.
2. Songpop. This feels like the perfect game for blind folks. However, again, even though we've been asking for something like five years, they have no intention of adding any access features at all.
GoneVision2 points5y ago
Hulu is another example of an app with impossible to overcome accessibility barriers for voiceover users. Hulu is currently being sued over the INXS ability of their app.
[deleted]1 points5y ago
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JamesRath172 points5y ago
Games are a big thing, as mentioned. Usually, games in the app store running on the Unity engine are inaccessible, Pokémon GO for example. One game that does accessibility well is Blackbox.
Snapchat, who is ironically losing tons of users and struggling for relevance amongst younger crowds, refuses to make their very accessible. VoiceOver is a nightmare on it and it's a fairly simple UI for sighted people. Snap Inc. is just missing out on a much larger market.
Raf_AL1 points5y ago
The Twitch app isn't very accessible, at least when you're watching something and want to talk to people in the chat on mobile. However, it's kind of understandable, since I don't think it's possible to make a chat accessible. It's unfortunate though, since it would be a nice way for me to talk to the chat, when I'm streaming.
webgurl831 points5y ago
Not sure if it has an app, but the Coinbase site. I just tried that and wow it really doesn't work.
Ramildo1 points5y ago
I don't use many third-party apps because most of them are not optimized for screen-readers, and some of them are written using cross platform frameworks that simply don't work with screen-readers at all. An example of that is Roland's Piano Partner 2 app which has pop-ups that that are not accessible using VoiceOver, which is even worse than graphical controls without screen-reader descriptions, which this app also suffers from.
When it comes to purchased apps I'm even more careful, because unlike the sighted I can never tell in advance whether an app is going to be accessible and usable. I have recently bought a Windows laptop and switched from MacOS just to use Quick Windows Sequencer, a free MIDI production app written by a blind guy who was even more frustrated than I am about the inexistence of accessible and usable music production apps.
awesomesaucesaywhat1 points5y ago
I'm having trouble finding a good to do list app. I bought a few with good reviews but had to get a refund since they aren't accessible.
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