Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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The new reddit design and accessibility. (self.Blind)
submitted 5.297467142489712y ago by bradley22
I'm very lucky to be back on the old reddit website but am worried for those who are new to reddit and who are blind.
I don't know if when you sign up whether you are put on the new design by default and if you are, I feel a lot more blind people will turn away from this website due to the the reasons written about below.
The new design jumps you everywhere, a lot.
Links are not labeled at all in some cases and it really isn't useful for someone who is blind.
Yes the headings for eatch post are good but I'm honestly used to pressing tab through my posts, but if it were just the headings, I'd get used to it but it's the intire layout.
I've also noticed when i'm signed out of reddit, and press enter on the time trabel back to reddit button, it doesn't work.
Is it just me or are others on /r/blind experienceing this too?
I don't know if when you sign up whether you are put on the new design by default and if you are, I feel a lot more blind people will turn away from this website due to the the reasons written about below.
The new design jumps you everywhere, a lot.
Links are not labeled at all in some cases and it really isn't useful for someone who is blind.
Yes the headings for eatch post are good but I'm honestly used to pressing tab through my posts, but if it were just the headings, I'd get used to it but it's the intire layout.
I've also noticed when i'm signed out of reddit, and press enter on the time trabel back to reddit button, it doesn't work.
Is it just me or are others on /r/blind experienceing this too?
iamreallycold 8 points 5y ago
I have my poor sight, but am disabled by Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I can't get back to the old reddit either, and I tried to leave a comment in r/beta but it wouldn't let me comment. I had to use the feedback form. IMO, it was not designed with any disabilities in mind, which is a shame since so many of us use it to connect with others who share our difficulties.
bradley22 [OP] 4 points 5y ago
To get back to the old reddit, go to your preferences and untick the box that says something like try the new design then press enter on, or click on, save.
LarryWren 1 points 5y ago
I'm fairly well\-sighted, but was hating the redesign, too! I didn't know how to keep it from continuing to take me back to the redesign every time I opened a new post, even when I kept going to the old version of Reddit to begin with. Thank you!
bradley22 [OP] 2 points 5y ago
You're welcome.
sw4400 5 points 5y ago
their head of product commented on some posts about accessibility several days ago, but I'm skeptical that things will really get better.
they're still debating how best to make accessibility work, rather than adding it in from the start.
So, I'm worried that once they get a design locked down and start working on accessibility, it will be sub-standard, particularly as the new reddit is built in React.
I really dislike being stuck in positions like this, hoping that a company will actually invest the time and effort to do something correctly after the fact, but hey...
Lets open a betting pool. Will Reddit manage to do what discord hasn't, and probably never will?
they're still debating how best to make accessibility work, rather than adding it in from the start.
So, I'm worried that once they get a design locked down and start working on accessibility, it will be sub-standard, particularly as the new reddit is built in React.
I really dislike being stuck in positions like this, hoping that a company will actually invest the time and effort to do something correctly after the fact, but hey...
Lets open a betting pool. Will Reddit manage to do what discord hasn't, and probably never will?
bradley22 [OP] 2 points 5y ago
Honestly? I doubt it. If they do, great but I doubt they will. I'm sticking to the old reddit for now and hope I can keep using it.
bradley22 [OP] 5 points 5y ago
I've unticked the beta test options in the preferences. I hope that helps. I can see that I am not trying the new version of reddit and hope it stays that way. I really find the jumping around to be annoying and the unlabeled buttons really don't help. I'll post in the beta subreddit.
To get back to the old version of reddit, here's what I think you do:
Go to your preferences and find something about beta testing features for redddit, under that is a tick box, untick the box that says try the new design, then save. Hopefully that helps.
To get back to the old version of reddit, here's what I think you do:
Go to your preferences and find something about beta testing features for redddit, under that is a tick box, untick the box that says try the new design, then save. Hopefully that helps.
Prefect316 5 points 5y ago
I left a comment in r/beta but I never got any follow-up.
I also noticed that the up and down vote buttons weren't labeled, as far as I could tell anyway.
I also noticed that the up and down vote buttons weren't labeled, as far as I could tell anyway.
stormsong19 3 points 5y ago
The unlabeled buttons are a bit of an issue, but I really like the other changes. There's a subreddit specifically dedicated to the reddit beta which you may find worth posting on instead of here.
bradley22 [OP] 2 points 5y ago
The new design is slowly getting better, or perhaps it's just me. I've just noticed that the text boxes seam to be labeled correctly. OH and they're not using aria as far as i know, but it does tell you how many upvotes the OP has on their thread, it's in text near the top of the thread. I might end up switching to it after all, in a couple of months. If they get rid of the buttons under eatch subreddit, fix a couple of things like the jumping around I'm experienceing and I think there's a open tag because if I tab to the subreddits, everything gets read out at once and then I have to tab again to get to the subreddit list.
I still don't like that if i close firefox, then open my messages page, it moves me back to the new design. I then have to open another tab, find a subreddit, log in and then everything goes back to how it was. The strange thing is, i@m usually loged into reddit even if I close and open firefox it shouldn't log me out.
I still don't like that if i close firefox, then open my messages page, it moves me back to the new design. I then have to open another tab, find a subreddit, log in and then everything goes back to how it was. The strange thing is, i@m usually loged into reddit even if I close and open firefox it shouldn't log me out.
fastfinge 2 points 5y ago
There is a button at the top of the new homepage, visible to screen readers, that will let you opt out of the new design. See $1 between myself and Reddit admin /u/ggAlex. We've been promised shortcut keys and correctly labeled buttons. While I can't speak to if these promises will be kept or not, I can say that several minor issues were fixed in the alpha, before the beta launch. I have also delivered more detailed feedback in private messages to the Reddit admins. If you wanted me to guess, based on the current pace of progress, and the previous behavior of Reddit, I'd say we've got about a 75 percent chance that the new design will be fully accessible by the time old reddit is disabled, whenever that happens.
ggAlex 7 points 5y ago
Thanks for your vote of confidence. We are still prioritizing accessibility and your messages to me about the things that would make a difference for users of screen readers have been helpful to us.
bradley22 [OP] 5 points 5y ago
yeah, I saw the button that says something like, time travel back to old reddit. I click on it and it worked once for me but, and this is very important,, I was not made aware of a little thing at the bottom of the page that asks me why I want to opt out. I thought something might be going on as I noticed NVDA wasn't loading the webpage so checked at the bottom and got a mini survey thing. When reddit put me back into the new design (I think I was loged out but I'm not sure,) then pressed enter on the button,, nothing happened apart from the page loading and I was being thrown around on the page to random parts of it. I tryed looking at the bottom to see if that survey thing popped up but it didn't. I needed to search for another subreddit using google, then log in (I thought I was already loged in) then the old design reappeared.
ggAlex 6 points 5y ago
I'm sorry that the opt\-out survey broke your experience. I am looking into what caused this issue so that we can resolve it before more people who rely on screen readers have this bad experience.
bradley22 [OP] 2 points 5y ago
Thanks. I'm not exactly sure what I did but I'll try to write a list of steps: 1. be loged into reddit on the new design.
2. Press enter on the button that says travel back in time.
3. Notice that there's no indication that there's a survey you have to find to opt out of the new design (note: an Aria alert might be useful here, something that screen reader users can hear, but non screen reader users won't see. Like, alert in order to opt out, there is a survey at the bottom of your screen,.)
4. Fill out the survey, go back to the old design, book mark a subreddit, close your browser and open it again, then open the bookmark.
5. You should be put in to the new design, although this isn't working for me now and i'm back on the old design, (This is a good thing but bad for tracking down what is doing this.)
I just opened a new instants of Firefox and the issue seams to be fixed.
I'd also like to point out that the alert function that allows me to hear when I get a message or a reply in the preferences doesn't work anymore. Is this being updated for the new design?
2. Press enter on the button that says travel back in time.
3. Notice that there's no indication that there's a survey you have to find to opt out of the new design (note: an Aria alert might be useful here, something that screen reader users can hear, but non screen reader users won't see. Like, alert in order to opt out, there is a survey at the bottom of your screen,.)
4. Fill out the survey, go back to the old design, book mark a subreddit, close your browser and open it again, then open the bookmark.
5. You should be put in to the new design, although this isn't working for me now and i'm back on the old design, (This is a good thing but bad for tracking down what is doing this.)
I just opened a new instants of Firefox and the issue seams to be fixed.
I'd also like to point out that the alert function that allows me to hear when I get a message or a reply in the preferences doesn't work anymore. Is this being updated for the new design?
ggAlex 3 points 5y ago
Thank you for the thorough bug report. I’ve shared it with the engineering team so we can get to a resolution.
SophiaDevetzi 1 points 5y ago
I stickied this post to draw more attention to this topic. If you have tried the new design, please visit r/redesign to submit any feedback to the admins, and $1.
[deleted] 1 points 5y ago
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