Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Messenger/chat app recommendations? Trying to make a WCAG 2.1 AAA compliant online platform. (self.Blind)
submitted by Zathras_5
I am searching for some chat apps that are accessible and provide an easy experience for screen reader users. I've tested WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and RocketChat using VoiceOver, NVDA and TalkBack. WhatsApp scored the highest for me. It seems functional, though not a great experience. For example, it wasn't clear when I received a new message whilst in the chat. However, at least it said something at that moment as not all of the others did that, also some of the buttons and menus weren't navigable or accessible at all via screen reader.
We are currently using RocketChat because it is Open Source, meaning it should be possible for us to make changes to it.. However, that might take a lot of work. It came last in my rankings and it seems like the RocketChat team currently are not investing any effort into improving the accessibility despite tickets being raised and a $1.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am keen to learn your thoughts. Have a nice day.
We are currently using RocketChat because it is Open Source, meaning it should be possible for us to make changes to it.. However, that might take a lot of work. It came last in my rankings and it seems like the RocketChat team currently are not investing any effort into improving the accessibility despite tickets being raised and a $1.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am keen to learn your thoughts. Have a nice day.
zersiax 3 points 1y ago
WhatsApp, Discord and Slack are among the better ones, web-wise. You will want to make sure you have someone on hand that knows the intricacies of screenreader use; just tabbing around or using caret navigation often isn't going to get you the best experience. E.g., you can enter NVDA or JAWS's focus/form mode on the Whasapp web app and hit right arrow on users to get a context menu for them.
Zathras_5 [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Thank you for your suggestions. I was impressed by WhatsApp in many ways. What really disappointed me was how it behaved when I received a new message whilst in the chat.
For example, when I join the chat TalkBack would say 'displaying messages 24 to 30 of 30', then when I received a new message it would just announce 'displaying messages 24 to 31 of 31'. So it seemed like the notifications via screen reader is indirect - it didn't explicitly say anything like 'new message'. I just learned that when that announcement was made then I had a new message.
For example, when I join the chat TalkBack would say 'displaying messages 24 to 30 of 30', then when I received a new message it would just announce 'displaying messages 24 to 31 of 31'. So it seemed like the notifications via screen reader is indirect - it didn't explicitly say anything like 'new message'. I just learned that when that announcement was made then I had a new message.
zersiax 3 points 1y ago
Yup. Generally you know you have a new message by the little jingle it plays when you're not in the tab, after which you go look at the chat list to see which conversation is the top one, that will be the convo with the new mesage in it. Not elegant by any means, but common enough that it doesn't really make me blink anymore.
The thing with screenreaders auto-announcing things is that you need to carefully keep track of what would become too spammy. "new message" would make sense in a one-on-one chat, but if you're in a group chat with several people that are all spammy s all heck, that would become extremely annoying. So then, you would need to build in some kind of way to configure those kinds of screenreader announcements on a per-chat basis, and before you know it your feature balloons into unreality :)
The thing with screenreaders auto-announcing things is that you need to carefully keep track of what would become too spammy. "new message" would make sense in a one-on-one chat, but if you're in a group chat with several people that are all spammy s all heck, that would become extremely annoying. So then, you would need to build in some kind of way to configure those kinds of screenreader announcements on a per-chat basis, and before you know it your feature balloons into unreality :)
Zathras_5 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I agree with what you say about "new message", and I imagine that people already experience a similar issue if the screen reader announces something like "displaying messages 24 to 30 of 30" every time a message is received in a group chat. They will be bombarded by that announcement if it is a busy chat.
Zathras_5 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Ah yes of course, that makes a lot of sense from a UX perspective! Thank you for sharing your insight.
Zathras_5 [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I imagine that what could be is a few different notification sounds. For example, one sound for when you receive a message in chat, another to notify you of a message in a different chat.
hopesthoughts 1 points 1y ago
Telegram is accessible via Unigram, and the iOS app.
Marconius 1 points 1y ago
Just want to point out that there is no such thing as a fully WCAG AAA compliant chat or site. AAA is purely aspirational and would only serve an extremely niche set of users, and even the W3C claims that AAA is mostly impossible to pull off. You should aim for full AA compliance and add the AAA criteria as you can if it's not burdensome.
WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, iMessage, are all fairly decent. I still don't like discord due to the lack of media accessibility and it's wavering interface; some updates it seems good, then I come back to it later on and it's awful again. Facebook messenger is an example of there just being too damned much in the interface. They've cluttered it with all the stickers, media, voice, gifs, likes, and whatever else you can do without the ability to hide what you don't want and it can get frustrating after a while in an active conversation. Keep it simple, make it robust but give the user options to as to how they want to interact, and definitely don't be overly helpful in how you present instructions or how you guide the user through the experience.
WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, iMessage, are all fairly decent. I still don't like discord due to the lack of media accessibility and it's wavering interface; some updates it seems good, then I come back to it later on and it's awful again. Facebook messenger is an example of there just being too damned much in the interface. They've cluttered it with all the stickers, media, voice, gifs, likes, and whatever else you can do without the ability to hide what you don't want and it can get frustrating after a while in an active conversation. Keep it simple, make it robust but give the user options to as to how they want to interact, and definitely don't be overly helpful in how you present instructions or how you guide the user through the experience.
hopesthoughts 1 points 1y ago
Thus the reason why standards are extremely relative.
Throwaway1588442 1 points 1y ago
Signal and discord are very good on iOS.
Discord is decent on macOS though is a bit buggy
Discord is decent on macOS though is a bit buggy
rumster 1 points 1y ago
I added a flair to your post - in the future please add a flair.
Also look at Facebook Messanger Chat it has it's own platform.
Also look at Facebook Messanger Chat it has it's own platform.
Zathras_5 [OP] 3 points 1y ago
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