Blind and Visually Impaired Community
↑
3
↓
Slack Accessibility (self.Blind)
submitted by frederik1991
I'm doing some research on the accessibility of chat applications, and I'm finding that Slack has put quite a lot of effort into making their application accessible. One thing I found curious is that they seem to conditionally add a label to messages that describes the message as a whole, but they only seem to add this label if they notice that you're navigating through their UI using a keyboard, and I'm not 100% sure why they do that conditionally. My hunch is that they do it so that you can quickly move the accessibility cursor to elements within messages, and the message as a whole isn't a target for the screen reader cursor. oOnly once you start moving focus with the tab or arrow keys (without a screen reader modifier) do they add the labels, so you can get a quick overview of a message while browsing through the list.
​
Is this hunch correct? More generally, for people who routinely work with a screen reader, what's your experience with using Slack? What elements do you like or dislike?
​
Is this hunch correct? More generally, for people who routinely work with a screen reader, what's your experience with using Slack? What elements do you like or dislike?
kelpangler 1 points 1y ago
In general I use magnification as opposed to VoiceOver when it comes to work. Slack has these action menus and popovers that appear as I move my mouse pointer. This is a big issue since the screen centers on the pointer wherever I move it around. I also use a larger pointer and bigger text which doesn’t help. I’ve contacted them about this to which they’ve politely explained they don’t have any immediate plans to change things.
As a side note, some companies seem to put all their efforts into screenreaders and ignore the magnification side of things. It’s really great to know they’re making an effort but it’s a narrow definition of how blind and visually impaired people ingest content.
As a side note, some companies seem to put all their efforts into screenreaders and ignore the magnification side of things. It’s really great to know they’re making an effort but it’s a narrow definition of how blind and visually impaired people ingest content.
bright_side1977 1 points 1y ago
I think Slack has an accessibility department, it would be on their website.
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
[deleted]
SiriuslyGranger 1 points 1y ago
I use slack for work an internship I am doing, and it works just fine. My boss who is the owner of the business uses slack and he owns the slack space naturally. I’ve had no issues and presumably he has not had any either. I’ve found working with slack very smooth and easy.
lightsrage85 1 points 1y ago
I meant to reply to the op I am learning luna for reddit. so yes, I appologize for replying to the comment instead.
SiriuslyGranger 1 points 1y ago
Ah, I see.
lightsrage85 1 points 1y ago
Doug Lee wrote jaws scripts for Slack and I have used them and they help Mind you I don't use NVDA that often so I don't know how it functions with things that well. But Jaws I use daily. I love jaws and my state has the tap-i program where they will update your jaws so you can access the internet they do not provide the internet service or computer but do provide the assistive technology. That is through the missouri assistive technology folks. I foget who exactly to contact. I may try to work for them as a trainer. I do not have my jaws certification because i don't have the money to pay for the exam but would when i have it. but that being said i digress. jaws works with all sorts of things like teams, adobe connect, and slack thanks to Doug Lee and his hard work. you can find his work at http://dlee.org I hope this helps you.
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.