Duolingo - Language Lessons

hi all, are the developers receptive to feedback? when i tried to do the practice test after completing basics 1 i couldn't record anything, i also thought speaking was part of the lessons? how also, do i move to basics ii

hi to improve access, why do people who have ios 11 not do the screen recording, to show the difficulties?

To all those that are struggling to use the app, I strongly recommend the mobile or desktop sites as they are more accessible. There are downsides to the mobile site, notably that it is much harder to repeat an item in a listening question, and that if you relied on the words at the bottom of the screen to answer questions, they are not there--you must type in the answer, and it can be a bit mind-numbing to close the keyboard and find the Check button. The only way for a VoiceOver user to know which skills need to be revisited is through the colour.

hi when i open the new app i see the percentages but still hear phrases 0 slash 2 basic 2 slash 2 or whatever it is say, on one line.

hi all, when undertaking a course and we are asked to test our pronunciation, how do voiceover usous start speaking? also how can i delete a course?

With voice over you double tap and hold down the record button. If your volume is up high enough you will hear a faint ding which indicates when you need to start speaking. Release the button when you have finished. If it likes your pronounciation it will ding to let you know that you are correct, if it doesn't, it gives you two more goes to try and get it right.

To delete, add or reset a course just double tap on the course tab which is one of the first things voice over reads when you are in the app.

It should give me the chance to refresh my memory about my Japanese lessons. I also wish to continue learning Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Esperanto and French. I will download the app and give it a try.

hi how do i delete a course′ also how advance does each language go?

Dulingo just introduced a new system for progressions where you can level up skills, instead of having an overall fluency score. Personally, I find this new system a bit confusing as you now have a lot more lessons open to you right away, while before there was a clearer sense of progression. More to the point though this has unsurprisingly broken accessibility again, both on the web and iOS.
in the iOS app, you're yet again unable to select a subject to practice, as VoiceOver is reading multiple subjects on a single item. I tried tapping on a few which did absolutely nothing. On the web, all the subjects are no longer links. They now just show up as "clickable" both on Windows and Mac. This means it's hard to see which lessons have been completed, and there's no way to tell which ones are locked (before, locked items were just text which you couldn't click on). Hovering your mouse over a subject will reveal a start button as well as an unlabeled button that reveals the show notes, that is if you can get your Screen Reader to click in the right spot which can be problematic especially on Windows if you have a high resolution screen.

I think I'm going to look for a new site for my language practice needs, because this new design is a disaster, both in terms of accessibility and progression.

I posted on the Duolingo troubleshooting forum a couple of days ago and got a reply today saying they have fixed the issue. Need to wait for an update on the ap store, but the skills on the web version are now links again and accessible.

Hi. I haven't looked at this app for ages but decided to start my spanish again last week. Sadly, the app appears to be unfriendly again so I haven't made any progress. I'm also thinking I might delete the course and start again but someone else asked the same question above and received no replies. I'm wondering if it's therefore possible?

Hi all, when I open the new version of the app, it saying let's start with a phrase that useful in Spanish but the continue button is not on screen. What am I doing wrong?

I am including this here because in reading all the posts I did not notice anyone addressing this oddity.

First of all what happened to me.

I like the new way of how duo lingo works. I now know many words I will never forget. You need to really do a topic until it gives practice rather than start for a choice.

It helps get the word in your head better.

Now maybe that was there before. But I don’t know.

In any case. I completed the intro lesson until it said practice. Then I went to the phrases lesson.

A conversation screen came up and totally confused me. I tried turning voice over off and touching the screen and turning it back on again. Nothing worked no matter what I did.

So when a family member woke up I asked for their sighted assistance. They did a fantastic job.
If you run into this screen here is what you need to do.

At the top left is a close button. Which does talk.

At the top right I believe is a progress indicator which also speaks. You can also flick right from the close button to get to this. This comes in handy.
The next item on the screen is the start of a conversation. This also reads.

What is not read by voice over is the arrow at the near bottom center of the screen. You need to hit this to continue.

It is not right above the home button. Its I think about half an inch up.

Turn voice over off. Then try to judge the distance and simply put your finger around there.

If you succeed when you turn voice over back on it will show some more text and a can’t speak button.

I tried the microphone way. I am not sure I am doing it right. But that part didn’t work to well for me. I was concerned if I hit the can’t speak button it would exit me out of the conversation but it does not. What it does do if you hit can’t speak now is it brings up the keyboard. And its really smooth sailing from there.

Just follow the conversation. And if you don’t know the answer it will suggest one.

This was almost enough to make me not use duo lingo when I thought I couldn’t access the conversation thing. But when I found I could I love duo lingo all the more.

I am glad I don’t have to change apps.

Another tip about the chests.

This another family member helped. And it works basically the same way you have to turn voice over off and hit the screen and then turn voice over back on after you hit the screen.

The area you need is the area above the choose a chest text. The chests are straight across the screen above that text. So position your finger there turn VO off hit one of the chests and turn VO back on again. If you did it right you will get what the chest you picked contains.

Should it be this way no. They really should fix it where we shouldn’t have to go through gymnastics like that.

However. The gymnastics method works.

I am going to try to contact the developers and explain this to them and hopefully it will be fixed.

Hi,

Thanks for the tip on duo lingo. Not that this might make accessibility any better, *Smiles* But, has anyone tried duo lingo plus, to see if it makes anything any better? They do have a free trial, maybe it is the adds getting in the way?

Like I stated, probably won't do any good, but anything is worth a try.

The settings of the app seems to have disappeared. It was previously accessible from the profile tab of the app. How can I change the settings now?

I am afraid you seem to be right, I can't find a settings option in the app anymore either. There is an unlabelled button in profile but that is to add a profile picture. I guess your only option is to use the web version to change settings until the app is made accessible again.

As there has not been a response to this since the last post and as I have been using this quite effectively now for a while. I just thought I would pass these tips along in hopes they might be helpful.

Before I start unfortunately both of these do require you to turn voice over off before you touch the screen. Annoying. And quite honestly duolingo should have simply labeled these things correctly and then it wouldn’t be an issue.

First of all. To Get to settings. The icon/image/whatever is indeed there. You need to turn voice over off when on the profile screen and then tap the top right corner of the screen. This will bring up settings. It does work. And I was finally able to edit my settings Just fine.

This trick works in other areas of the app as well. I will say however that sometimes its hit or miss and sometimes I just don’t have patience to try. For example. When I am done practicing a lesson the back button isn’t there. Again no excuse. Its there. And it is where you would expect it to be. Top left of the screen. But you have to turn voice over off touch that part of the screen and then turn voice over back on again.

This trick seems to fail on me a lot. So most of the time If I am moving on to another lesson I simply exit the app, close it out, and restart the app and move on.

Now for clubs. The exercises. First I have created my own club only to find out. Those exercises you get aren’t club specific. They are put out by duolingo. Maybe the different clubs get different exercises. But the exercises come from duolingo and not from the club leader.

However. In my experience playing with this. I will often come across. “Listen and respond to what you hear.” Again without anything to tap on to hear the audio. The audio is indeed there. You simply have to turn off voice over after tapping on listen to this and respond. (I mean after opening the post) an simply tap the center of the screen near the top of the phone and it will play the audio.

Yay!

It works!

Anyway. That having been said. I created a screen readers group under duolingo spanish. Its called screen readers I believe. I created it in hopes that it would be of help to screen reader users. However I think I am just attracting everyone else. But if you want to join a club that I hope eventually to help blind users of duolingo it is called screen reader users.

My hope that is maybe on the image exercises a sighted member of the club might be nice enough and describe that picture so we can participate too. I haven’t been active in my club lately as I have been a bit under the weather. But the club does exist. At least under the spanish course. As that is currently what I am learning.

Could duolingo be better? Yeah. Honestly I don’t understand the issue. Apparently developers have changed or they just aren’t paying attention to how changes affect voice over users. But the app is still usable. And currently its my favorite.

I hope the silly things you have to do to get at what you need in this app though helps someone.

A tip on this whole thing.

First off. Yes companies like duo lingo when they know they have blind users using their app should make an effort to keep things accessible. And maybe we should cry out to them insisting they fix these minor accessibility issues. Politely but firmly.).

However. When dealing with any app that has been accessible for a while and all of a sudden is not. And you need the app now. Not till they decide to fix the accessibility issues. Try asking a friend or family member who is sighted where the item is on the screen that your trying to get too. Have them take your finger and put your finger on the screen. In most cases this will mean you can simply turn voice over off. Touch the screen in that spot and turn voice over on again.

Should we have to go through this ? No we should not. The accessibility issues duo lingo has right now seem to be a simple non labeling of appropriate text labels or that is how it seems to me. But it is how it is currently.

In my opinion duo lingo has had plenty of time to fix these issues. Maybe there was more of a demand from the blindness community in general that we want to use this app but they keep breaking accessibility on us. Maybe they will be a little bit more watchful and prevent these minor accessibility issues from popping up.

I can use the app. But I am rather an advanced IOS user. What if there is someone out there who recommends duolingo to a person just new to IOS. And they put it on their phone and say what in the world?! I thought this app was supposed to work?! What is going on here. And they give up on using it.

well. That is what this post will hopefully help with. But also duo should have fixed these issues by now. Maybe they are under the impression that not enough blind people use the app. I don’t know. But the app seems to be getting worse and worse with each new release. So what I gave you today may not work the next release. Maybe a bunch of us need to contact them.

I was on a yearly subscription but decided to cancel because I got tired of it. To me, this app is not worth it. One month is accessible than six months is not. Unless things change with this app, I will never get it back. Honestly, I just think that the developers of this application do not take accessibilities seriously. It is quite absurd to have to turn off voiceover to touch the screen and then turn it back on. That is not very convenient or adequate. It is a good work around but it should not be the ideal way to access settings or other menus. Seriously, in my opinion, this app is not worth it.

Hi all,
One of the problems with Duolingo is that some courses are accessible, meaning the buttons are labelled correctly, and you can select the correct word and sort sentences, and in others the buttons are all unlabelled. I tried the app again a month or so ago, and I found that the German and French courses worked great, and I was able to use it. However when I tried Polish and Dutch, all the buttons were unlabelled, so I couldn't even do the first question, making those courses completely unuseable. And before someone says I should contact the developer, I won't be using Duolingo again, because I hate their method for learning a language. I'm learning Italian for work, and various other languages as an interest, and I'm using Duolingo for none of them. I thought I would give my findings here, since the problem is inconsistent throughout the courses. Some are accessible and some aren't.
Regards,
Tara.

Leading on From Tara's comment above, I went back to Duo Lingo just yesterday as its app became very inaccessible for a while. I can confirm that the spanish course is also accessible with one issue. When I'm recording the phrases, it hangs my iPhone 8 and I have to do some fancy footwork to get it working again. Other than that, it's the nicest it's been in a long time.

Seeing that this app posting hasn't been updated since 2017, I'm proud to say, as of the latest version, there are no longer any accessibility problems. Everything works amazing. Been using this for about a week to learn Spanish, love it! I hope it stays this way!
I especially love how the keyboard switches to the desired language when you have to type in the language your working on, and also love how Voiceover switches to the language voice as well!

Just downloaded this App using the latest version of IOS on an iphone 8. When VO reads the Spanish, it's mainly garbled and it can't be understood what Spanish word is being read unless you move character by character. I'm wondering if there is something I'm doing wrong or a setting I need to adjust. It seems as though it should read the Spanish words at least close to what they sound like, otherwise I don't know how this is useful but there must be something I'm doing wrong.

So after some time, I thought I would re-download the app and try it again. At first glance, it seemed to have improved.

The only downside is, each time I close the app and reopen it, I lose everything I had previously worked on.

I thought perhaps if I created an account, it might then keep my progress, but I can't seem to find any place that allows me to create an account with just an email. The only way it seems I can create one is by using either Facebook or Google, and I refuse to use this method to sign in.

I hear people say that you can click on the Profile button, where you can log in or view the settings, but even that doesn't seem to be visible with VoiceOver.

For now, I'm sad to say that the app will most likely be removed until they can correct this or add the option to sign in with Apple.

I've been using Duolingo to learn Spanish for several weeks now, and it's been working great for me.
The only area where I've had issues is the stories section. I can read the text, and answer the questions, but there is no easy way to tap on a word to see what it means.

Hi,

I've been using the app for a week now, and I was surprised to find it to be quite accessible.
The only problem I have is that I am unable to close advertisements that don't close on their own.
I can see a close advertisement button, but it's dimmed, and it stays dimmed no matter how long I wait for.
I've even tried tapping it without Voiceover on, but no go.
Does anyone know of a way to close that screen somehow?

How do people here manage grammar while learning a language? The app will often require me to type out things, which is a problem as I don't know how to write them.

And so I never knew about this app. I always wanted to learn more language but never really wish sure how to continue that. The other day my niece was speaking in the car and I couldn’t understand what she was doing I was like what are you saying and she’s like oh I’m learning Spanish. And I was like how and then she told me about this app. So I downloading it hoping it was accessible and to my surprise it was! I’m doing really well so far. :-) However I do not understand sometimes voice over will read all of the items in English and it will read the French choices in English and it will read the English choices as well in English other times it will read the French choices in French and the English choices with a French accent. How do I make it so that I am reading the French and French and the English in English? Also it told me to add the French keyboard in order to have spellchecking. So I added that. But it looks like it’s a little different than my regular keyboard layout in English. Also, sometimes it will try to find the French spellings and sometimes it will try to give me English corrections. And then as well sometimes it will read what I’m typing in the box as French and sometimes as English. How do I go about this? Do I need to add a French voice to my roader? How do I make them automatically switch back-and-forth? Is it best to use a braille display when learning these languages or not? Thank you! Sarah a

I have not used the DuoLingo app in quite some time sounds like the accessibility has improved. I do use the website, and I suspect the app pulls the same content that the website does. I mention this then to say that most of the language switching issues you describe, at least judging from the way it is encoded on the website view, is a DuoLingo caused issue. I mean they do not put enough language tags in the content to indicate which text is English versus which text is another language. When this happens the screen reader such as VoiceOver has no idea it should be switching languages. So you kind of have to pick your poison, if you want to use speech which language and voice you want to tolerate.
You asked if a Braille display is helpful, and for me yes. Again I do this via website, but I'd hope the app is about the same at this point. I turn the screen reader's voice off, and read the content with Braille, and then rely on DuoLingo's voices to get the speech output of how things are pronounced as well as the listening/writing exercises. I find this works best for me.

Thank you for the advice! :-) It took me a while to figure out how to get the French to look normal on my display. But now that I’ve got it figured out I think that is actually the easiest way. I’ve always been a Braille reader and I started using audio stuff later in like around ninth grade so I grew up on Braille I took two years of French in high school and I had a Braille textbook so I basically learned French in Braille so I can see where that helps I’ve been doing it without the braille and I don’t even know how to spell stuff it’s horrible so I appreciate your advice I think the display is going to work better :-)

I decided to try this app just for the fun of it. Apparently, I had tried it years ago in 2015 and deleted it. So far, it’s doing well as a good tool for reviewing Spanish. I’m having a little trouble typing in sentences in Spanish. I don’t know how to add accent marks. My big question is, how are the new things taught? Everything I have done so far is simple review. I wonder what will happen when I get into concepts I either don’t remember, or have never dealt with before.