Spotify Accessibility

By nk1229, 13 May, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hello, I posted a while ago on the forum about Spotify alternatives... After a while, I finally broke down and paid for Spotify Premium. Now, I am here to tackle my next challenge. I am sure that many of you are aware that the spotify app and windows/mac apps are not the most accessible; or in the case of the pc/mac apps totally inaccessible. I was just writing to see if we can make this a campaign of the month. I recently contacted Spotify support on the issue of their apps' accessibility, and their response was less than satisfactory to say the least! To me, it sounds like they will not include accessibility due to the fact that it is not a commonly requested feature... In my opinion, this is a very unethical way to conduct business! That was my interperatation... I am including their response at the bottom of this post so that everyone can hopefully understand my frustration! Message from Spotify Support: Hi there, thank you for your email. I apologise for the inconvenience. Thanks for your feedback on Spotify. We're always looking to improve Spotify with bigger and better features so we do listen to all of the ideas we get. Sadly, we can't get round to adding them all but we do our best to act on the most popular requests. And since we opened up Spotify Apps to third party developers there should be lots more features coming in soon that we're sure people are going to love. I'm looking forward to hearing form you. Have a nice weekend! Kind Regards, End of message I left out the name so that I wasn't giving out someone's name

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Comments

By Scottsdale on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

I've previously been in contact with Spotify in the hope of them improving the accessibility of their desktop apps. After some considerable back and forth, I was also told that if the work were to be done, it'd need a high volume of requests and a clearly demonstrated increase in users. Despite extra prodding, I couldn't get them to commit to ballpark numbers that would move accessibility up the priority list, but I'd be surprised if an AppleVis campaign wouldn't at least make some sort of impression.

By nk1229 on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Scottsdale

That was my thought exactly... In their minds, there is power in numbers. So, if we can get as many people to request accessibility, maybe it will happen!

By Santiago on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hello, I'm also paying for Spotify premium, and sadly, I've also contacted Spotify to improve accessibility many times, with out any change to the service. I've contacted them by email, and my response was identical to yours. I also contacted them via the @SpotifyCares Twitter account, and they keep telling me to suggest it online or via email. This was regarding the web player, the Windows app, the Mac app, and the iPad app. I'd really like Spotify to become more accessible on these three platforms, but I really don't know what to do now to convince them to start working on accessibility.
Hello I think a campaign would be very urgent I just submitted the form here on applevis to request it Well, I talked to spotify italy -through their facebook page- telling them that I did not want to pay for having SOME of the features, and not all. And only on the iPhone, as accessibility is not considered at all. i do not want to be discriminated such way, to be forced to use the highest subscription service, just to listen to some music. And you know what the answer was? They said "we are sorry for your situation" and activated a free 3 months premium subscription to me Maybe they do not understand I want accessibility, and not pity they just gave me those 3 months subscription and then did not answer to me any longer I am taking steps now, I am trying to make this situation be known to newspapers this is a very serious situation. It is somehow comprehensible to reason in numbers, but you cannot reason with numbers when you are forcing people to pay for having half your service! If it was just a free service, OK. no worry, numbers are influent. it's understandable you do not work hard for few people but when, like in this situation, those "few people" are forced to pay, they should think about it and, without talking about the difficulties on the site to deactivate subscription! i had to go to google and write "how to deactivate subscription spotify" and i found how to do it and now i hope that it's cancelled! I have still one month premium but hope to find some accessible alternatives

By fastfinge on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hi: Some problems that I can see with a campaign: 1. Spotify is not available in many, many, many countries. I'm in Canada, and even in this large first world country, we don't get Spotify. So I don't know how many people on applevis could actually support this. Even if everyone did fill out the form, why should Spotify care? Most of us are not in countries they provide service to. Also, why would they care about the small number of blind users, when they already don't care about every user in large countries like Canada, China, India, etc? 2. Many good alternatives are available. Rdio, for example, is really good! The desktop apps are mostly accessible on mac, the website is nearly completely accessible, and the iPhone app is totally accessible if you are willing to work around some small issues. Most of the issues are that voiceover doesn't always put the focus on the right spot and you have to tap around the screen sometimes, and some buttons have slightly odd labels. It's also available in, I believe, twice as many countries as Spotify. There is also deezer, that is available in a vast number of countries. When I subscribed to deezer last year, it was totally accessible. I don't know if that has changed. I cancelled my Deezer subscription because rdio has a much larger selection of music.

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

They will be probably working on the accessibility issue.

By Dave Nason on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by fastfinge

The first thing I'd do if I were you guys is cancel my subscription and tell them why. Your money is worth the same as anyone else's. Don't keep paying them for half a service, they don't deserve your custom. As a private company they're entitled to ignore us, but I think a campaign of the month is a great idea so that we can strongly advocate and let them know that we're not really asking that much of them, and that it's worth doing. I've been thinking of signing up to one of these services, but for now, it won't be Spotify. Will be interesting to see if Apple do come up with something. PS - Thanks for the heads-up on Rdio, I might take a look.

By Tangela on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hi, I'm completely blind and use spotify all the time both on the mac and IPhone. The IPhone app, from what I can tell, is completely accessible. You can use the radio, search for artists, tracks, or songs, add songs to playlists, share songs, and more. I'd absolutely be willling to support future accessibility improvements, but I'll admit to being somewhat puzzled what other features people are wanting from the app. On the matter of the mac app, yes, their are accessibility problems within the app itself, but the website seems accessible enough. Just search for your artist or song, click on it, and click the play button and the spotify app does the rest. Its sometimes a more arduous workaround, but its not a deal-breaker for me.

By Elena Brescacin on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Scottsdale

hi! thanks for info - i'll try rdio out, it's here in italy too. the troubles are the issues with iPhone app deezer is here too, it's translated also in italian, that rdio isn't - but as you can understand this is not the problem as i write and read applevis and other foreign web services! :) deezer, i do not know how to make it work i think it can make you listen to albums and single songs i do not think it makes you listen to a personalized radio i find this app a bit complicated to use. don't you? Well, about the campaign, I'd not really care. Everyone from every country should submit it, as they look at numbers every campaign submitter should cancel subscription till the apps for iOS and mac and windows are 100% supported our money is like sighted's money and, other thing, we should also encourage our sighted friends, who are considerate towards our problems, to cancel their subscription too

By nk1229 on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

I avidly researched all of the music streaming services and trialed all of them... I didn't like Rdio's iphone app because it was rather sloppy and confusing! I remember the home screen being pronounced something like spining carousel or something of that nature... So, again... the pattern of music streaming services being inaccessible! Deezer isn't available in the US as of my last check... The only reason i am with Spotify is the fact that they have the largest collection of music out of all of the services. Canceling all of our subscriptions would not be much help due to the fact that the blind subscriber base is very small. They wouldn't feel any hurt from us canceling!

By Cliff on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Man, I so support the idea of making spotify accessibility the campaign of the month, or even the year!! I've also contacted them, with no better result than you guys, and I think its really sad that they pay so little attention to us people who may need just a few simple changes to have the app to go from completely useless to at least being usable... I do agree that the iPhone app works pretty good and is mostly accessible, but my Mac is the one device I would really like to use spotify on a lot, because of the sound system it is hooked up to most of the time in my studio. The Mac app was somehow possible to use earlier with using cmd L to jump to the search field and after your search, use the Tab key to get to the list of tracks. But after the last update, it seems like even that isn't working anymore, so now they've killed the last existing part of accessibility that was left. There is as you so truelly mentioned other accessible options out there, but for me who live in Norway, none of the mentioned options are very good on norwegian or scandinavian music, and that is a thing that spotify is really superior on! And the part about ending our subscription to show them a lesson... Well, I can kind of see your point... But really? Shall we really just give up on every arrogant developer that doesn't listen to our humble complains? Is that truelly the best way of making a more accessible world? I say we hit them with all we've got, and tell them in capital letters that something needs to be done! Now!! ;)
The Mac app is still not accessible, however, the issue with searching a song and pressing enter to access the list has been fixed. We can once again play music on spotify for Mac, we still can't really see what song we're about to play though. I know we can use the web player, but I don't want everyone to know what music I'm playing 24/7, because, it'll just end up spamming my Facebook friends. I can't seem to activate Private Session on the web player, that's the main reason I contacted them again. Still, I got the same response.

By David Goodwin on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

We're considering featuring Spotify's Mac application as our next campaign, so it would be really helpful if any of you who use this would confirm the full extent of its accessibility problems. Is it totally unusable as some have suggested? Or, if some functionality is accessible, what exactly does and does not work with VoiceOver? Many thanks, David
Hi David! That's absolutely news that suits my ears! :) Well, it looks like I'm gonna have to reconsider my earlier statement that absolutely nothing works in the mac app now... The issue where you no longer could navigate to the list of search resultats seems to have been resolved in the last update. However, it's not an exactly obvious way of getting from the search-field to the resultats. Took me a while to figure it out, cause there's absolutely no clues to get through VO. VO actually says nothing. So what you can do is to press Cmd+L to get to the search field, type your keyword or words, hit enter and then hit the tab key twice, not once as I did for 10 minutes to try to go to the list. If you only press tab once, you'll end up in the menu that contains What's new, Radio, playlists and such things, so one press of the down arrow, will cause you to change to another screen than your search resultats without even knowing it. But that's posibly the only thing that could be done in the app at the moment. Search for a song or an artist or both, and then browse the list of resultats and hope you find the one you want by hitting enter on everyone of them. Here is a few things that you can't do, at least I couldn't... Correct me, pleace, if I'm wrong in any of this: You can't - rewind or fast forward in a song. - get any information about the song you're playing or anything from the search resultats at all.. - search by albums, tracks or artist. - go to current album or artist from the list of resultats. - make playlists. - know what playlist you're currently on, in the case you got lucky and where able to succeed in making a playlist. - playing radiostations. - as far as I can remember, logging in. I'm home alone, so I don't wanna risk logging out now to see if it still sucks! But last I tried, it was impossible for me to logg in without sighted assistance. There's possibly a lot more that I forgot right now, and maybe someone have managed to do something of the things mentioned above that I couldn't do. In that case, speak up! ;) What can't be argued about, is that VO could just as well be turned off while using the little functionality that can be used in spotify without sight. VO absolutely gives no clues at all, so you'll have to rely on getting your way around the screen without it. It would be soooo awesome, if this app some time in the future could be made just a tiny bit more accessible, and if it some time reach the point of 50 % accessible, well.... I don't believe it will ever happen, so I can't even come up with something funny that I would do then..... ;) All the best!

By nk1229 on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by nk1229

I mainly want the iOS apps to be accessible due to the fact that these are the apps that me and many other blind Spotify users pay $10 per month to use! The mac app can be used by anyone that is a free or paid user... I would love the iPhone app to be featured on the campaign as well... If possible, I would like the campaign to focus on all of spotify's apps from iOS to mac to PC. Personally, making the campaign for just the mac app would be useless to me as I do not use Mac OS X at all... I am mainly an iOS and windows user. I have a MacBook Pro with Win 7 and that is my primary machine, but in my opinion mac isn't accessible enough to get serious work done... But, that is a discussion for another post... sorry...

By Dave Nason on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by nk1229

Yeah I agree. I rarely listen to music on my computer, iOS would have to be a big part of any campaign from my point of view.

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Dave Nason

Hello all, As David has mentioned. We are seeking exactly in what one can expect from using Spotify on the variety of platforms he has mentioned. So far it appears to be very clear in what one can expect from using the Spotify on the Mac. So that is greatly appreciated. Are there any paid subscribers using the IOS apps itself? On the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad in general. We are currently seeking in what can and can't be done with the IOS Spotify app. I believe the FREE version is rather accessible but some time ago I remember that using the Paid side of the app is where it was not so accessible. Has this changed? If so, is it completely accessible as one person has mentioned on here? Any help would be great. Also, just to keep in mind. Just because if a Campaign of the Month is not something you use. It is always curtail for all of us to participate. The more that joins in with our Campaign. The better the chance it will benefit for those that do use it. I understand Spotify I isn't in all countries but they won't know that from your e-mail address. So we ask that you reconsider in do trying to help us out for the cause. Who knows maybe one of the Campaigns in the future might be something that is dear to you and I'm sure you would be greatly appreciated if others help for your cause. Thanks.

By nk1229 on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by AnonyMouse

I use the iPhone app on a daily basis and can speak for it's accessibility... The app is usable, but has many oddly labeled buttons and some screens are completely inaccessible. Let's start off with playing a song, when you search for a song and pick it to play, it places a bar along the bottom of the screen with the artist and song title that are currently playing. Along with this information, in the far bottom right corner of the screen, is a play/pause button (not sure what it actually is, but it starts and stops the music) it is labeled as pause default npb. When you double tap on the now playing artist and song title, it brings up the now playing screen that visually shows the album artwork and provides playback controls. The first element that VO finds in this screen is a button labeled "np infoglyph" this button reveals additional options such as adding the track to a playlist or sharing it. This button is similar to an action button in the standard iOS controls. When you activate this button, there is no indication that you actually did, you just have to flick through the screen to find the additional buttons. The previous track, pause and next track buttons are pronounced "np prev" "np pause", and "np next"... I cannot attest to the exact spellings of the previous pause and next buttons because I made custom labels to make them easier to understand. Then, in the now playing screen there is an unlabeled dimmed button that I have absolutely no clue what it does. Once you close out the now playing screen, you return to the rest of the app. To access the main menu, you have to select the open sidebar menu button like in the facebook app. This provides a sidebar with choices such as search, playlists, radio, and friends. Even when the sidebar is not opened, sometimes VO reads these menu choices while trying to read search results and things of that nature. The other main issue is the "What's new" option in the main menu brings you to an inaccessible screen. This screen is supposed to highlight the popular tracks and the most recent arrivals. VO reads the headings top tracks and new releases. That is about the extent of speech feedback on that screen!

By Santiago on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by nk1229

Hello, I've used the iOS app on iPhone and iPad. Its usable on both devices, however, they each have their own issues. On the iPhone app, there are unlabeled buttons, and the issues that were described on the previous comment. On the iPad app, we have the same issue, plus another issue which is not on the iPhone app. Downloading a playlist for offline listening on the iPad app is not possible with VoiceOver. When double tapping on the download button, it comes up with a pop up screen, and it just says, 0 of 0 tracks downloaded. This works on the iPhone, but on the iPad, it refuses to download the playlist when using it with VoiceOver. I can say that the Windows app is as accessible as the Mac app when using it with NVDA and standard navigation keys.

By Mauri on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Scottsdale

Hi guys, Have read all your interesting contributions regarding the inAccessibility of Spotify. Am preparing a story for the BBC radio programme In Touch, which some of you might know. Unfortunately am on quite a tight deadline, and I would need your help. I think such a piece would also be useful if Applevis decides to run Spotify accessibility as the campaign of the month. I'm trying to find out: 1) What can a blind person do and what they can't do with the different types of Spotify accounts using the apps on both PC, Mac, Iphones and Androids, and also with the web player. 2) What are accessible alternatives to Spotify with their pros and cons (for audience reason, I'm more interested in those alternatives which can be used from within the UK). 3) Are there any third-party apps that could make our life easier in this respect, i.e. that interact with Spotify and make it more accessible? I've already contacted the Spotify press office for reactions and comments, let's see what they tell a journalist and if it's different to what they've so far said to users. If anybody wants to share their thoughts with me, please write to mauriziomolinari79@gmail.com or tweet maurimol79. We can also agree for a Skype or phone chat if some of you prefer, just make contact and we'll discuss how to best go about it. I already have some information on the above questions, but for instance I'm lacking infos on the PC and Android bit quite a lot and am completely unaware of what the answer to my point 3 is, even if I suspect it's a no. many many thanks in advance. Mauri

By Tangela on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hi, I have been thinking of doing a podcast for the IOS version of spotify. Would this be helpful for anyone?

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Tangela

Yes, I would be interested in hearing a podcast on this. Especially, if you are a paid subscriber. I like to hear what one could get out of the app and any work around that you have found to make it usable. I could see this useful also of the labels that you have relabel to make this more usable. Just my thoughts.

By Meaghan on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

I love the Spotify App on my phone. I agree with some of the other comments. Another thing I want to add is I can't tell who I'm following and who is following me. Also, in the inbox area of the app, I see a "Follow Button," but when I click it, nothing happens. It's really interesting. However, playing and searching songs/albums, creating playlists and listening and creating radio stations works fine for me. I haven't had to relable any buttons myself, but that's just me. As far as the mac app goes, I can't do anything with it myself.

By Mauri on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hey guys, thanks a million to all those who replied to my previous message and got in touch via mail. It's very very helpful. Now I know there are tens of alternatives to Spotify, even if none of them offers such a huge database of music I believe. I'd like to have from you any feedback about using them. I'm particularly itnerested in Deezer and Rdio, but also others can be useful. it would be great if you could mail me a short message with the alternatives you've used, what was better than Spotify and what worse, degree of accessibility etc. My mail once again mauriziomolinari79@gmail.com and my twitter account maurimol79. By the way, I got a reply from the pres office of Spotify in the UK, I sent them the questions I want to ask and am waiting to see whether they are available for an interview or a statement.

By Mauri on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Scottsdale

Sorry for pestering you guys again. I was wondering if there's anybody who's used Spotify with Symbian phones or with Windows on mobile devices and where we are in terms of accessibility. I know it's slightly off topic on a Mac/Ios forum hope you don't mind.
Hey Mauri, I doubt you'll find a screen reader user to comment on the accessibility of Spotify in Windows Phone. As I understand it, there isn't a screen reader for current iterations of that OS. Just thought it might save you some research time...

By Sarah on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hi, I use the paid app on my iPhone all the time. I love it! The only thing that seems inaccessible to me is the what's new part of the app. Which is not a huge deal breaker. I don't really like the idea of boycotting the service because it is amazing! They have more music than any app I've ever seen. And I listen to it so much pretty much all the time. There's so much music I play on there that I would never be able to afford to buy. What is the webplayer And how do I access it on mac? I used to be able to search a little. When I first got my mac. Now, it seems like the app keeps getting more and accessible. I finally had to delete it off my computer. I have used it on Windows, and it was very inaccessible. I could actually use it only when using Jaws and doing a lot at keyboard mouse clicking. However, I do not have a Windows platform available that I can use Spotify on now. I have access the windows but not for that purpose. I wouldn't necessarily use the computer at the lot but there are times when I want to play music from Spotify on my computer. Because when I use the phone it wears my phone battery down and I played it so much that sometimes I have to charge my phone. I have never wrote them about their inaccessibility. I did like a radio service called spot on one time and they seem very unresponsive. The same way, that didn't have enough users and it will cost a lot of money. It was a service that played radio from spotify kinda like what what Spotify have now integrated. I hae wrote them on twitter when I've had other issues and have only once or twice gotten a response.

By Santiago on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

I tried using the web player again on my Mac, and I can play songs, if I focus them with the mouse and VoiceOver and then click on them. I still can't turn Private Session on, even though I clicked on the on button. Either I can't turn it on, or it turns on, but I have no confirmation that its actually on.
Hi, i have a news for spotify users there is an italian blind journalist, called maurizio molinari, who is going to write a piece for the BBC "in touch" service, regarding spotify inaccessibility He would like to collect our experiences, hoping this will wake the interest on accessibility up! his contacts are: twitter: @maurimol79 e-mail: mauriziomolinari79 at gmail dot com It is important, we have a way to be visible now so we can talk to him also about the matter of campaigns of the months, and so thanks for now
Hi. I saw on Twitter today that the BBC In Touch Spotify story will air today at 9.40pm Brussels time, which I believe is 8:40pm in the UK, 3:40pm on the US east coast. It's on BBC Radio 4 from the UK and should be available on internet radio apps.

By Mauri on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Scottsdale

Thanks Dave for your post and for the comment in this thread. Indeed, tonight's In Touch will feature my item on the issues Spotify has with accessibility, and it's all thanks to you guys and to your very useful information. Will post the link on Twitter and on this forum when the podcast is available, but I suggest you to bombard spotify simply inviting them to listen to In Touch and maybe sending them the link to the podcast. Here are the spotify Twitter accounts that I suggest to target: @SpotifyUSA, @SpotifyCares, @spotify, @SpotifyUK, @SpotifyPlatform. If you could includo also my account @maurimol79, it would be great, so I keep track of what's happening. The message should be really short, to fit in all these Twitter accounts... This is just an idea.

By oberholzerr on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

In reply to by Elena Brescacin

I love that we are taking steps to make them be more accessible. It is important that if we as people who are blind are asked to pay for something that we then receive the full benefits or service as well and this includes full accessibility and not some "Oh, we are sorry for your situation..." comment. It would be awesome to alert some newspapers or the media to let the know the response from Spotify. That should bring the priority level up for Spotify's accessibility on all platforms!

By Brandon on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 14:17

Hello, I am a new IPhone user, but I have been using Spotify for a couple months now. On windows you need the Jaws scripts for Spotify, and atm they are going through an overhaul, so at the moment on windows the app is about 30% accessible. Spotify scripts for windows: http://www.spotifyblind.com/ To get more information on the accessibility of Spotify in technical terms, contact John Marten, the developer of the above scripts. On IOS the app is accessible enough for me to use it without complaint. Just the odd button labels and amount of tapping around are my problem. On Android the app needs some help... The buttons are not labeled for account info, play/pause, shuffle, album art and anything that is really not a play list, album name or anything from the top menu. The control and details screen are not accessible at all. I emailed Spotify a little while back and got the same message as above. One thing the Android and ios app could do with is a swipe to move forward and back by track in a play list. I was not able to really figure out the IOS search options, but the search option in Android is much better than anything anywhere close to windows. The results are in a line, starting on the right are all the albums, starting with the albums just that artist has been on. As you arrow left you find albums that artist was a guest on and after you finish with the albums, tracks from those albums show up in the same order. I use the online play list to do everything as well, but would really like the Spotify scripts for windows to have major support for play lists. I have play lists with thousands of tracks and those are much too big for any tablet, so I have to break them down on my PC for my tablet. I am a premium subscriber. Thank you,
Hello, I am writing to ask that you provide blind and low vision users with fair and equal access to the Spotify music streaming service. I currently have used Spotify on Android, IOS and Windows. The only app that comes close to total accessibility is the IOS app. The other platforms could do with some major improvement. I truly appreciate the improvements that you have made to VoiceOver support in your iOS app. However, there are still a number of unlabeled or oddly labeled buttons and the "What's New" section of the app is particularly inaccessible. These issues with the iOS app should not in fact be too difficult to address, so I hope that you will consider prioritizing them. The Android app is full of unlabeled buttons and just for practical purposes; there is way too much swiping around to move through settings, options and other track interactions. If the buttons, like the play/pause button, could be named and the track interaction settings could be placed in an easy to get to location, that would increase accessibility 10 fold. The Windows Application is the most inaccessible out of the three platforms I have tested. This is very sad because it is probably the most important. There are currently scripts to work with the most popular screen reader Jaws for Windows at: http://www.spotifyblind.com/ However, with the amount of updates you have been doing to Spotify, these scripts have been constantly breaking. I would highly suggest contacting John Marten at: support@spotifyblind.com And work with him to create a totally accessible spotify application. Although I have not personally tested it, I have been told your Mac application remains completely inaccessible and your web player has a number of significant issues when used with a screen-reader. This means that your iOS app is currently the only available option that comes close to providing me with an accessible means of using your service. Personally, I am more than happy to pay for a premium subscription and currently do, but I don't see why I should then be denied the full premium service. It is also an issue that sighted users have four different subscription options, but the vision-impaired only have the one (and as I said, they then don't even receive the full service). I would ask, therefore, that you endeavor to make your service fully accessible on all supported platforms to those of us who rely on screen readers, and that you do so as a matter of some urgency. Not only would this be a good commercial decision, but it would also simply be the 'right' thing for Spotify to do. I would appreciate having full and equal access to the Spotify service, and am willing to provide further feedback as needed. I thank you for your time and consideration in this matter and hope to hear that you are working on this problem soon! With warm regards, Brandon
I'm using Spotify on the Mac exactly as you describe. Yes it's kind of frustrating that I need to open the web in order to search, but once I have something playing, it's a real joy to move through tracks on the app. The app also contains keyboard shortcuts for previous/next track, stop, play, volume, find and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. There's definitely lots of work to be done, but I wouldn't say that the Mac app's a non-starter in any way.
Thanks for the info Steve. Out of interest, is there somewhere you can get a list of the keyboard shortcuts or something?? I think my comment early in this thread comes across a bit too strong. I wasn't intending to promote a boycott or anything, I was just pointing out that your custom is as valuable to Spotify as anyone elses, and like anyone else you can withdraw that custom if you're unhappy. I just want us to advocate strongly and positively. I don't want anything for free, I just want to get what I pay for. I am actually considering a Spotify subscription now,, partly because I'd mostly be using whichever of these services I go for on my iOS devices. I'm currently trialing Deezer first though. My first impressions of Deezer is that the iPhone app is mostly accessible, with just a few issues. So similar to Spotify on the iPhone front. The iPad version is similar but with a few more issues. The Spotify app is nicer and more elegant though in my opinion. On the PC and Mac it's a web player that you use. My early impression is that this is somewhat useable but not great. So overall I'm not convinced that Deezer would be a better option than Spotify really, though I still have 10 days left on my trial. If anyone's interested though, you do get a free 15 day trial with Deezer which is good.
Hi, just wanted to say, even though you probably won't get any better response than anyone else has, very well done with this email. This is how we need to come across when dealing with these companies, firm but polite and professional. I've recently decided to try out Spotify for the 30 day free trial and I'll decide after that if I want to keep it. So far I can do some basic searches on my iPad and play the results, I can add tracks to my starred playlist, and I can play a playlist from facebook. I haven't tried to actually download anything to my iPad yet. This last is, from what I've seen is one of the big things that differenciates Spotify from a lot of the rest of these services, it's one of the only ones I've seen that lets you actually download tracks and play them as local content, the rest pretty much rely on streaming. This is fine as long as you're using a phone but with an iPad if you don't have wifi you're sunk. I hope we're eventually able to make some progress with this, this is one problem when dealing with a big company like this, if they decide they just don't care about a small group of people which like it or not is what we are, our options are pretty limited. If those of us who are paying decide to stop they simply will not care. Anyhow, let's keep fighting the good fight and bother them some more the way you did with that email. Best, Tom

By Jen on Sunday, March 23, 2014 - 14:17

I've been using Spotify on my IPhone with great success. I just wondered if any of the other platforms have had accessibility updates. I use the scripts for Jaws and Windows, and it gives me decent functionality, but with the impending demise of LastFM's radio service, I'm looking for full functionality from Spotify. So has there been any more progress in making Spotify accessible on Macs? I'm about to buy a new laptop, and if it works any better on a Mac, that might sway my decision.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, March 23, 2014 - 14:17

The mac looks to be totally inaccessible, I mean the mac app. it is just plain awful to use. I hope to cancel my spotify account as I have something better, iTunes radio. lol!

By DJHey20 on Thursday, April 23, 2015 - 14:17

Hello there.
I'm a new Spotify user, and yes, I've noticed the IOS app is accessible. However, the main menu is not as intuitive and simple to use as it should be, in my opinion. For example, things like artists, albums, and playlists should be divided up into tabs. A lot of the apps I've used have their menus that way, and it makes it easy to navigate.
Also, when I go to an album by the artist I want to listen to, I notice that VoiceOver will say what tracks it includes. But when I double-tap on the song I want to hear, nothing happens. I know there's the "Shuffle play" button. But it'd be nice if you could play a particular song from an album you want to hear.

By Ramy on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:17

Hello all:
Am using SPotify on mac but need playback keys please, forward, backward,etc.
can anyone tell me about them?
thanks in advance