Hi everyone. I'm Cooper, a college student. A few years ago the father of a family friend had a stroke and lost his vision, and his daughter couldn't find a good way for him to keep up with the news.
So, I spent this summer building Hark (https://hark.news). Hark is a web app, not on the app store, and it turns the email newsletters you choose into a five-minute audio morning newscast delivered through text every morning at a time you pick.
I am sighted, so I tested my product through VoiceOver on the iPhone with screen curtain turned on. I went through my product by ear, fixing everything that I got lost on. I then did the same with TalkBack on Android. But I don't use these tools on a daily basis so I can't say for certain whether it is genuinely good for people who do.
If you're willing to try it and tell me bluntly what's broken, confusing, or just annoying, I would really appreciate it. I really want to make Hark as accessible and easy to use as possible for the blind and low vision community, so anything, even one short sentence, helps. Our text delivery currently supports US, Canada, and Australia numbers; email delivery is available if you're elsewhere.
If you are willing to help me, you can reach me at cooperhan2029@u.northwestern.edu. Thank you!
Comments
I tried the sample.
I'm not really a news person but thought I'd try the sample. The voice uses the exact same inflection on every news story. It doesn't sound human, it sounds like you took a news reader from your tv or radio and coppied her voice. Did you ask and or pay them?
Also it says start for free on the website but doesn't exactly tel you waht that means, if a person starts for free, how much are they paying for the subscriptions and why would they pay for it?
The apple news app exists, has your family friend tried that? The problem with making things like this is, what makes your app/website different? the person wil still have to navigate it.
Does your family friend use the service themselves? Has your family friend looked into lighthouse and NFB if they're in America, for VoiceOver tips or getting started lessons?
Response
Hi Brad! Thank you so much for trying out Hark it really means a lot. Every response is so valuable to me right now and I really appreciate you taking the time to write this.
To answer your questions, we do actually pay for a voice service. The voices on Hark are licensed synthetic voices from Fish Audio, one of the best TTS platforms. No individual person's voice was taken or cloned without consent.
As for why it says start for free, we offer a 7 day free trial where you can sign up and only have to put your payment details once your trial is up. So basically, you can use Hark for 7 days without having to worry about paying or canceling your subscription. As for why people would pay for it, Hark is especially good for news personalized to your profession or interests, and can also help many busy people who may not have time to read many individual newsletters stay up to date in 5 minutes. Our service currently costs around 8 dollars a month.
I think one thing that differentiates us from apple news app is that apple news app is a feed of publisher content, whereas Hark is is built from the newsletters you choose. I have also built Hark so that it is extremely easy to navigate: you receive a text message every morning and one tap plays your audio briefing. Newsletters also include more specific and in depth content that apple does not have access to. However, if somebody wants a more general news browsing experience, apple news might be what you are looking for.
Unfortunately our family friend's father passed recently, she only mentioned the idea to me once I spoke to her about Hark. Both my family friend and I just think that helping many others within the blind and low vision community would be extremely meaningful. I have looked into lighthouse and NFB, and they seem like amazing services. I think where we are slightly differentiated is that we are more focused on newsletters rather than newspapers. And again, Hark is designed to save you time without having to go through the whole navigation process, pick a paper, pick a selection, and pick an article.
Again, thank you so much for your thoughts and I hope this helps!
No problem.
Ah, I see.
If I could choose and sample different voices that would be nice.
The reason I've not signed up yet is because at the moment it focuses on the US. also i can't do a search for belly or weight loss UK. The idea is interesting but it'd be interesting to read the stats, how many use this service already.
Also from what I understand you can't skip around news,like for example if I wanted to jump through the headlines I don't think you can at the moment but then again I've not signed up so don't know.
Thank you
Hey Brad thank you for your willingness to engage with me on this. For countries outside of the US, Canada, and Australia, we email you your link instead of text every morning. We launched a couple weeks ago, and currently have around 60 users.
We do actually make it possible to you to both skip/go back to previous headlines and include an option to click into the actual newsletter. If you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them!
Thanks for answering, siriously.
This isn't for me but I appreciate the answers, good luck!
Update on Hark
Hi everyone, an update since I first posted.
Over the past few weeks, Hark has been through several rounds of testing with blind and low vision users, including professional screen reader testers on NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. Their findings have shipped as fixes, usually within days. A few highlights of where things stand now:
Every part of the experience, from signup to picking newsletters to the daily player, has been tested and refined by ear on VoiceOver and TalkBack, and verified on NVDA by daily users.
The player is built for screen reader navigation: every story is a heading, so you can jump story to story with the rotor and play exactly what you want. One professional tester called the heading navigation a meaningful accessibility advantage.
Nothing to manage: the briefing arrives as a text message each morning at the time you pick, one tap plays it, and Hark never touches your email. Your newsletters go to a private Hark address, so there is no inbox cleanup and no account connection.
If you subscribe to newsletters and never get through them, or you just want the day's news as one clean five minute listen over coffee, this was built for exactly that. You can hear a real briefing right now with no signup at hark.news/briefings. There's a free trial with no card required, so you can try it out before payment.
If you have any thoughts, you can reach me at cooperhan2029@u.northwestern.edu.