Spotify 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

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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!

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