SiriusXM accessibility

By Mike Stearn, 27 December, 2011

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
hello! I am a heavy sirius/xm user and since the end of September, when Sirius xm changed the site so older versions of the app (1.33) stopped working, I have had little success in accessing sirius xm. All versions from 1.4 on, are not accessible. I've written and complained to sirius xm several times and have never received a response. MusicDock does get most channels, but streams poorly, often rebuffering and reconnecting especially when I'm using 3g. Does anyone have any solutions that perhaps I'm not aware of? Thanks!

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Comments

By Tiffany J. Kim on Thursday, December 22, 2011 - 12:53

I'm currently using the app for the IPhone. The only way I've managed to make it work (after opening it), disable voiceover with Tripple Home (assuming you're using this setting). The bottom of the screen will have the buttons Categories, Channels, Favorites, Shows, and Settings in a row from left to right. Tap a finger on the left edge of the screen at the bottom to hit the Categories button. (With practice, I've managed to hit this dead on about 90% of the time). Then the categories will pop up as headings (pop, rock, etc). You'll want to reactivate Voiceover with tripple Home. At this point, you can browse the channels by category. You will hear what's being played on the channel rather than the channel number (which is a bit of an annoyance at times). Perhaps another user will be able to give a better solution as I'm still new to the IPhone, but hope that will help you some since I'm a SiriusXM fan too and would hate to see you go without your favorite stations!

Thanks very much. I thought of turning voiceover off but didn't trust that I'd land on the right button. I believe the favorites button would probably be located just above the home key. I usually would put everything I listen too in to favorites and use favorites to go from channel to channel. Let's hope and fight to make this app more accessible. Mike

By Rod on Sunday, January 22, 2012 - 12:53

Hi, I found an easier way to use the app. I went to settings, application preferences, drop tray on tune, and turned off the switch button. Then, when you double tap a song to hear, the list of channels and songs are still there to browse. This is still not ideal but works better for me. I don’t have to keep turning VoiceOver off and on to get the list of different channels. I have even memorized the list of channels in my favorites so I know the channel and not just the name of the song. I hope this helps someone. Rod

I've found that the tactile overlay that I purchased from AT Guys helps with this app, as the five dots on the bottom correspond to where the five inaccessible buttons are. Once I bring up my "favorites" screen I can work the app from there without having to switch off VoiceOver again, though it's best to change channels using the "action" button next to what's playing and then tap "listen now." That way the favorites screen stays up.

By Michael on Sunday, April 22, 2012 - 12:53

I would like to e-mail xm about this, but all I can find is the generic feedback form on the main page. Do you have an actual e-mail address. I'd love to create an on-line petition about the accessibility issues of the xm on-line ap, but with no contact info as to where to send the signatures, I haven't created such a petition. It would be my sincere hope that blind users of the xm app would: 1. e-mail xm. 2. Write a review in the app store giving the app the lowest possible review score, and explaining how xm has created an application that excludes blind people from the on-line listening experience. thanks

By Carlos Alonso on Sunday, April 22, 2012 - 12:53

I emailed XM repeatedly about accessibility without ever getting anything back other than a form email that never addressed any of the accessibility issues I brought up. I ended up cancelling over the phone and citing their total disinterest in making either their web interface or app accessible, the person said he'd record my complaint, I later received an email survey which I meticulously responded to citing again the accessibility probloems, I received - no surprise - another form email indicating they would look into my report. Never heard anything else again other than frequent email promotional offers. I will not re-subscribe again unless these people show any signs of making an effort.

By Scott Davert on Sunday, April 22, 2012 - 12:53

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Regarding the MusicDock app, which is the best solution I've found so far to this issue, the only suggestion I can offer about buffering is to go in to the settings of the app and make sure the 3g streams are set to 64k. 128k streams, which by default only play on wifi, will not stream over 3g. Even 64k can be an issue if you don't have a good signal.