Hi, we recently soft launched Clammr, an app that some describe as an "audio twitter." It provides a customizable stream of bite-sized audio clips that are max 18 seconds (many people find it helpful for getting a power feed of headlines). We'd love to make Clammr as accessible as possible for the visually-impaired community because we think it can be of significant benefit. Our team's experience in making accessible apps is limited and we would love to engage community members for feedback on what updates we can make to ensure that Clammr works well with VoiceOver and, in general, is as accessible as possible.
We would appreciate feedback on this thread from folks who would be willing to put Clammr through its paces. You can also feel free to reach us directly with individual comments. The app is at: http://appstore.com/clammr or you can just search for Clammr in the app store.
(BTW, aside from our primary concern with app accessibility, we would welcome any feedback on additional content you would like -- we are continuously expanding our partnerships and content.)
Comments
clammr with voice over
The first thing you may want to do is make sure all buttons in the app are properly labled. I also noticed that when you are listening to content swipping left or right will take you to the next or previous story. I think you should have dedicated buttons for play, pause, previous, and next. You sould also have a stop button available. I would be glad to help test, and improve the app. You can contact me at cjackson102@cox.net
Another thing
On this web site, at the bottom of each page, is a link that says "developers". Check out the material in that area. I look forward to trying this app.
Responding
@cjackson thanks for these thoughtful comments. Just sent you an individual note clarifying whether the suggestions were more in the mode of general improvements or if they were necessary items for making the app more accessible for the visually-impaired
@sockhopsinger thanks for the heads-up. will take a look
Looking forward to additional thoughts from you guys and the rest of the community
clammr and voice over
Hello: I was testing recording a voice clip on the app. On the page where you can review your recording. The play button should be labled. Also what are those numbers 1 through 9 suppose to be used for. On the screen where you can tap the post button you have a couple of edit boxes that aren't labled. I am guessing one is for the description of your clip, and one is for additional comments. You should labled them clearly. One last thing when I went to record my clip I had my blue tooth head set on. The app routed from my head set to my phone, and after I completed the clip it didn't go back to my head set. I had to restart my phone to get it to connect to my head set again. Going into blue tooth settings didn't resolve the issue until I restarted my device. I am running an iPhone 6 using voice over with a Plantronics mark 2 m165. Thanks.
Labeling elements is really important
Others are definitely right here, labeling elements is a really important thing to do. When a VoiceOver user swipes the screen, the focus goes from one element to the next, and we hear it say things like, "button, button, button" or "edit, edit, edit", it's very confusing because there's no labels associated with each element. As far as labeling conventions go, keep it simple and clear. If you have a record button in the app, make sure the label for that button says "record" or "start recording". That's definitely a good way to make things accessible to VoiceOver users. I know this might seem a bit odd, but another thing you could do is enable VoiceOver on an iDevice you have, and listen to how the app reads with it. If there are any unlabeled buttons or elements, fix that so they'll be as clear as possible. I hope what I've said helps a bit.
clammr and voice over
Here is a content idea. Could you guys add assistive technology news as a feed
Clammr developer response #2
@cjackson thanks for flagging both of these issues. We have added them to our priorities
@Toonhead thanks for clarifying the situation you face with VoiceOver on Clammr
We're looking addressing the issues you guys have raised. It may take a little bit of time, but we'd appreciate the opportunity to come back to you when we've made some upgrades in order to test them with you. Do you guys use TestFlight? In the future, we can potentially give you guys a sneak peak at revised builds addressing your input before they get to the app store.