Getting developers to listen

By Jason, 25 March, 2011

Forum

Accessibility Advocacy

I am, as I am sure the rest of you are, tired of hearing about the latest and greatest new app for the iPad or iPhone and getting excited about it only to find out that the developer did not take the normally small effort to make it accessible, not intentionally but ignorantly. I want to reach out to this audience to see the feasibility of choosing an application once every week or month and coordinate a unified effort to contact the developer of that application with requests/complaints as to the lack of accessibility of that application. We would have greater influence with greater numbers. I would also reach out to the developer/manager of this site to possibly add this as a feature or section of this site. I think this feature would be consistent with the original purpose of this site; to bring to light accessibility issues of apps for the IOS platform. Thoughts? -Jason

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Comments

Open to suggestions

Hi all,

We have some content devoted to accessibility advocacy, but it is quite limited and is something that I have been keen to develop.

However, I have struggled to come up with any good ideas. So, I would certainly encourage people to share their thoughts and suggestions in this thread.

David

Suggestion

David, First let me say that I am very greatful that you have had the insight and the desire to provide a service-oriented web site like this. I am beginning to visit this site often and almost always before I download anything from the app store, so thank you. My thinking is that a lot of the users of this site would like to do this if it were made easier. Right now, you would have to track down the web site and then the email address of the developer in order to voice your concerns. Sometimes this is easy but many times it has just enough resistance to move into the back of your mind and then off your mental radar. I think the goal should be to move towards a sort of mail distribution list where at certain intervals (weekly, monthly, etc.) you would publish the inaccessible app of the (insert interval here). This could be an email that would include all of the details from the app directory entry AND the exact address of the developer. This way, the act of voicing your concern is simply one click and then typing your message. This would mean of course that you would have to collect email addresses for this purpose, as an account update and moving forward as part of the registration process. You could begin with this imformation in a forum post and then slowly try to move as many as possible into the email distribution list so that it becomes easier. Just a thought.....

A developer's perspective

I can respond from a developer's perspective. I learned of this website by word of mouth, and now find it invaluable for giving me an insight into the needs of a large user base.

I'd recommend that if the goal is have developers change their apps (making them more accessible) then present to them an invitation to increase their user/customer base by making the required changes, and provide them with links to online resources, and encourage them with the news that there is an online community that will positively assist with feedback (and perhaps testing?) I'd expect they'd be flattered by the attention given to their creations, and keen to assist anyone who showed this level of interest.

If on the other hand, the developer were to receive emails containing complaints about their app, then they'll start with a negative impression.

We developer's want as many people using our apps as possible, so making them accessible is a win/win. However, there's a concern that if we only get the accessibility partially right, then perhaps that's worse than not trying at all. This is why its important that this online community work collaboratively with developers.

In addition to the question of accessibility, there are many options faced by developers; such as how many languages should the app support? It's easiest just to start with your own language, and to get the app released (hopefully) to start earning some money to repay the build effort. (It costs thousands of dollars to create apps, mostly in hours of work, but also for purchased hardware and Apple license fees.) This is why it's important that the feedback get to the developers. My apps are all English only, but I assure you that if a community of French speaking iPhone owners wrote to me asking for a French version that I'd make it happen.

So to sum up, I really think that most developers would respond positively to hearing requests from a community of users.

Understanding

As an mostly blind iOS developer myself, I understand the need for VoiceOver accessibility. I believe that all developers should take the time required and make these changes. I myself know how easy this is to do in the developer tools provided by Apple, and I do not think it is to much to ask for other developers to make their apps work with VoiceOver. Even though a blind user will not need my app, I still have designed the interface to work with VoiceOver. To do this, it took a total of 2 minutes so it is not a big deal for developers to do this, they just have to know it is there, and then make sure they remember to do it.

Clarification

First of all, let me respond by saying it is not my intention to organize a hostile effort. I am a developer as well and I understand your perspective. In situations such as yours where maybe you are developing apps yourself or with a small team I can completely agree with your perspective and I have written many such emails to developers explaining exactly as you did; that a market base could be expanded, etc. What I am suggesting is more in demonstrating the number of potential users by having them direct their effort in a unified way so that a developer can see that there is truly a desire and a market for accessibility in this application beyond a single email. I am not trying to have everyone send nasty emails because that defeats the purpose. You should also understand that not everyone is as receptive as you. And once an app is written it is more difficult to make these modifications than if it were thought of in the beginning. Not to mention with software put out by larger organizations it takes more than just a single email to a developer to get anything changed because it has to go through configuration management procedures. A larger amount of emails written exactly as you have described would be more effective than only one. But in all honesty if it were always as easy as simply sending a single email then there would be no need for sites like this one or any advocacy groups for that matter. Sometimes it takes persistance, which is what I am trying to organize. I greatly appreciate yours and every other developer's effort who frequents this site and has a real desire to make their software accessible by everyone. But some developers/organizations just need a polite nudge to make them understand the market they are missing.

In agreement

Hi Jason,

I get your point regarding the need for multiple emails. I didn't mean to imply that one would do. My mistake.

You used the word 'complain' in your first post, so I was just suggesting that a positive approach might be the best way. But I see that's your intention anyway.

I think you have a great idea. I hope it happens.

Indeed

It is great that Apple's made accessibility so easy. I think for my Talking Scientific Calculator, it took me closer to 4-6 hours to get it right, but even so, that is tiny compared to the effort in creating the whole application. (I found that I needed more control over VoiceOver than was given by Interface Builder, and had to write custom Objective-C code to achieve the best results for every button, table cell, segment control, slider control and help text.)

Much of that time was experimenting and learning. I'll be far more productive when writing my next app.

Complain was the wrong word

You are correct Complain was the wrong word. I think we are all on the same page. I do agree that it is usually more effort than two minutes for more complicated software and there is a learning curve.