Does anyone here use Jira on web and hate it like I do? Are there accessible alternatives for agile project management? I'd like to create user stories, create and track bugs, pull requests… the whole nine yards. Thanks in advance for your well-informed answers.
Comments
Jira and friends
I use Jira and Bitbucket all the time. I'm a developer so don't really need to use any project management tools beyond seeing what my tickets are and working with them. Using Chrome on the Mac I would say that both are reasonably accessible. They have a lot of the same issues as anything web based on the Mac in that the focus is kinda jumpy and annoying, so I often need to go round in circles to update something. It does drive me nuts if I have to do a lot in one day, but most of the time I would say they are both fine.
I think the pull request process works fairly well. I can review files easily enough, and the line by line diff is quite good. There are keyboard shortcuts to change tabs and move between files. Reviewing someone else's comments is a tad fiddly, so I use VO+F and search for "Reply". I make sure to resolve comments when I'm done with them and that way I usually know if I'm done.
There is a general problem in BitBucket seeing the name of other devs - e.g. the name of someone leaving a comment. This seems a bit better in Chrome at the moment.
Neither is perfect, but they both feel doable to me. There is also an iOS app for Jira which is a bit limited but seemed accessible from what little I've used it for.
Is there anything in particular that is irritating you?
On the Atlassian accessibility page, I seem to remember that they claim that their devs use screen readers to test. Not sure how true that is.
Steer clear of YouTrack by Jetbrains. I've only used it to report issues to them but it is a joke. They are aware of it but don't seem to care. Quite how hard it is to add some labels to buttons I don't know but it would be a good start.
I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried asana. Their accessibility page claims they are working towards WCAG 2.1 and say that it is supported with NVDA and JAWS using Chrome (I think). But no mention of VoiceOver other than to say that you can submit feedback to them about it. I did and received a generic response where they hadn't read my request at all and honestly I couldn't be bothered at that point.
Jira Irritations
Thanks for the informative response. I am using Jira in Safari and maybe that's my problem. Creating issues or using tasks in the Jira kanban board is not super VO friendly. I'll try Chrome.
Is there a BitBucket app?
I've had good experience with GitHub for managing issues, but that's my only experience with it. Wondering if I can manage an entire agile project with it.
Re: Jira and BitBucket
To be honest, I'm not sure about the agile boards. I tend to steer clear of them if I'm honest. My work is perhaps not all that organised so I can get away with creating a query to show my current sprint and then I go from there.
Don't get me wrong, it's not an irritation-free experience in Chrome and if I have a day which is heavy on Jira I will probably get quite drained by the end of it, but most things are doable.
For BitBucket, I don't believe there is an app. But the web interface is fine for my needs. I guess Pull Requests are the most complex thing I do and they seem OK. There is also Visual Studio Code integration if you prefer but I've not felt the need to go there. And there's always the git command-line tool or, in my case, PyCharm's git integration for the general git stuff.
If you've not already seen it, have a look at the Atlassian accessibility page (https://www.atlassian.com/accessibility). There's a link on there to their accessibility support portal. If you find specific issues it's worth reporting them because they at least get read. I think if you do find something that is totally unusable then they will likely get back to you.
One other thing
Firstly, I should say I have no experience of this at all, but in my previous company we used Jira and the project manager had an Excel integration which pulled in all the data and he could edit it in there. I'm too cynical to assume that it is accessible - I;'have never tried EXcel with a screen reader - but you never know.
Jira Accessibility
Jira in Chrome and Windows is quite accessible, I use it often at work and even set up my own instance, projects etc for grad school. They even have an accessibility team, so the Voice Over and or Safari seem the likely culprit.
I will say that I'm not a big fan of kanban boards, I think that layout is easier for people who can see it, but with JAWS and Chrome it was possible, to use, if a bit arduous. I prefer, though, create my own custom dashboards where I can organize issues with my own custom queries and widgets.
As for Jira alternatives, it comes down to your use case, budget and if you're working with others. Salesforce, for example, is pretty accessible from the user side, but the admin side of things is lacking, so if you will be the one building the instance, projects etc, it's going to be a more challenging road.
There is also Microsoft Project, and you can even use GitHub, for issue tracking and status.
Again, this is all going to depend on your needs, how many collaborators will be involved and what your willing to invest in terms of time and money. Hope this gives you a few things to investigate, at least.
Jira Keyboard Shortcuts
Forgot to mention, and you may already know this, but if you press question mark then you will get a list of keyboard shortcuts.