Accessibility of Club House

By Matthew Whitaker, 30 January, 2021

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello. Hope all is well. I am curious about this app called Club House. One of my friends sent me an invite.
How accessible is the app? How well does it work with Voiceover? IS there a way to contact the developer for feedback?

Thank you so much

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Comments

By Christopher Huby on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

After downloading the app and signing up to create an account things look very accessible indeed just waiting for my account to be up and running and then I will tell you more

That's great to know. Thank you so much. Feel free to comment more if you want to in this post.

By Nikki Brown on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

Hi Matthew. I was so glad to finally see a few posts here about Clubhouse. I have been on the app since early January this year and have really enjoyed listening in on all the conversations. If all you want to do is listen, or if you have some eyesight and don't rely completely on Voiceover, I think you will really enjoy the app and find it very accessible. If you have no eyesight and rely completely on Voiceover, it is somewhat disappointing. I have now sent in two messages requesting some specific adaptations to the app which would really make it so much more useable for those of us with no eyesight. So far, I haven't heard anything back.

The main problem is that when you are in a room, you can raise your hand to request to be brought up on stage to share or ask a question. The raise hand button is accessible with Voiceover. There is also an audible signal when the moderator invites you to come on stage. However, the pop-up that you must click on in order to accept the invitation to come on stage is 100% invisible to Voiceover. So, unless you turn Voiceover off and have sighted assistance, there is no way to accept that invitation. :( I will be playing around with hosting my own room sometime this weekend to see how accessible the moderator controls are, and I'll let you know what I find out. Other than this, there are several buttons which are not labeled, but you can figure them out by clicking on them for the most part. Other visual elements like the icons indicating who the moderators are or who is talking are also not indicated in any way with Voiceover. Those aren't really essential for use of the app though.

So, if you just want to listen, I think you will be very happy with the app. If you have some eyesight, I think you will find it usable. If you are a strict Voiceover user and really want to participate, you will probably need sighted assistance. I am hopeful that the app designers will eventually make some accessibility changes. We'll see.

If someone else here has updated information or suggestions for how to make this app more Voiceover friendly, I would absolutely love to hear from you! I'm certainly no app guru. Also, if anyone wants to connect with me on the app, I am @coachnikkib there.

Hi. Thanks so much for posting. Yes I did discover everything you mentioned in your comment. I did reach out to the support team. I rely heavily on Voiceover. Hope this app becomes more accessible. :-)

By Taka Wanami on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

When I tap ”Raise hand” I hear a small signals which means I am accepted to become a speaker.Then I need to do something by myself to move on to a speaker, but it is sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful. I think I should doubletap "Room Action" button, but sometimes this button is not active. Could anyone help me to find the way to move on to a speaker with VoiceOver?

By matheus rheine on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

hi! in order to accept the speaking invitation you must find your user, double tap and then touch the bottom of the screen with four fingers to go to the last item. instead of saying view full profile it'll say accept speaking invitation.
hth

By Blind angel 444 on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

I’ve never heard of it. What does it do?

By Ceci on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

I’m trying to sign up after receiving an invite. After filling out my phone number I’m putting in the code, I see a screen that says ready to set up your profile? And a button that says import from Twitter. I cannot click on the ready to set up your profile thing. It’s not even a button or anything. Does anyone have any suggestions?

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

sometimes you can tap text and it will just work, try that out. I will not be using this app any time soon due to just some security flaws poepeo found, plus I dont' want ot be like every blind person who gravitates tiward every audio app and causes some developers to abandon the app completely. Roger anyone?

By Taka Wanami on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

In reply to by matheus rheine

Hi matheus, thanks for your reply which is very helpful. However, I find it quite difficult to find myself if it is a big room, as more than 100 people listening. Is there any idea to find my icon easily?

By ming on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

hey!
I am luckly to get someone invited.
and I found that it doesn't have notification to tell us that who is raising hand and ask to join the conversation.

By SSWFTW on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

This seems like a great concept and I have been listening into a number of rooms. I have not however raise my hand and spoken. Maybe I should wait for the process to be a little bit more accessible. It sounds a little bit fiddly right now but doable.

By Tasha on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

I can't seem to click on the button to authorize Twitter because it is grayed out. I am totally blind so can't use the trick of turning voiceover off.

By Derrick on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

Make sure there isn’t anything that needs to be filled out. I didn’t have any problems adding Twitter or IG. I’ve been watching this thread and I’d like to clarify some things. I’ve heard a couple of people say that this app is hard to use still after VO support. This is simply not the the case. The core functions of the app are completely accessible. There are a few and I mean a few things that need to be addressed and I’m sure they will. My last thing, in order to accept a speaking invite, tap on your name from the audience. There will be an option to accept. If you can’t find your name you can do a search in the room under room actions. Hope this helps.

By Tasha on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

In reply to by Derrick

IF there is, I can't find it. I tried double tapping on my name and on the terms of service in case they needed to be highlighted, but it didn't work.

By mendi on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

I set up my username the other day, but I'm assuming none of my contacts have joined yet, because I have not received notification that my account is ready to go. I am interested to have a look at this app when I am able. It sounds quite interesting.

By Dennis Long on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

can someone send me a invite code please?

By That Blind Canuck on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

It's not really that simple, both you and the other person has to have each other's cell numbers for the invites to work. So you both have to be in each other's contacts.

Hello,

while there is no accessible pop-up when somebody raises hand to be brought on stage, there is at least a subtle sound when that happens. You will hear that sound if you are the moderator. Also in the bottom right corner is the number of raised hands at the given time.

The app updates are rolling out almost every week, with accessibility being addressed and improved with every update, so I am quite optimistic about this notification issue being solved in future updates.

Kind regards

By Matthew Whitaker on Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 13:22

Hi. I love using this app. Yes it has a few things that could be improved when using Voiceover, but other than that, it's amazing!
Also, just wanted to put here the email address to contact the team, just in case you want to use that instead of the form on the website.
support@joinclubhouse.com

Thank you so much

By Ahmed H on Thursday, March 25, 2021 - 13:22

I have been using the app for some time now and I can say that it is quite accessible. Definitely, there are still some issues with VoiceOver. However, that is normal for me like the other apps. I'm happy to walk anyone through the app and create a room and discuss accessibility of the app .. my username on Clubhouse is @ahhamdy