Hello Everyone,
As I prepare for an upcoming webinar on the iOS App VoiceOver Accessibility Teaching and Testing Plan, I am seeking your opinions on the mainstream apps that are the least accessible with VoiceOver and those that are the most accessible.
Is there an app, or part of an app, that you find best exemplifies thoughtful implementation of VoiceOver accessibility? Please describe how it is particularly accessible and explain why you believe it to be so.
Similarly, is there an app, or part of an app, that you find particularly inaccessible? Please describe how it is inaccessible, why you think so and explain what you think might be done to improve its accessibility.
I will demonstrate one each of the above accessible and inaccessible examples during the webinar, which is currently scheduled for early August.
If I use your example, I will happily mention you during the presentation.
I appreciate any and all information anyone out here is willing to provide to move this effort, and the plan itself, forward as a means of evaluating app accessibility and helping developers include blind people or improve their existing inclusion efforts.
Thank you,
Darrell
Comments
App examples
Some of the most accessible apps are those such as BARD Mobile that breaks things down into different tabs making them easy to access what you want quickly. Also gaming apps like Blindfold games, A Blind Legend and others made for the blind are good because all buttons are labeled and how to go through the menus and start the games are straight forward. Some gaming apps that aren't accessible but have no excuse not to be accessible are those such as Apples to Apples, Life, games that have been made accessible for blind players on other platforms. The problem just becomes labeling things readable and accessible with voice over. I understand that sadly making larger games such as racers, and such accessible but there should be no issues when it comes to card or board games. I think the same is true when it comes to SIM games since a lot of the Sim games are just navigating menus. I hope this helps and best of luck with your presentation!
Dice world and Twitterific
What I love about Dice World is that it's a mainstream game that is of interest to both blind and sighted folks, but the developer pays very close attention to VoiceOver users and gives us options to enable or disable visual elements that may clutter up the screen from a VoiceOver user's perspective. It also takes full advantage of he use of hints. That way a VoiceOver user is never lost as to what actions to take. Also, the developers of Twitterific have become pretty aware of accessibility concerns, and every time there's an update, they mention something having to do with VoiceOver. It's nice to know that a couple of mainstream app developers keep our concerns in mind.
A really good example of both
A really good example of both is the Netflix app as of June 5th, 2016. I would say 99% of the app is perfectly accessible, with every screen and button labeled. But once you enter the rating screen of a movie, tv show or docuentary you're lost. You cannot rate but you cannot go back either. Nothing is usable on that escreen with VoiceOver, so your only option is to close the app and reopen it.
Don't Know if This Qualifies, But...
First of all let me say that I don't own an iOS device, but I thought I'd come here and post an example of good accessibility which I used for the very first time this morning. That is, Time Machine on my mid-2013 MacBook Air. I had briefly looked at this app previously just to get a feel for it, but upon scheduling a Genius Bar appointment I thought I'd look at Time Machine some more. The confirmation email which I received indicated that I should perform a backup prior to going in tomorrow afternoon, but I was honestly not sure how I'd do it since I don't currently own an external drive. But I knew I'd be at my folks' place this weekend and figured I'd ask a sister if I could borrow her external drive for a bit. So that's exactly what I did earlier today, and I performed a backup. Thus far I'm impressed with the accessibility of Time Machine. Everything is clearly labeled, and the help section is very concise. I tried out iCloud previously, and while it is much more accessible than it was a tutor and I found it rather confusing. But perhaps I can ask about that during my appointment tomorrow. I'm also planning to buy an external drive very soon. Best of luck with your presentation!
From a mainstream gaming standpoint...
Adventure to Fate: a quest to the future is probably the most accessible RPG out there. But with Rpg's lik" dungeon Boss, the app is completely inaccessible. You can not read anything on the screen ev"n at the first startup.
A good example of a bad app
I used to highlight this flashlight application as the least accessible app. I don't know if it is still around, as the flashlight has been integrated into the operating system.
Here's a demo of the app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRW1DdD-ac0
It's been a while since I tried Flipboard, but their CEO took accessibility to heart and they made very good decisions about using accessibility labels and hints.
My Passport for Mac?
I'm not 100% positive about this yet, but it appears that the website for My Passport external drives is accessible on the Mac. I just ordered and received my external drive last week, and I've been checking out the software that was installed upon setting up the drive. The entire installation process was accessible with VO. Upon clicking Help, a webpage came up that was accessible, and the software update process was also accessible. Anyone who has used this type of external drive please correct me if I'm mistaken, because I'm still getting the hang of mine.
One app I'd love to be more accessible...
One app I'd love to be made more accessible is Snapchat. It appears to be what all the younger folks, and even some bands are using nowadays to talk to their fans. I was on Vorail the other day, and a guy on there says he's figured out how to use it but no app demo has shown up. If it's just a recording of him screwing around with Snapchat for like 15 minutes I'm not sure if I'm interested. To my knowledge,Snapchat has absolutely no VoiceOver support whatsoever.