Campaign of the Month
Introduction
Each month we select an iOS or Mac app that currently has accessibility issues for VoiceOver users, and ask you all to contact its developers and encourage them to improve VoiceOver support.
To make it easy for you to support our campaigns, we've created a nifty little form that will do most of the work for you. The form even includes a draft message that you can either use as it is, or edit to your own liking. When you are happy with the content of your message, simply click Submit and it will be mailed directly to the developer of the app.
The more people who support our efforts, the more likely it is that developers will take notice. So, please take just a few minutes to add your voice to our campaign.
Current Campaign: Spotify
Spotify is one of the leading music streaming services currently available, offering a range of subscription options (both free and paid) on desktop and mobile platforms. The good news is that their iOS app is mostly accessible. The bad news is that Spotify's Mac app is inaccessible and their web player has a number of significant issues when used with a screen reader. As a result, using Spotify on your Mac Desktop or laptop are not viable options for those of us who rely on VoiceOver. If you want to use Spotify, it's essentially on your iOS device or nothing ... and that's going to cost you a premium!
In this case, that 'premium' is a $9.99 monthly subscription to Spotify's top tier account, as this is the only account which offers full access to their music streaming service on mobile devices. However, you will still find accessibility issues with the iOS app. You also won't be able to use Spotify on your desktop - and, bear in mind, Spotify market and price this account on the basis that it gives you access to their service on all platforms.
So, in this campaign we are urging Spotify to address the outstanding accessibility issues present in their iOS app and make their Mac app and web player accessible with VoiceOver.
You can read more about the accessibility problems here.
We are asking that you support our latest campaign and urge Spotify to provide blind and low vision users with fair and equal access by ensuring that their service is accessible on all supported platforms, and that they do so as a matter of some urgency. Not only would this be a good commercial decision, but it would also simply be the 'right' thing for them to do.
Simply submit this pre-filled form to have your request mailed directly to the developer.
Past Campaigns
- April 2013: Feedly
- March 2013: Slacker Radio (version 4.0.163 released in April 2013 with improved accessibility)
- January 2013: Soccer Scores Pro - FotMob
- November 2012: Amazon Kindle (version 3.7 released in May 2013 has major accessibility improvements)
- October 2012: Groupon (version 2.3 released in December 2012 iis accessible)
- August 2012: CNN
- July 2012: Facebook (version 5.0 released with some accessibility improvements)
- June 2012: Amtrak (now accessible)
- April 2012: SiriusXM Internet Radio (most problems now fixed)
- March 2012: Dragon Go!, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search (Dragon Dictation now accessible)
- February 2012: Starbucks (now accessible)
- January 2012: Words With Friends
- December 2011: Navigon (most problems now fixed)
- November 2011: Skype (most problems now fixed)