×

0
0

Accessibility Updates: Screen reader improvements on iOS and AndroidUpdates (self.reddit)

submitted by platinumpixieset[A]

Hi all,

We’ve made improvements to focus order and added accessible labels, roles, and states to the following areas on iOS and Android:

User Surfaces

  • Community Page
  • Create Post
  • Home and Popular Feeds
  • Navigation (community navigation menu, profile drawer, and bottom tab bar)
  • Post Detail Page (NB: Improving the experience for consuming a text post is at the top of our list)
  • Profile
  • Sign In
  • Settings
  • Search - Posts and Comments tab
  • Video Player

Mod Surfaces

  • Inline Moderation
  • Mod Mail
  • Mod Tools (General, Content & Regulation, and User Management sections)
  • Mod Queue

Why is this important?

These updates make Reddit easier to use for people with visual impairments who use screen readers. A screen reader is an assistive technology that allows visually impaired users to access and interact with digital content by converting information displayed on a screen into speech or braille. iOS and Android screen readers are Text-To-Speech engines that allow users to navigate via on-screen gestures and hear content and actions over speakers or through headphones.

How can I stay updated?

Going forward, we’ll share accessibility updates in the recurring product updates we post here in r/reddit so you can track progress.

How can I submit accessibility-related feature requests or report an issue?

Submit feedback directly here so the Reddit team can review and prioritize. Like with all products, features are constantly evolving, and your submissions help us continue to work toward screen reader compatibility.

How can I get more involved?

Apply here to join Reddit’s Accessibility feedback group.

Thank you to the redditors and moderators who continue to generously share feedback – your input has been invaluable in accelerating this work and making Reddit more accessible for everyone. We remain committed to working closely with you and the broader disability community to ensure that these efforts continue to be meaningful.

We'll be around for a bit to answer any questions you have about the updates.

P.S. Looking for previous updates on Reddit’s accessibility improvements? Pop over to this post (and r/modnews posts 1, 2, and 3) for the rundown.

all 87 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]Not_So_Bad_Andy 246 points247 points  (9 children)

It's been 4 months since you ended third party apps and you're still not close to providing the accessibility that apps like Apollo did.

[–]fighterace00 140 points141 points  (1 child)

Funny how 3rd party volunteers get 30 days to redesign while a half billion annual revenue company can't do it in 4 months and counting

[–]goferking 31 points32 points  (0 children)

while a half billion annual revenue company can't do it in 4 months and counting

yeah but how much more could they make by not doing extra work?

[–]platinumpixieset[S,A] -7 points-6 points  (2 children)

If there is a particular accessibility feature you're looking for or action you're trying to achieve in the app, please let us know here.

[–]biggreencat 11 points12 points  (0 children)

http://reddit.com/.compact was the best reddit experience bar none.

[–]monkmonk4711 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's called "bring back 3rd party apps because a single dev could do what an entire company consistently fails to do".

The best accessibility option is an app that doesn't bug out after 30 minutes of use.

[–]Watchful1 113 points114 points  (12 children)

What did the moderators of r/blind say when you showed them these updates?

[–]Generic_Mod 111 points112 points  (2 children)

Lol, the only blind people Reddit consulted was their leadership.

[–]Pepparkakan 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Lmao, ouch.

[–]MostlyBlindGamer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, u/spez got laser eye surgery. Probably not because of this, I’d assume.

[–]NTCarver0 26 points27 points  (5 children)

Reddit has been utterly uncommunicative with us ever since we refuse to join their accessibility feedback group. We have no idea if the folks working on accessibility are qualified to do so or if there is actual disabled leadership built into the process because no one in Reddit is actually talking to us at this point. In short, all of this is news to us.

[–]pudding7 9 points10 points  (3 children)

since we refuse to join their accessibility feedback group.

Why did you refuse to join?

[–]MostlyBlindGamer 15 points16 points  (2 children)

I made a post about it. We ended up independently agreeing on the same points.

[–]CloudsOfMagellan 1 point2 points  (1 child)

This 404s for me sorry

[–]MostlyBlindGamer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries, I also posted it to our Lenny instance: https://rblind.com/post/2289572

[–]LaM3a 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The terms being abusive is the issue here, afterwards it's pretty logical that they don't communicate with you if you aren't part of the initiative.

[–]DHamlinMusic 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Well seeing as this is the first we’re hearing of this… I expect some of my fellow mods will have more to add later on.

[–]ConfessingToSins 2 points3 points  (1 child)

They have an internal memo directing them not to talk to /r/blind because they labeled the community hostile during the protests, and a number of its users had publicly known talks with attorneys.

[–]HugeAnalBeads 50 points51 points  (1 child)

Your app is surprisingly terrible

I'll have you know I typed this with my middle fingers

[–]iEatAppIes3465 115 points116 points  (1 child)

Fuck u/spez

[–]reaper527 19 points20 points  (0 children)

hopefully he resigns, and takes many of his fellow co-workers with him.

reddit needs a major house cleaning.

[–]bluesatin 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Copy+Paste from about a month ago:

Just a heads up, after you guys finally fixed the bug of not being able to check a user's top comments from the past year (after it being broken for well over a year), the botch job fix appears to inadvertently killed all of the dates smaller than a year that were working fine previously (i.e. checking a user's 'top' comments for 24-hours, week, or a month are now broken instead).

[–]Conch-Republic 70 points71 points  (7 children)

Why doesn't it have landscape mode?

[–]platinumpixieset[S,A] -87 points-86 points  (6 children)

Thanks for your question. For this update we focused solely on improving screen reader compatibility on our native apps. Landscape mode is something that is on our radar for a future update.

[–]miowiamagrapegod 64 points65 points  (2 children)

You could just say "because we're incompetent" you know. It's fewer words

[–]insaneintheblain 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Actually a lot goes into updates. It's not the team's fault their leadership has made sketchy decisions.

[–]goferking 10 points11 points  (0 children)

everything is just portrait mode only so it's more tiktok like

[–]m1ndwipe 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Embarrassing.

[–]mofa90277 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not on internet browsers????

[–]AlphaShaldow 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe add these basic features BEFORE getting rid of the third-party app that had them?

I can't even open links externally on android.

[–]Xumayar 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Stop opting me into new reddit every time I log out and clear my cookies.

I hate new reddit, it's like facebook without my real life friends.

[–]chads3058 58 points59 points  (1 child)

This is a joke right? You already had the solution and you decided to ban it. Reddit is terrible now and has no plans to make web site even remotely usable after third party apps ended.

[–]SovietSteve -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Why are you still here lmao

[–]I_had_a_cool_snake 77 points78 points  (0 children)

i like how you suddenly remembered to care about screen readers right when you had to give free api access to reader friendly apps

[–]knightblue4 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Maybe bring back third party apps? They did it far better than you could ever do.

[–]AlteisenX 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I can tell you the best accessibility option is to allow 3rd party applications because my time on reddit is a god damn sliver of what it is now. They had a better layout, and better options and it wasn't a visual vomit fest "new" reddit in general looks like. Shit looks like it's a myspace page nowadays.

Obligatory fuck, u/spez

[–]wholesomedumbass 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Here’s a comment that you can test your screen reader on:

Fuck u/spez

[–]francis_wilson 13 points14 points  (0 children)

RIP Apollo.

[–]abscefht 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Fuck u/spez

[–]OminousG 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I thought this was an onion like joke making fun of how bad reddit has been at providing quality updates after killing 3rd party apps.

[–]reaper527 7 points8 points  (0 children)

does reddit as a company have any comment on how much your user base actively hates you and hopes that a viable alternative site pops up? or are you guys just unaware of how reddit is viewed in the same leagues as comcast and ea?

[–]PsionicBurst 40 points41 points  (0 children)

You killed third party apps, you sandy stapler.

[–]EhPringle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Bruh what the fuck is going on man, can I get my damn home screen back? Every other damn post is, "from a community you might be interested in" if I was interested in that community I'd fucking follow it. JFC this shit is so annoying.

[–]Aggressive_Chain_920 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Is it just me or is the official app getting a ton more ads now? I get like an ad page like every 6 posts or so. Getting very cancer to use.

[–]Sebanimation 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Can you please bring back 3rd party apps, Community Points and Awards? And while you're at it, throw the new gold and the contributor system in the garbage. Thank you.

[–]Chrimunn 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Did you buy your profile avatar?

[–]Sebanimation 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yes but I combined it with some I got for free

[–]Chrimunn 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Then I would say you're actively reinforcing the decision to remove 3rd party apps. (*only technically. Im not trying to crucify you for spending $3 or whatever)

I would just advise that no one put any money into this site, ever. If anything's going to change for the better then we have to make their grubby little green line go down.

[–]Sebanimation 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is probably true but keep in mind 80% of the money goes to the artist of the avatar… But yes I agree, I will certainly not support this new gold system they are implementing, it‘s a huge joke.

[–]ToxxiCoffee 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Reddit redesign is absolute shite put it back

[–]morilythari 5 points6 points  (1 child)

What the hell is the morale like at reddit these days? Every month another site admin comes in here to drop news and is downvoted to hell because of the decisions of incompetent leadership.

[–]Chrimunn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There is no longer an incentive to prioritize user experience within the established, monopolized internet islands that capitalism created. The purpose of these posts is to construct a facade of an actively developing platform exlusively for the eyes of investors, many of which will never even use the site.

It doesn't matter that every comment section on this sub goes to explain in full detail why the website is hot fucking dogshite. It doesn't matter. That's not what these posts are meant to address.

[–]endikiri 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey. I’ve blocked accounts multiple times but am still getting them in my feed. Can y’all look into this?

[–]red5 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why do I keep getting recommended cities that I don’t live in? Is it because I’m subscribed to the city I do live in?

[–]mofa90277 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any easy way to disable this? I can only post by going into old dot Reddit dot com. Or do I have to buy a new iPad and update to iOS 17? (So I’ll be using old dot Reddit for several months)

[–]Pep_Baldiola 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Improve the video player you lazy f*cks. I run a sub that depends a lot on video posts and the experience of watching videos in full screen is horrible. Apps like Boost did such a good job at making a nice video player. At least give us a comparable experience if you are killing third party apps.

u/spez

[–]magchieler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What happend to the mobile layout? I rather have the old layout back. Is that possible?

[–]JudgeJeudyIsInCourt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why is this important?

Real answer: So we can ban even more 3rd party clients.

[–]RisingRapture 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello, why does my browser Reddit (Chrome) look terrible now? Like a smartphone app. Give me back the previous look, please.

[–]digiplay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How do I get this app to stop asking me to turn on notifications which I’ll never do ? Did you add that feature? Last thing I need is an app that thinks it needs to notify me about stuff it thinks I maybe might want to possibly see. Absurd

[–]ERROR1010101010 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I’m on the app and why are all the posts so small? Is this part of the update because I think this is going to make it harder to see than anything

[–]Diagon__ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since the can't post a new.... Whatever it's called on reddit. Post, topic, thread? Whatever.. Why can't I simply upload an image? Why do the avatar creation tool takes me to a bunch of nft looking wanna be art that cost literally money instead of a tool thingy to build my own avatar? Is it bugged? I feel like it should take be to an actual builder tool.

[–]yabadabado0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What did you do to the iPad app? Feed is now small for no reason

[–]livelaughburp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why did you ruin my home feed? You keep recommending content I am absolutely not interested in and no matter what I do, it keeps getting worse. There’s ads every 4-6 posts, you won’t allow me to remove ads that make me uncomfortable or that I’ve seen too many times—bring back third party apps!!!

[–]drodriguez0117 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The iPad landscape view is now tiny and appears as though I’m using an iPhone. Hope you guys are working on restoring it otherwise it’s a poor user experience.

[–]SkazzK -1 points0 points  (2 children)

I kinda like the new skin. It's easy on the eyes, and actually better from my ADHD standpoint. But the fact that my notification button in the top right now opens a new tab/window instead of a drop down menu truly irks me.

Who came up with this silly idea, and can we gofundme them a few pounds of weed, or whatever illicit substance they were consuming when they came up with this idea, just so they can happily slip into peaceful oblivion and never return to active dev duty again? Please?

Sincerely,

-Skazz

[–]SkazzK 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Ugh, wait, wrong topic. Can someone point me in the right direction on where I should have posted this? I can't find the feedback button anymore.

[–]Chrimunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go ahead and put any and all feedback into the garbage. Reddit has no intention of making use of it

[–]Iam9op -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with this update, but I'm not happy with the new page set-up. It's more difficult to maneuver through. Is the change permanent or an experiment? (Dumb question).

[–]Adeno 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a way to search for all of my posts from a specific subreddit? I've already tried "author:username" but all it did was show all of the posts I created. I want to find all of the "comments" I made in a specific subreddit. Thanks!

[–]nomoreshowercrabs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is a banana counter??????

[–]EmbarrassedAd575 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I complain about this? My app is always “staying” on videos, I cant exit out of it when it does, the only way to exit the video player is to close the app. It is very annoying because it happens multiple times in a day..

[–]Archdragoon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello,

with the current site I'm unable to expand all of the reply...

[–]waiting4singularity 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The image viewer thats forced to what i assume is to protect the cdn from hotlinking doesnt allow me to resize images for reading with manual zoom. i only have the click zoom for 100% size thats equaly useless for large images. i myself do not have a disability but i have known people with visual disabilities that should stop using reddit over this.

[–]shapanese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why I'm getting all foreign language post translated? How can I deactivate it?

[–]SnooApples8541 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This update is atrocious and I find the site unusable. I go back from a post and can never continue where I left off. This sucks.

[–]CloudsOfMagellan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Still a lot of unlabeled buttons and voiceover seems to get a bit stuck in places

[–]CloudsOfMagellan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, just tested it and half the stuff doesn't even work properly, like collapsing comment threads will put me randomly in the middle of the next conversation, rather than at the next comment

[–]Cocyfart1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reddit wont even let me unsub from subreddits

[–]DirtyGirl07 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice