Please could you make your app accessible to those of us with visual impairments?

[StrangeAndUnusual]

I posted a thread about this years ago when the app was first released and got a reply to say it would be considered in the next release, but I don't think this ever happened!

I am severely visually impaired and need to use the invert-colours accessibility function on my laptop/phone etc in order to be able to use them. This means the colours all change to the opposite - so that I am reading white text on a black background. I then turn the brightness up to maximum to make the contrast strong enough for me to see the letters. (If I did this with a white background the brightness would be too dazzling).

But the app is configured so that the 'Active Chats' screen has the opposite colour scheme to the 'Read a Thread' screen. (i.e. one of them is orange-on-blue and the other is blue-on-orange). So even when I invert colours, one of the screens is still inaccessible to me. I've tried all the colour schemes and they all force one of the screens to be dark text on a light background.

Please can you add a colour scheme that allows both screens to be the same. That way I can set my accessibility settings to work. It's too cumbersome to keep toggling accessibility settings every time I go from the 'active threads' screen into a thread and again when I go back out.

It's a small change, but it would go a long way towards making the app accessible for me and others like me who need to use that accessibility setting.

Another change that would help, although is perhaps more complicated, would be to allow the accessibility Zoom feature to work inside the app, so that we can magnify the text to a readable size. Yes, this would mean it no longer fits on the screen as well, but we're used to putting up with that.

Do the Mumsnet app designers consider accessibility issues at all when designing updates to the app? It might be good to have an area on Chat that gathers feedback on this. Mums net has a mixed record on disability as far as Chat goes, and perhaps this could be a step towards improving matters? Please consider this. It is so frustrating to be excluded from the discussion when it would not be so hard to include us.

Bumping for you StrangeAndUnusual.

Seconded although I don't use the app I just use chrome browser. I have my browser settings to use a larger standard font size which I can read. Annoyingly while this works fine within a thread and in the composition pane, the list of threads in active conversations is a mishmash of font sizes as the code for half the thread titles (mainly ones that I have clicked on before) revert to the tiny unreadable default size. It's lazy html coding - like using instead of it is assuming that all readers are fully able-bodied.

This seems so reasonable and easy to achieve. I have reported your post to MNHQ to draw their attention to it and hopefully you will get a better response.

Hi StrangeAndUnusual,

Thanks so much for flagging this to us - we completely understand where you're coming from here and are so glad you did.

We've flagged this one to the relevant team (we're not too technically minded ourselves). Our app developers should get back to us soon, though this could be after the new year... We'll be sure to update when we have some input from them.

My visual problems are nowhere near a severe as the OP, but I agree that some sort of consistency in the font size via coding would help.
I have to have setting on tablet set to Huge to read a thread, but the titles in index of threads still appears small

Thanks to MNHQ and to you others who responded - it would be really great to see some action in this this time - and even a commitment to making the app and site fully accessible. I believe there are coding standards and guides for web developers to help with this - RNIB should be able to help with finding them.

Hi @strangeandunusual - thanks for bringing this up. You're right, it's an important issue, and we're committed to building apps that are accessible. Here are the features Mumsnetters can currently use in the iOS app that improve accessibility:

Larger Text
Using Apple's built in setting, you can increase the content text size in the app. This can be turned on in Settings > General > Accessibility > Larger Text.

Unfortunately this can't be applied everywhere in the app, but I'm looking into topic titles, menus and date/time labels now. If there are any other particular places it would be useful, let me know!

Invert colours
This is also possible to apply on in the iOS settings, so we haven't built a special 'night mode' in the app.
Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Smart Invert
The screenshots attached show how this looks in the app (apologies for the rubbish photos, screenshots don't capture the inverted colours).

Are there any other specific features you'd like us to include?

Accessibility features vary in how easy they are to implement, some improvements take weeks, some are very quick. We can't guarantee we'll implement everything suggested, but we will look into everything.

As always, thanks for helpful and descriptive feedback, Mumsnet is a much better place because of it!

Thanks for your detailed reply, Tim.

I have both Larger Text and Smart Invert switched on on my iPhone.

The problem as it stands with inverting colours is that the app is not consistent about keeping backgrounds pale and text dark.

So, using the app normally (i.e. without inverting colours), in the Active Threads screen, the background is dark and the text is pale. But when you go into an individual thread, the background is pale and the text is dark. Whatever colour scheme you choose, this remains the same.

So for me, I can read the active threads screen easily but not an individual thread. If I invert colours, the problem is simply switched over so that I can't read the active threads screen.

It would make the app infinitely more accessible if there was consistency about keeping backgrounds light and text dark (or vice versa, but not chopping and changing). Or, if you don't want to do this, at least to offer a colour scheme option that will be consistent (e.g. always dark backgrounds and light text).

Does that make sense? If not I can try and find a better way of explaining!

By the way, in reply to your question about what other places it would be good to have 'larger text' available (apart from everywhere!), my suggestions would be a) in Settings and (b) for writing a post - it would be very helpful to be easily able to read what I'm writing!

helllooooooooooo! MumsnetTim are you there? Any answer?

Hi @stangeandunusual, apologies I missed this!

Thanks for the detailed response, I understand the frustration with the app colourscheme - that must be very irritating! To change the colours would require a redesign, which is quite a large job. However, a redesign is in the works, and we'll keep accessibility needs in mind when we push ahead with it.

I will dynamic text to the thread and post composers. The app version is mostly complete, just needs a bit more testing before I submit it to the App Store.

Thanks for your patience!

Hi guys, I've just released an updated version of the iOS Talk app which you can download here. It includes much more dynamic text (optional bigger font) across the app. You can test it by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Larger Text

Let us know what you think!

I will download and report back after trying, thank you!

The colours thing is a real biggie for me. Like many others with degenerative retinal conditions, I just cannot see without strong contrast. A light background is then too bright to look at. It would really help if you can build into the next release a colour scheme that is consistent across all screens. That way people like me can use our accessibility settings to control what we're seeing.

Can you put consistent colour usage into the redesign?

@StrangeAndUnusual thank you!

There's lots of factors that go into the redesign, so I can't promise anything, but I can guarantee we'll ensure it's considered when choosing colours.