I know there are a million threads on this site already but mn your accessibility (or lack thereof) is shocking.

[AlternativePerspective]

I am a voiceover user using mn on safari because to be frank the app was never very accessible and from what I read wasn’t that user friendly even if you didn’t need a screenreader so I never bothered to complain about it.

But since the new update, I can no longer:

bold/highlight/underline etc because the keyboard shortcuts no longer exist.

Can no longer tag users because the keyboard command to do that no longer exists.

Can no longer insert emoticons because although I can access the drop down every single one of the emoticons is unlabelled and simply reads “undefined”. Quote function was never accessible anyway but at least I could highlight text, now all any voiceover user or anyone who relied on keyboard shortcuts for that matter can do is type,a response. No tagging, no quoting other posters, no emoticons (although I can plum the depths of apple emogi’s for that if I so wish).

Glitches which make the site clunky are annoying and irritating.

Glitches which mean you’re freezing out your disabled users are unacceptable.

As apparently the biggest parenting site in the UK you really should be aiming to do better than this.

I have similar issues. The colours are awful

@SueMumsnet just to echo. The colours are less clear - they're much more peelywally than they used to be and it makes it harder to differentiate posts. And I'm just old with 50-something eyesight. Dear knows what it's like for those with real sight issues.

Thank you Sue. I hope these improvements erm improve the user experience for posters like the OP and others who have added their feedback here.

I do appreciate HQ is probably over run with incoming issues.

How did all of this get missed in testing?

Forgetting to include disabled testers is the usual answer in such scenarios.

But that reply, like most others from MNHQ, has the 'oh dear what a pity, help us understand' vibe from it.

You are a business. Surely to God you had some kind of plan for your platform launch, including appropriate accessibility provision (and not the waffle nonsense Justine posted with recently).

It's really poor how uninformed you are.

@SueMumsnet Can you advise on what disability awareness training, if any, MN staff receive? Is it the most basic generic equality e learning modules, or do you have proper disability training from actual disability organisations like scope, Shaw Trust, MenCap, Mind or leonard cheshire? Have you had any accessibility audits undertaken from these charities or has it just been non disabled organisations who claim to understand disability accessibility? Have you had any of your policies and processes reviewed by actual disability charities or has your D&I team (if you even have one!) figured they knew best? Be very interested to read your response, and see if my suspicions are correct.

Indeed, I made this point on the other thread. Accessibility Needs testing requires actual users running the main accessibility adaptive software packages such as Dragon, Dolphin screen magnifier, being given access to the MN test environment and doing some standard tests of common tasks.

Before Go-Live - not waiting until people run into difficulties on the new site and then scrabbling around trying to work out how to do quick-fixes in a panic. It isn't that difficult to coordinate that sort of testing and it does evidence commitment to disabled people, so they aren't an afterthought.

Bumping this, how shite for you. @MNHQ, pull your fucking finger out!

I don't have accessibility issues but I find it really annoying that ctrl + enter doesn't work any more. Updates should improve things, not make them worse. It took three years! Please can I have a job there!
The lack of thought for accessibility issues is shocking.