INat Next: Log-in on iOS completely inaccessible with VoiceOver screen reader (see replies for updates)

Bug Reports
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1

Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can.

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under About in the side menu): 0.55.3 (130)

Operating System / Device (e.g. iOS 18.2, iPhone SE): iOS 18.3 / iPhone 12 Mini

Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/):

Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):

Step 1: Turn on the VoiceOver screen reader (Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver)

Step 2: Open iNat Next by double-tapping on its icon

Step 3: Double-tap “Log In”

Step 4: The presented screen should have three elements:

  • “Close” button
  • Text element that reads: “Document living things, identify organisms and contribute to science.”
  • Unselectable button that reads: [sic] “USERNAME OR EMAIL USERNAME OR EMAIL PASSWORD PASSWORD REVEAL FORGOT PASSWORD LOG IN Don’t have an account? Sign up”.

Nothing I attempt on this button will make log-in controls visible to VoiceOver. I am quite shocked and disappointed that something as simple as the login screen was glossed over in terms of accessibility.

UPDATE: I asked a sighted person whom I trust to help me log in, and it appears the behavior of the log-in screen is caused by at least two bugs systemic to the entire app. See replies for these.

2

As stated in the update above, the messed-up login seems to be caused by two systemic bugs. Following are my best descriptions with steps to reproduce:

  1. VoiceOver reads lists as single elements, with no way to select individual items:
    1. Turn on VoiceOver and open the app as above.
    2. Double-tap Notifications in the bottom right, then expand either My Observations or Other Observations
    3. The list of notifications is then read (with oldest first, for some reason) as a single element with no ability to scroll through and select any individual observation or user. For example, the notifications list for my observations says: “Pull to refresh notifications Philipvanbergen added an identification to an observation by you 9/28/24 jhousephotos added an identification to an observation by you 10/13/24 joedziewa added an identification to an observation by you 12/3/24” … and so on, again as one element. This also happens, for example, when searching for species or observations in the Explore tab. It seems to be an app-wide issue with any sort of list.
  2. It is impossible to type in some text fields with VoiceOver enabled.
    1. Turn on VoiceOver and open the app as above.
    2. Go to the menu by double-tapping “Open Drawer” (this could be more clearly labeled) and select Feedback.
    3. As I’m writing I cannot replicate the behavior I noticed at first (for some reason I now cannot open Feedback at all). But if you can get it to open, you will be presented with a text field. If you try to type in that field with VoiceOver on, an error sound will play and nothing will be input. Attempting to read what was typed by character or word will not work either. When a sighted person helped me get to the username field on the login screen, I got the same behavior once I turned VoiceOver back on. Other text fields work just fine, such as the search field in the Explore tab, or the project search.

These bugs, but in particular the one with the lists, make doing anything substantial with the app pretty much impossible with VoiceOver. I understand that the soft launch was meant for ironing out issues, and that’s fine. But for an all-new platform that took years to develop, the app should never have made it to any kind of public release with such basic accessibility issues.

3

Thank you for reporting these issues and documenting them in detail. I am able to reproduce all of the scenarios that you’ve listed with the feedback example being the exception - although elements are definitely missing from that form and we will investigate. Walking through these issues also revealed additional areas where the app could better support VoiceOver, so your feedback is very much appreciated. I have added these to our list of todos.

4

Thanks for the acknowledgement. I look forward to seeing how this improves.

5

I just downloaded the new update. I like some of the improvements, but much to my frustration the list bug is still there. The new enhancements don’t mean much without a fix for this systemic issue. I don’t mean to be harsh, but I’m not just talking about some feature I’d like added. I’m talking about something that renders the app virtually unusable for a certain demographic. And this is despite the update listing improvements to the observations and notifications lists, etc. I am disappointed that features and enhancements are prioritized over usability issues, just because those issues don’t affect many people.

6

Hi @daniel5 … the list bug is included in a high priority issue at the top of our queue - we will be working on it soon. These usability issues are of great importance to us to get right, and we appreciate your patience as we work to fix them. Thank you for taking time to audit the update and continuing to bring these bugs to our attention.

7

Hi @greenbicycles, Thanks for your response, and also for bearing with me. Please understand that, even though I have strong words about this, I really am very excited that the new app is finally out, and I’m looking forward to it becoming a great tool for growing iNat’s usability and reach.

8

Hello @daniel5 .. we have released an update that includes fixes for some of the issues that you have raised here. I’d very much value your input if you wouldn’t mind testing it out. Here is a link to the update: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inaturalist-next/id6475737561

9

Hi @greenbicycles, thanks so much for letting me know. This is already worlds better for VO accessibility and I’m very pleased. I have no more access issues I can think of at the moment. I do have suggestions for how the app handles sounds, but they are not access-related. Speaking of which, I hope the app adds the ability to record sounds soon.

10

Hi @greenbicycles and other staff:

In my recent explorations of Inat Next, I found a few more access bugs. Two of these I would consider more serious, and the rest are really just suggestions for improvement:

  • When adding a comment to an observation and typing with Braille screen input, because the page refreshes after every word typed, VoiceOver stops Braille input after every space character. I’m not sure if this happens in any other text fields, but I notice it does not seem to happen in searches:
    1. Enable VoiceOver, then in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille, toggle Braille Screen Input on, if necessary.
    2. In iNat Next, double-tap the ‘comment’ button on an observation, putting you in a text field.
    3. Initiate Braille screen input by double-tapping the top and bottom edges of the screen (on iOS 18). You will be presented with a layout of six dots, three on each side of the screen. This is the Braille cell.
    4. Place your fingers on each side of the screen to type a few dots (doesn’t matter which), then swipe right with one finger, which will enter a space character. This causes the dots just typed to be instantly translated into a print word or letter. This is normal. Without Braille knowledge you may end up with a nonsense word, but don’t worry about this.
    5. Immediately upon entering the space character, Braille screen input will crash, and you will be reverted to the text field. In order to reinitiate Braille input, you must double-tap the edges of the screen again. If you follow the procedure in step 4 again, you’ll get the same behavior. This is not normal, and I think it is caused by the page refreshing after every space character. In normal behavior, the space character translates the word into print, but does nothing else, allowing you to keep typing until you dismiss Braille input manually. This is done by putting a thumb and finger together in the center of the screen, then sliding them away from each other, toward the top and bottom edges. For many VoiceOver users, Braille input is the fastest and most reliable method of typing on the touchscreen, so it is very unpleasant to be effectively denied this due to an app’s misbehavior.
  • In the settings screen, because the buttons are not programmed as toggle switches, VoiceOver gives no indication of whether a setting was changed and what it was changed to. This means you have to do a little guesswork to figure this out. For an example, toggle whether iNat first opens the AI camera or all options when adding observations.
  • In the Explore tab, the location search is mislabeled “Search for taxon”. This confused me until I tried to enter a location name anyway, and location suggestions did indeed pop up.
  • Also in the Explore tab, when in the taxon search and encountering a taxon without a common name, VoiceOver doesn’t just speak the scientific name, but adds the text “{$commonName}”. This isn’t so much a problem as rather unnecessary.

Thanks again for your attention to these issues.

-Daniel

11

One more access improvement I just thought of: In the observation view in the Explore tab, within the grid and list views, VoiceOver currently says the species, date, number of IDs, etc. for each observation, but just says “location” instead of the actual location name. It would be great if it used the specific location name, as the map view for observations is (necessarily) not accessible. This would allow me to avoid clicking into every single observation just to get a sense of where they all are.

14

I’m happy to hear that the app is working better after these fixes. We have more to do and appreciate all of your feedback.

The app can record sound now, and it would be helpful to get your thoughts about it as well as more general suggestions about how the app handles sound. I’ve included steps below for trying it out in the new app.

  1. In settings, toggle on advanced mode.
  2. Select the add observations button.
  3. A window with observation methods appears in the middle of the screen.
  4. Select the record a sound button which is four down on the list - this takes you to the record new sound screen (you may be asked for microphone access the first time).
  5. The record button is centered at the bottom of the screen - tap it to begin recording and again to stop recording.
  6. Next select the view suggestions button located at the bottom right of the screen. Note: view suggestions is incorrectly labeled here - the app doesn’t yet identify sound files. The button takes you to the new observation screen where you can add an identification using the add an ID button at center left as well as other data before saving or uploading.
15

Hi @daniel5 .. I appreciate the detailed steps you included under the first bullet point. This was my first time using Braille screen input, and these instructions were a helpful guide. I wasn’t able to replicate this issue though in the newest release, at least not consistently with the space character in either landscape or tabletop modes. I did run into cases where the phone appeared to revert to portrait mode at which point Braille screen input would stop and this message would play: “Portrait. Stopping Braille screen input”. Did you encounter this message during the space character crashes?

Thank you for catching the labeling issues in your last three bullet points as well as the explore location bug. I will add them to our todos.