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.
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:
VoiceOver reads lists as single elements, with no way to select individual items:
Turn on VoiceOver and open the app as above.
Double-tap Notifications in the bottom right, then expand either My Observations or Other Observations
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.
It is impossible to type in some text fields with VoiceOver enabled.
Turn on VoiceOver and open the app as above.
Go to the menu by double-tapping “Open Drawer” (this could be more clearly labeled) and select Feedback.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.