Prerequisites
Volumio Information
Volumio Version: 3.6
Hardware: raspberry pi 3b+
DAC: headphone jack
Debug Log
Steps to Reproduce
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Use volumio ui with screen reader on windows, ios and android
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Try navigate the ui with the screen reader.
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Additional Information
As a blind user I use program called screen reader to use computers and mobile devices. They tell me what they find on the screen such text, buttons, checkboxes, editboxes and more. It’s depending on the work the developer have done how accessible a program or website is. I found volumio to be not very accessible at the moment.I used the screen reader Jaws for windows, talkback on android and voice over on ios.
The problem is the controls in the ui have no labels on them that screen readers can read. For the buttons for example it only says “button” but no more information. The same for checboxes.
Is it possible to make volumio more accessible by adding the missing lables and other things that can help to navigate the ui.
Best regards
Tony
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your posting.
I am one of the moderators for this forum.
I’ve downloaded the 40 minutes trail of Jaws and played around with it, to get some basic understanding of the program.
I have to admit that I am walking into a world that I am not familiar with.
If I tab through the Volumio interface via the web browser, Jaws tells me what the button does, but looking at your post, this is not enough.
Could you give us some insights/ideas on how Volumio could make the GUI more accessible for visually impaired people. So we have an idea on the impact of such addition?
Thanks.
Hello and thank you for your time to download Jaws and try it.
I try to explain little more here.
When you tab between elements Jaws reads I think the tooltips for the items. And I think that because the application recognize that you land on different objects when you tab around. If you use only the arrow keys for navigating the page or the different commands in Jaws to jump to different elements such as b for next button and e for next editbox those tooltips never show up and jaws had to rely on the alt text or what it’s called today.
So when I arrow down there you have the buttons for add to playlist, add to favorites and inifinity play I get this information
Button
Button
Button
Button
Browse Button
As you can see here the only button that is correct here is the browse button.
I tried to find out more technical information about the difference between the browse button and the others but I found nothing that really makes a difference but there is something that makes just the browse button work correct.
On android using screen reader talkback I get the same result, that screen reader picks up the tooltips and reads them. On ios the screen reader voice over don’t do that so it says only button on those except for the browse button.
I hope that explains little more for you and the developer team.
I found this little tool that can help you in development of accessible webbapps and webbsites.
Best regards
Tony
Hi Tony,
Volumio will look into this, it has been added to their ToDo list. No ETA is given jet.
Hello Tony,
I am one of the developers working for Volumio. I wanted to inform you that we have started working on improving the accessibility of the Volumio interface. We recently released a new update with the first improvements to the main interface.
Let us know what you think and feel free to write to us if you have any further suggestions.
Best regards,
Stefania
1 Like
Hi Stefania
I couldn’t find any newer version then from july 6 but I activated the developer setting and got the newest testversion.
And I am impressed! You done a nice job so far. All buttons on the landing page are now corectly spoken. Add to favorites, add to playlist, inifinty play and brows. Also the player controls now speaks correct and the zone select and settings button.
I tested in windows and on ios wich was the most problematic systems and that worked fine.
So I am looking forward to see more changes in the UI.
Thank you and let me know then there is something new to test.
Regards Tony
1 Like
Great to see this progress.
Well done @Stefania_Struzzi and thanks to @volumio to free up some valuable developer time.
1 Like
Hi Tony,
Thank you for your feedback! I would love to know from you what we could fix now to improve accessibility. Which part of Volumio would you find most useful to improve for now?
Keep the feedback coming and we’ll do our best to integrate it into Volumio.
Best regards,
Stefania
Hello again.
Next area you can look into is the media browser. I haven’t tried it with my own media yet but in the radiostations library there are a few unlabled buttons for each station. I think they are to add to favorites and maybe play.
There are also in the top left a back button in most windows and that needs a lable to so it speaks correct.
The settings dialog have some minor issues but for now the browser have higher priority in my opinion.
Best regards Tony
Hi Tony,
Thank you for your suggestions! I will add these points to the to-do list for upcoming improvements.
I will keep you updated as soon as a version for testing is released!
Thanks for now!
Best regards,
Stefania
Hello Tony,
I don’t know if you are still on this forum or using volumio.
As a blind/low vision voiceover user and music lover I was wondering if you can work with volumio.
I don’t have a player yet so I can’t test it if it works for me. (no spare PC lying around unfortunately)
So any feedback of a user like you would be great! Thanks Stephan
Hello Stephanf
I’m still here but not so active. I haven’t use volumio in very long time so I don’t really know how accessible it is today.
Give me a little time and I dig up a respberry pi and spin up a copy to see how it works.
Regards Tony
Hi Tony,
wow that would be very helpfull. I don’t have a PC or RaspberryPi, so a little context on how the screenreader is working with the music library etc.
Would be great to know before I go out and buy a streamer that works with volumio. I have a little central vision left but am more and more reliant on VoiceOver. So if you could share some light on the user experience that would be great. Thanks
Are you using another music player now? One thats more accessible for you?
Regards Stephan
Hello Stephan.
Ok, Now after a little quick test.
The UI is still a challenge to navigate with screenreader.
More buttons are now labled but there are some that don’t have any label on them and some have completely wrong labels.
The UI have lots of overlay windows wich some screen readers have trouble with. I used talkback on android at this time and it struggle with those overlays. I think voice over have some problems with that kind of interface too.
On the pc with jaws there are some controls that don’t exist but they are there when using the andoid phone. For example settings. Even jaws struggles with the overlays.
I managed to add my music library on a nas but it took some time to figure out where that setting was.
So over all, if you are a very experienced screen reader user you can manage this UI and maybe use it but for most users I recommend staying away from it until the UI is more accessible.
I have used Sonos back then but after they completely trashed their app and it was completely unuseable for nearly everyone I use a victor reader stream 3 for webradio and a old linux computer and a good soundcard I had laying around for more music listening.
Best Regards
Tony
Hi Tony, thank you for doing this research for me! It helps to make a more concious decision on trying out Voilumio. I have made a remark at topic I created that good software doesn't have to suffer on accessibility, and that it should be demanded that when devoloping it is taken in account.
I have the same problem with Sonos.
I’m intrested in high quality streaming, so I’ve started a free trial with Qobuz and their app seems to be reasonably accessible.
Thanks again and when I have an opportunity to try out Volumio I will try to keep the devolopers aware of the in-accessible features via this forum.
So thank you for helping me to get a better unstanding…Regards Stephan