new lyft app not so accessible

Carlos: Thanks for the heads up. I submitted a helpdesk ticket with Lift and copied your post into the message.

Sorry you found this problem but thanks for the heads up.

I have been attempting to reach Lyft through the company's help site using the following link:
https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/requests

After completing the email address, subject and details fields and pressing Submit, nothing happens.

It appears Lyft no longer answers their [email protected] email address.

Has anyone out here been able to get their helpdesk ticket submission page to work, or has anyone been able to reach Lyft through any other means?

I was finally able to submit a ticket on Lyft's support website, after realizing there are two inaccessible list boxes after the phone number field.

I urge everyone to follow these steps and create a ticket with Lyft regarding their VoiceOver accessibility regressions:
1. Visit https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/requests
2. Complete all text fields.
3. Shift+tab back to the phone number field and turn off your screen reader's browse mode, virtual cursor mode, etc.
4. Press tab to focus on the first list box.
5. Select the Ride category.
6. Press tab to reach the second list box.
7. Select the Other sub-category.
8. After making sure everything else has been completed, re-engage your screen reader's browse mode, locate and press enter on the Submit button.

I would ask that anyone who creates a ticket with Lyft report back here so we can track advocacy efforts. If you received a response, please, definitely inform us of the content of their response.

Hello Lyft Support,

I am writing to let you know that the Dec. 17 update to Lyft's iOS app has broken VoiceOver accessibility for blind people.

The updated app features many unlabeled controls and numerous other signs that no attention has been paid to equal accessibility for all riders. While
blind customers can still request and complete rides in the app's current form, critical features, such as the ability to change ride modes, have been
locked out to us.

Please feel free to share resources, such as
http://www.applevis.com/information-app-developers,
to your developers so that equal accessibility of the Lyft app may be restored and maintained moving forward.

Please restore equal accessibility and full inclusion for all Lyft customers, including blind people, and make a public statement of accessibility on the
Lyft website.

I look forward to hearing from someone from Lyft soon.

Best regards,

Darrell Hilliker
BlindAccessJournal.com

I filed my ticket with Lyft late Friday morning, and I have still not received a response.

Has anyone else out here gotten a response? If so, please report so we may determine how best to move forward.

Hello Everyone,

Just to let all of you know that I have officially requested follow-up from Lyft on my Friday request for accessibility remediation.

Has anyone else opened a ticket with Lyft? If so, did you receive a response? What was it?

Are we at all interested in making sure we gain and retain equal accessibility to shared transportation options offered through iOS apps?

The follow-up request I wrote to Lyft is below:

Hello Lyft Support,

I wrote on Friday, Dec. 18 asking you to address the VoiceOver
accessibility issues caused for blind people by your redesign in the
Dec. 17 update of the iOS app.

I have received no response as of today, Tuesday, Dec. 22.

Please respond to my request indicating the steps Lyft will take to
remediate the accessibility issues caused in the Dec. 17 app update as
well as any steps Lyft will take to address accessibility on an
ongoing basis moving forward.

Happy holidays,

Darrell Hilliker
BlindAccessJournal.com

I have just received the following response from Lyft. Certainly, I will move to escalate the issue within the company's support system.

Your request (12020649) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

Yani

Yani (Lyft)

Dec 19, 1:07 AM

Hey Darrell,

Thanks for reaching out to us. We appreciate you taking your time to send us your feedback, we'll make sure to take note of it.

As of the moment, this is all Lyft has to offer. No worries, we're still working on the app for it to be more user friendly for every one and all.

Please let me know if you have any additional concerns, and I would be happy to address them.

Best,

Yani

I believe the following correspondence speak for themselves...

Hello Mary Jane,

Thank you for your response.

I have the latest version of the app and I have closed and re-opened it on my iPhone 6.

So have countless other blind users of the app.

We are not dealing with a technical support issue.

Instead, we are dealing with the inaccessibility issues caused by the Dec. 17 major update.

Lyft used to work well with VoiceOver. Blind people could easily use the app to request rides. Now, after the update, critical features of the app have been crippled only for blind people.

The app's accessibility with the VoiceOver screen reader built into iOS was crippled by the Lyft app update.

I have already provided a link to resources for making apps accessible with VoiceOver. Has that information been shared with your developers? If so, what is their response?

If the Lyft app becomes any more inaccessible, it is quite possible blind people may no longer be able to use it. Since Lyft does not provide a way to order rides by phone, inability to use the app would mean blind people are not able to request rides.
We're talking about the prospect of customers being excluded from using Lyft only because they are blind.

At this point, I believe it may be a good idea to escalate this ticket to someone on Lyft's management team who can address accessibility issues on an appropriate level. I am anticipating working with such a person soon.

Best regards,

Darrell Hilliker
BlindAccessJournal.com

On 12/22/15, Lyft Support <[email protected]> wrote:
> ##- Please type your reply above this line -##
>
> Your request (12020649) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply
> to this email.
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> Mary Jane, Dec 22, 2:35 PM
>
> Hi Darrell,
>
> Thanks for getting back to us about this. I understand how frustrating it is
> that you cannot maximize the features of the Lyft app.
>
> First, let's check if the latest version of the app is installed on your
> phone, as the newest version may already contain a fix for the issue you're
> experiencing. Second, let's quit the Lyft app and reopen it.
>
> If neither of those worked, could you send me a more detailed description of
> exactly what you're experiencing? Some things that will help me diagnose the
> issue are:
>
> - When is this happening? Consistently, every now-and-then, or just once?
> - What error message are you seeing?
> - Can you provide screen shots of the error(s)? (Tips on taking screen
> shots:
> https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/213583988-How-to-Take-a-Screen-Shot-of-the-App)
>
> The more info you can give us, the better equipped we'll be to help.
>
> All the best,
>
> Mary Jane
> Lyft Support Representative
>
> Help Center - http://lyft.com/help
> Driver Help Center — http://lyft.com/drive/helpAsk
> Lyft on Twitter! — http://twitter.com/asklyft
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> Darrell Shandrow, Dec 22, 2:12 PM
>
> Hello Lyft Support,
>
> I wrote on Friday, Dec. 18 asking you to address the VoiceOver
> accessibility issues caused for blind people by your redesign in the
> Dec. 17 update of the iOS app.
>
> I have received no response as of today, Tuesday, Dec. 22.
>
> Please respond to my request indicating the steps Lyft will take to
> remediate the accessibility issues caused in the Dec. 17 app update as
> well as any steps Lyft will take to address accessibility on an
> ongoing basis moving forward.
>
> Happy holidays,
>
> Darrell Hilliker
> BlindAccessJournal.com
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> Yani, Dec 19, 1:07 AM
>
> Hey Darrell,
>
> Thanks for reaching out to us. We appreciate you taking your time to send us
> your feedback, we'll make sure to take note of it.
>
> As of the moment, this is all Lyft has to offer. No worries, we're still
> working on the app for it to be more user friendly for every one and all.
>
> Please let me know if you have any additional concerns, and I would be happy
> to address them.
>
> Best,
>
> Yani
> Lyft Support Representative
> Help Center - http://lyft.com/help
> Driver Help Center — http://lyft.com/drive/help
> Ask Lyft on Twitter! — http://twitter.com/asklyft
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> Darrell Hilliker, Dec 18, 9:59 AM
>
> Hello Lyft Support,
>
> I am writing to let you know that the Dec. 17 update to Lyft's iOS app has
> broken VoiceOver accessibility for blind people.
>
> The updated app features many unlabeled controls and numerous other signs
> that no attention has been paid to equal accessibility for all riders. While
> blind customers can still request and complete rides in the app's current
> form, critical features, such as the ability to change ride modes, have been
> locked out to us.
>
> Please feel free to share resources, such as
> http://www.applevis.com/information-app-developers, to your developers so
> that equal accessibility of the Lyft app may be restored and maintained
> moving forward.
>
> Please restore equal accessibility and full inclusion for all Lyft
> customers, including blind people, and make a public statement of
> accessibility on the Lyft website.
>
> I look forward to hearing from someone from Lyft soon.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Darrell Hilliker
> BlindAccessJournal.com
>
> --------------------------------
> This email is a service from Lyft.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [N80MY3-K3OJ]

Wow, they have no idea what accessibility is, do they? I have a feeling that until the most recent update, the app was probably accessible purely by accident. Also, talk about canned responses? They believe that we're receiving some kind of error message, and the fact is the app simply can not be used if you need to switch ride modes, etc. One thing you may try if you want to keep pursuing this is to just tell them straight up. I don't think they understand what accessibility even is, so you'd probably have to explain what VoiceOver is, and how the lyft app used to perform with it, and how it performs as of the most recent update. they believe it's a problem with how the app works with your phone, and don't even understand what VoiceOver is. You might also explain exactly what Voiceover used to say when flicking to those buttons, as opposed to what it says now when you land on them. Unfortunately, not everyone understands the term accessibility as well as blind people do. To us these days, accessibility is a common word, but not for sighted folks. I'm not asking you to exactly dumb it down for them, but just to make them understand what you're experiencing in a way that'll actually make sense to them.

Joey (Lyft)

Dec 23, 6:26 PM

Hey Darrell,

Thanks for reaching out about this. I apologize for the delay.

We are incredibly appreciative of your time and feedback and we want to thank you for bringing this to our attention. We strive to make sure the Lyft platform
is as accessible as possible.

At this time, we've reached out to the engineering team that focuses on new versions of the app. They will take all of your thoughts into consideration
as they move forward to improve the Lyft platform.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. I hope you enjoy your holidays.

Best,

Joey
Lyft Support Representative

Has anyone else submitted a ticket at help.lyft.com? If so, please report any response you did or did not receive.

Carlos? Toonhead? Did either of you submit tickets?

I hope everyone has been enjoying happy holidays with their families. Let's work to make 2016 a happy, more accessible new year! :-)

you know folks, if we had tougher laws, and tougher punishments for companies for not being accessible, maybe, just maybe they would think twice before breaking accessibility to apps. in this case, had we had a rewritten ADA with not only tougher guidelines, but tougher punishements such as heavy fines, for non complyance, then we could have better accessibility.but I guess we never will have tougher laws and punishments, due to two people who lead one org for over fifty plus years. we need to seriously pressure congress to rewrite the ADA, because lets face facts folks, this law is twenty six years out of date, and accessibility accross all platforms including web, mobile, and other main stream devices isn't covered by the law, and we need that in the ADA, not just bolted on pieces of legislation that says one thing, but fails to comit to the process.I for one am tired of this lack lusterattitude of oh its fine, we'll work around these issues. think about this for a second. if a car dealer sold a sited person a car, and the person went to buy the car, but for what ever reason this person was in a wheelchair, and the car didn't have a wheelchair accessible ramp, do you think the person would buy the car? I don't think so. so, why should we, as a comunnity have to put up with lack luster accesssiblity on the web, on mobile platforms, and in the mainstream world? I'm going to pose something i heard in a blog post. if we as a comunnity don't put up with and tallarate descrimination in public places such as stores, banks, or other public places, then why should we have to tallarate it on the web and in mobile apps?

Hi Brandon,

While I most certainly agree with your sentiment, sadly, there isn't anything I can do about changing the law as it stands right now. :-)

Have you opened a support ticket with Lyft as previously described? If so, what was the response, if any, you received? If you would, please report it here.

Happy new year,

Darrell

I wrote this follow-up request to Lyft support. I hope all of you are also creating tickets and following up with status requests.

Darrell Shandrow

Dec 31, 11:30 AM

Hello,

Two weeks after the Dec. 17 update, the accessibility of the iOS
version of the Lyft app remains significantly crippled for blind
customers who rely on VoiceOver in order to request rides.

What steps have been taken thus far to improve the accessibility of
the app and to make sure accessibility regressions do not continue
moving forward?

I am hoping Lyft will turn over a new leaf by insuring accessibility
in the new year and beyond.

Happy new year,

Darrell Shandrow Hilliker
BlindAccessJournal.com

here are the release notes from versions 3.26.0 "In this update, we’ve made improvements to VoiceOver and a few other behind-the-scenes bug fixes." It seems a ton better.

It definitely is a lot better, but the rride mode button and the list of ride modes after you press it can disappear easily.

Once this update was released last month, I am mediately send off an angry tweet and emailed Lyft directly with the accessibility bug reports. The product operations manager contacted me directly through email and we actually set up a time for me to come in and show them exactly what they broke with voiceover, as seeing how an actual blind person uses it would be greatly beneficial to the technical team. Me and another experienced voiceover user showed up to a meeting at their headquarters and we spent well over an hour going through this current build and they took copious notes on how to fix everything. The update that was released yesterday contains quite a lot of fixes that we went over with them, and it definitely seems like it's working A hell of a lot better.
I will actually be going to their headquarters again tomorrow to do some further beta testing which will hopefully contain more voiceover fixes. They definitely know what they did, and it's great that they are actually making strides to fix it for all of us. :-)

another problem is that you can't see the ETA when you are on a trip.