Amazon app accessibility deteriorating fast including Braille

Could this be due to 17.6 still being in beta? Or is it nearing RC stage?

Hi. I'm running iOS 17.5.1 and have noticed the same issues with Braille input in the search field. Also finding search results pages and product pages more difficult to navigate. This is extremely frustrating as I am also a Prime subscriber.

Subject says it all. I noticed Braille wasn't working in the search area, but otherwise I've done some shopping lately and it has been fine. But yeah, if it does become a problem, it's a good thing we can still shop online, but they should fix these issues. I'm on the iOS public beta. In my case, when Braille entry is activated, it seems to be letting me type, but then I check the edit box and nothing was actually entered.

Now you have to tap on the product info part of the page to get the product info. It's quite frustrating.

I'll still use the app but that's more because I'm lazy and it has all the things I could want in one place.

I've no experience with their shopping or music apps, but the app for the A-person is not good with VoiceOver either. I activated some sort of laundry routine a year ago just using my voice, and my sighted life-skills coach had to de-activate it because it was nowhere to be found with VoiceOver. I, too, have reported this issue to no avail. Yet the A-person residing in my bedroom works great. Hmmm, I wonder what's up. Peter Korn even made 1 or 2 appearances on Eyes on Success, and seemed to be very knowledgeable and excited to discuss all of Amazon's accessibility products.

The accessibility of Amazon shopping app, or every other Amazon apps in general are not good The best website or app I can find to shopping with this apple, because how they took care of the accessibility and I can order any Apple products with ease, but with Amazon, it is a struggle and with other websites as well.

So Both Amazon.com and Audible.com, as well as their international counterparts, used to have an accessible version that ended with either, ".com/access", or it's international counterpart, such as, ".co.uk/access".

My question is, do these not exist anymore? Granted you have to use a web browser for this, but who cares if the app is losing its accessibility?

As I get older, things *seem* more complicated and overwhelming than they used to be. I've definitely noticed this in the Amazon app, but didn't know if it was the app, Voiceover, or just my imagination. In my experience, a lot of web sites and apps have become far more complicated to use than they used to be. Sometimes, the issues are accessibility-related, but other times, it just seems that things are more difficult than they need to be because of extra pop-ups or other steps that seem unnecessary.

I've used this from time to time. In fact, it's the only version of the Amazon site my computer will load, which is good, I suppose, but to me, the accessible version of the site seems somewhat stripped down and has its own challenges.

That is too bad. I was thinking that using the access page from an iOS device might make things a little more strait-forward. It seems Amazon, much like X and FB, are abandoning any attempts at universal access. You would think since, at least here in the US, the government is reportedly enforcing accessibility in websites, at least government and commercial websites.

Yet here we are, with a globally popular service, and this is what we get. *sigh*

Late last night, I opened Amazon's app and was able to do a search using Braille screen input for the first time since this post was introduced. Nice to have this working again and hope it remains stable.

I was using the iOS Amazon app, which worked fine until a couple months ago. Now it's practically impossible after doing a product search. ads keep talking and won't shut up. I have not found any mechanism voiceover to fix this. I switched to using Safari on my phone, but ran into the same problem. So I tried using various browsers and screen readers in windows. Guess what? Most of the same problems.

Focus jumps all over the place. Navigating by headings is. Erratic, unpredictable, gets stuck
Ads repeat over and over again, interrupting, and cutting off other speech and making navigation nearly impossible.
We need a single point of contact at Amazon to deal with this. It's not just Apple.
I'm working on doing screen recordings to demonstrate the problem to Amazon and Apple; but I am having a whole heck of a lot of trouble doing it right.

The potential loss of a few customers probably doesn't bother Amazon at all, but we need to advocate anyway. Amazon shopping has become very important to me and I'd hate to have to switch to some other platform that isn't even may be available in Canada.

When searching for anything I use my PC instead of my phone. No issues at this time. Chrome and jaws.

I just phoned the accessibility team at amazon UK.

I explain to the guy that I'm a voiceover user and he's all yep, ok, and that when I flick down through the headings to get to the reviews, it says location instead of the persons name.

He clarified what I said, so I thought he understood it... He then let's me know what he's doing and that he's going to a product, then scrolling down to the reviews and he starts reading it so I ask him, did you turn on voiceover? He did not. SO I said something like, "mate, I'm not being rude but I did mention it was a voiceover issue, you're not going to see this without it as it's under the hood."

He's all like, I understand, then says he's going to turn it on through settings, so I ask him something that I should have asked earlier, "are you on IOS?" "Oh no, I'm not a fan of Apple. DO you have your talkback on ios then?"

I explained that I'd already mentioned that i'm a voiceover user, and then he wanted to put me through to the technical department or something but I'd had enough and just told him I'm going to hang up and after a bit more chat, we did.

I'm so tired of these "accessibility experts" who know nothing about the disabilities they're meant to be experts in.

I'd complain but it would go nowhere.

If anyone wants to try and contact them or email them the steps are at the following link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=T2wCNJAWHx7XkL7DJA

Seems like you have to swipe forever to get to the information about a product. And sometimes skips over the description of a product but when swiping backwards, you can finally get to it. Can be frustrating but still usable. But like Holger said, the web site is still working well with Jaws and Edge.

Well accessibility is under attack by current administration.

I'd highly recommend the ai feature button thing. I forget its name now but it's usually found near the top of the page and it's a button so if you switch to buttons on the rotor then swipe down once, when you're at the top, you should find it.

It's one thing I actually like about amazon and AI these days.

@Brad,

I've never used it, but I typically do ok old school, using Windows plus Firefox plus NVDA. 🤷

It's the Product summary button, with the shortcuts it's alt shift d, it's odd how they've layed out the shortcut commands as shift alt d instead of alt shift d but it's more proof these people do not understand how blindness stuff works.

I'm old school too but lazy so will use the phone when I can.

@Brad,

Oh yeah, the shortcuts themselves are fine, but the way they are printed on the page is kinda dumb. Sidenote, adblockers help with the additional ad spammage.
As for AI, the AI on the iOS app is called Rufus, so I figure its the same on the web. 🙂

I forgot I was using one.

I don't find many adds on the IOS app so was confused when people mentioned them but I then remember I'm using an add blocker, UBlocker Perhaps? i'm unsure, it doesn't matter that much, they all do the same thing in this sense anyway.

Don't forget, as of iOS 18 you can add an ARIA live regions toggle to the VO rotor and the setting is saved per-app. Doesn't solve the whole problem but if these chatty ads get past your defences this is one more tool in the armoury. I used the app today and while it's not a picnic I did get my repeat order done and dusted in reasonable time so, at least for now, I'll join the chorus of indignation but not proclaim an emergency. Yet.

And it's pretty easy to use. Do have your credit card info handy when you check out. Enjoy! Bruce
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