Hello everyone!
I’ll make this quick, I’ve been putting off emailing a few developers about accessibility inquiries because I am not confident in my ability to explain exactly what I’d be asking for. For sure I’d like to be informative, but most importantly kind. I am asking any of you who have written a lot of these emails if you would be willing to share a sort of template? i’d love to see how the best way to structure an email would be. I found a few apps, as well as websites that I would absolutely love to be able to use but that would consist of me reaching out for help.
If any of you could help and share examples or a template on what you guys use please do! Thank you so much in advance.
Comments
Accessibility email template?
Just contact the developer. Most of the time they aren't going to be aware of alternative methods of accessing their app such as using their app with VoiceOver. Just let them know what the problem is, what features of the app you cannot access or what you cannot accomplish that you would like to be able to do in order to use their app. having a background in accessibility can help, but just contacting them and making them aware of the access issues you are having can go a long way. AS an example I had previously reported that I could not rate a door dash delivery with their Star ranking system. that has now become accessible. Also, you use to have to add up all of the numbers, price of your food, taxes, commission and tip in your head if you were a voice Over user. Now they have the price attached to each next or continue button so you know the price along the way as you place an order. Just let them know what you cannot accomplish or what you would like to be able to know when using an app as a VoiceOver user. Awareness is better then a template.
Hi.
Hi.
I've done this quite a bit, and you don't really need a template. Just write to the developer, and tell them you're using Apples built in screen reader, Voiceover, and that you're having some trouble using their app.
Try to be as detailed as you can, just saying it doesn't work probably won't help, unless it's completely inaccessible, and that's all you can say, ☺️. If it's an app you already use, but there's some stuff that doesn't work, praise what you can, and explain what features you'd like to be able to use and roughly, why you can't use them - unlabelled buttons, invisible controls or information etc.
Strangely, in my experience, the smaller the development team, the more likely you are to get a response, which is odd but true, and obviously, the closer the app already is to being accessible, the more likely you are to get a result. Don't let those things stop you from writing a polite message, though, because, particularly in the Apple community, you'll often run into developers who'll make the most unlikely things work.
Help brainstorm for this website
There is a site I found that helps edit down pieces of works you paste into it. I really really wish I could use this extremely helpful tool but there is a dilemma…
It uses different colours do highlight mistakes and suggestions it has.
Here is a link to the help page that explains how it all works
http://www.hemingwayapp.com/help.html
And here is the link to the editor itself, in case you’d like to try and play around with it:
http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
If any of you can figure out a way to make this more accessible please let me know! I’ll try to get in touch with the owner to see what they think