What is your opinions on the discord app? iPhone, android Mac windows.. To be honest, the apps aren’t really accessible and they are rather annoying to get around. So what’s your opinions and thoughts in the comments below?
I agree that screen reader accessibility has improved by a lot. However, it's still clunky, particularly on Windows with NVDA. I find the best way to use it is to turn browse mode off and use it like a standard application instead of a webpage. I haven't tried it on macOS, though it might be easier to use since VoiceOver doesn't have the concept of a virtual buffer.
Discord is fantastic. Don't use browse mode, as another commenter said, but other than that it's a fantastic application. It's got plenty of shortcut keys that are easy to find, plenty of customization options, you can easily see all of your unread messages in one place, it's just a fantastic program. However on iOS it still has a few annoying issues I'd like to see fixed but until then, Windows is the place to be.
I dearly wish Applevis would offer a tutorial, but maybe I should doublecheck to be sure there isn't one? Anyway, clunky definitely applies. I've been beating my head against the MacOS and IOS apps for around two months, trying to learn them, and the learning curve is not not not easy at all.
Here's a link to my guide for using Discord on MacOS. Discord is clunky, but once you find a workflow and develop the necessary muscle memory, it's usable.
I have a theory about the origin of Discord's insane keyboard interface. Discord was developed by sighted gamers. Because they're gamers, they like to keep their hands on the keyboard. Because they're sighted, they have no clue about how to design an interface that works with screen readers. The result is an esoteric palette of keyboard shortcuts for tasks that could have easily been assigned to existing screen reader shortcuts. That's my theory, for what it's worth.
I tried the iOS app but found it frustratingly difficult to do what I was already able to do with MacOS, so I gave up.
I don't know where this idea of Discord not being very accessible came from. It wasn't great in the past, but it's working great now. I use it everyday. Admittedly, I don't use servers very much.
It works pretty well on iOS and isn't that hard to get around. The only issue is switching the camera from back to front (or vice versa) when in a video call. similar for MacOS. I found the easiest way to get around on MacOS was using the Web Rotor (VO + U). The servers sidebar is hell on MacOS, but you can use the Quick Switcher (Command + K).
It works best on Windows though, but that's all Electron apps from what I've heard. It works pretty good on Android as well, similar to the iOS app, but admittedly I haven't used it that extensively on Android.
Disclaimer: I did not write this, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.
Below isa link to a guide you all might find useful. It covers Discord on JAWS and NVDA, as well as iOS. For JAWS exclussively, there is a download for Discord scripts as wel.
I very much like Discord. The staff are very quick to respond to accessibility issues at least on iOS (where I use it most). I am guessing it might have a pretty steep learning curve if you've never used old chat apps like AOL Instant Messenger, but once you get the hang of how things are organized it is pretty easy to use. I definitely recommend checking out a guide to it.
I agree, Discord makes it way to easy to accidentally jump to the top of an old and very long conversation. This is almost never what any user would want to do. In contrast, Discord makes it quite difficult to jump to the first unread post, which I would think most users would want to do.
Here's some tips that might help.
Discord on Mac is organized as three lists - servers, conversation, and members - that you move between with VO+Command+X and VO+Command+Shift+X.
It might seem tempting to navigate through content using VO+Right Arrow. But if you VO+Right from the server list into the conversation list, this will put VO focus on the oldest post in a conversation. Because Discord dynamically loads content, this action will probably take a couple of seconds to complete.
To keep focus in more recent posts at the end of the conversation, don't do that. (LOL.)
One way to avoid it is to VO+Command+X to the members list, then VO+Command+Shift+H to move backwards through headers. This will read the header for the most recent posts in backwards order.
Another solution, and one I use quite frequently, is to start Discord and immediately jump to the Inbox with Command+I. Then I use VO+Command+H to read through the unread post headers. From the Inbox, I can mark entire conversations as read, and use the Jump button to visit only the conversations I want to contribute to.
Full disclosure, the older I get, the less interested I am in social media stuff. I have the discord app on my iphone 13 pro, but almost never use it. I understand that it works great for some people, but for me, it seems like way, way more trouble than it's worth. Unfortunately, I can say that about most social media platforms these days, and it's even my opinion regarding an increasing number of apps.
Disclaimer: This is not present in macOS to my knowledge.
Disclaimer #2: Social media was created by the Devil to prove to mankind that God does not exist. True story. 🤨
In iOS there is a setting within the gestures menu labelled "Watch Item". It is under the "VoiceOver" heading which is found under the "Touch" category.
You can setup a custom gesture for "Watch Item", and then whenever you are in a particular part of the Discord app, lets say a live server/chat, you will always hear the latest post from any user on there, regardless of where VO is currently focused.
Ditto Missy Hoppe and Brian. The idea of creating a topic for a community to read and comment upon is not new. I used "conferencing software" on a mainframe computer back in the early 1980s and discovered Usenet news soon thereafter. It took me no small amount of time to get comfortable with Discord on MacOS. It is exhausting to learn new interfaces for new social media platforms so we can basically keep doing the same thing.
Comments
Desktop is great on both…
Desktop is great on both Windows and Mac. iOS accessible but there's still a lot of work to do.
Accessible on all platforms
Accessibility is vastly improved on all platforms. Learning how to use discord does take some time and patience though.
Very Clunky!
I agree that screen reader accessibility has improved by a lot. However, it's still clunky, particularly on Windows with NVDA. I find the best way to use it is to turn browse mode off and use it like a standard application instead of a webpage. I haven't tried it on macOS, though it might be easier to use since VoiceOver doesn't have the concept of a virtual buffer.
Discord Is Great
Discord is fantastic. Don't use browse mode, as another commenter said, but other than that it's a fantastic application. It's got plenty of shortcut keys that are easy to find, plenty of customization options, you can easily see all of your unread messages in one place, it's just a fantastic program. However on iOS it still has a few annoying issues I'd like to see fixed but until then, Windows is the place to be.
I dearly wish
I dearly wish Applevis would offer a tutorial, but maybe I should doublecheck to be sure there isn't one? Anyway, clunky definitely applies. I've been beating my head against the MacOS and IOS apps for around two months, trying to learn them, and the learning curve is not not not easy at all.
Here's how I use it
Here's a link to my guide for using Discord on MacOS. Discord is clunky, but once you find a workflow and develop the necessary muscle memory, it's usable.
I have a theory about the origin of Discord's insane keyboard interface. Discord was developed by sighted gamers. Because they're gamers, they like to keep their hands on the keyboard. Because they're sighted, they have no clue about how to design an interface that works with screen readers. The result is an esoteric palette of keyboard shortcuts for tasks that could have easily been assigned to existing screen reader shortcuts. That's my theory, for what it's worth.
I tried the iOS app but found it frustratingly difficult to do what I was already able to do with MacOS, so I gave up.
Discord is fine on windows.
It's a bit clunky but it's usable.
Discord
I don't know where this idea of Discord not being very accessible came from. It wasn't great in the past, but it's working great now. I use it everyday. Admittedly, I don't use servers very much.
It works pretty well on iOS and isn't that hard to get around. The only issue is switching the camera from back to front (or vice versa) when in a video call. similar for MacOS. I found the easiest way to get around on MacOS was using the Web Rotor (VO + U). The servers sidebar is hell on MacOS, but you can use the Quick Switcher (Command + K).
It works best on Windows though, but that's all Electron apps from what I've heard. It works pretty good on Android as well, similar to the iOS app, but admittedly I haven't used it that extensively on Android.
Honestly, Discord is fantastic.
Discord Guide
Disclaimer: I did not write this, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.
Below isa link to a guide you all might find useful. It covers Discord on JAWS and NVDA, as well as iOS. For JAWS exclussively, there is a download for Discord scripts as wel.
Source: https://www.starshipchangeling.net/discord/
Love it
I very much like Discord. The staff are very quick to respond to accessibility issues at least on iOS (where I use it most). I am guessing it might have a pretty steep learning curve if you've never used old chat apps like AOL Instant Messenger, but once you get the hang of how things are organized it is pretty easy to use. I definitely recommend checking out a guide to it.
It depends on what platform…
It depends on what platform you're using it on.
I have it on iOS and on Windows, but prefer to use it on Windows because I can do more with it, like approve new members for a server I help out on.
For iOS, it tends to lose focus a lot.
Re: How do you deal with the…
I agree, Discord makes it way to easy to accidentally jump to the top of an old and very long conversation. This is almost never what any user would want to do. In contrast, Discord makes it quite difficult to jump to the first unread post, which I would think most users would want to do.
Here's some tips that might help.
Discord on Mac is organized as three lists - servers, conversation, and members - that you move between with VO+Command+X and VO+Command+Shift+X.
It might seem tempting to navigate through content using VO+Right Arrow. But if you VO+Right from the server list into the conversation list, this will put VO focus on the oldest post in a conversation. Because Discord dynamically loads content, this action will probably take a couple of seconds to complete.
To keep focus in more recent posts at the end of the conversation, don't do that. (LOL.)
One way to avoid it is to VO+Command+X to the members list, then VO+Command+Shift+H to move backwards through headers. This will read the header for the most recent posts in backwards order.
Another solution, and one I use quite frequently, is to start Discord and immediately jump to the Inbox with Command+I. Then I use VO+Command+H to read through the unread post headers. From the Inbox, I can mark entire conversations as read, and use the Jump button to visit only the conversations I want to contribute to.
I hope that helps.
I agree with you, Dominic
Full disclosure, the older I get, the less interested I am in social media stuff. I have the discord app on my iphone 13 pro, but almost never use it. I understand that it works great for some people, but for me, it seems like way, way more trouble than it's worth. Unfortunately, I can say that about most social media platforms these days, and it's even my opinion regarding an increasing number of apps.
Watch Item Gesture
Disclaimer: This is not present in macOS to my knowledge.
Disclaimer #2: Social media was created by the Devil to prove to mankind that God does not exist. True story. 🤨
In iOS there is a setting within the gestures menu labelled "Watch Item". It is under the "VoiceOver" heading which is found under the "Touch" category.
You can setup a custom gesture for "Watch Item", and then whenever you are in a particular part of the Discord app, lets say a live server/chat, you will always hear the latest post from any user on there, regardless of where VO is currently focused.
HTH. 😎
Agreed on social media
Ditto Missy Hoppe and Brian. The idea of creating a topic for a community to read and comment upon is not new. I used "conferencing software" on a mainframe computer back in the early 1980s and discovered Usenet news soon thereafter. It took me no small amount of time to get comfortable with Discord on MacOS. It is exhausting to learn new interfaces for new social media platforms so we can basically keep doing the same thing.