The Idea Place Posts

Major League Baseball (MLB) released an update to their At Bat iPhone app today. All I can say is what a disappointment. While they did fix an issue with buttons to indicate radio stations when playing audio missing names for VoiceOver, as near as I can determine none of the other major accessibility bugs, such as those I detailed recently, have been addressed.

 

The ironic thing is that the issue of station buttons being nameless is something MLB broke two app updates ago. Taking the glass is half full perspective one I suppose can be appreciative that MLB fixed what they broke. But the fact that basic things like button names were broke in the first place has to call into question MLB’s claims that they are taking accessibility seriously. Fixing what was working because poor attention to accessibility broke it is not progress. Failing to address fundamental problems like player details on the At Bat roster pages reading is nothing more than comma after comma, well sorry but that’s not being committed to accessibility.

 

What I find interesting is that when I first reported the station name problem to MLB a few weeks ago, they called me several times ensuring me there wasn’t a problem. I ended up having a 30 minute conversation with a phone representative who told me at least five times they knew all about VoiceOver and that there were no problems. Only when I convinced this person to turn VoiceOver on and demonstrated that there was an actual problem, did this person stop telling me nothing was wrong. Ironically the individual who told me they knew all about VoiceOver then asked me how to turn it off because “we are not allowed to keep VoiceOver running on our phones.”

 

I work in the software business. I know it takes time to fix issues and all. MLB has gone out of their way to state loudly that they care about accessibility. I think it is then within reason to expect them to demonstrate this commitment with actions and not just words.

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I use several iPhone apps on a regular basis and there are services like AppleVis that do a good job of cataloging the accessibility of iPhone apps overall. That said in the past couple days I’ve started using a couple apps that I wanted to call out because of the potential they represent. VizWiz and Ariadne GPS both show promise at answering questions about what’s around you.

 

VisWiz

 

The basic premise behind VizWiz is straight forward. Take a picture of something you want identified and use the power of technology and social networking to identify the item. The app uses a combination of services and contacts from your social network to return answers. In my use of the app so far, it has proven helpful at answering basic questions with answers returned from IQ Engines and web workers. Note that IQ Engines is what powers a handy iPhone app called oMoby.

 

Ariadne GPS

 

I’ve used this app for less than a day but it strikes me as being very innovative. Of particular interest to me is the ability to explore a map based on touch. My previous map experience was with a couple different apps from Sendero but those were based on keyboard navigation of maps.

 

If you try Ariadne GPS, you’ll want to take a read about all the Features and take note that settings for the app are accessed from the settings option for the iPhone in general and not within Ariadne. There are several items related to the map you can adjust that change how things behave. For example I’ve changed to an advance mode that requires more preciseness for touching objects but in my use makes building a mental model of the map a bit easier.

 

The GPS functionality of Ariadne GPS is also of value. Turning on a monitor mode, you can be alerted to addresses as you pass them. The app also has limited point of interest functionality. You can add points of interest based on current location and then be alerted when you are close to those points.

 

Ariadne is a bit rough around the edges but as I say shows promise. For example when you use a feature knows as Explore Region, you are prompted to enter a street and city. If multiple matches are found, you must select from a list that presents you the street name and distance from your current location. No city names are presented in this list which makes things a bit tough.

 

Also, after using this feature, the app gets a bit confused about your current location. I’m located in Redmond, Washington and used the Explore Option to view Madison, Wisconsin. Now the app tells me my current location is in Redmond, Dane. Note that Dane is the county where Madison is located.

 

Overall

 

I don’t know what the future for VizWiz and Ariadne GPS holds. I’m hopeful we have more development of both apps. Ariadne GPS in particular has captivated my attention because accessible maps and GPS technology can do so much to help us understand our surroundings. If you enjoy technology, take one or both of these apps for a spin. VizWiz is free and Ariadne GPS a $2.99 purchase.

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This year I opted to give MLB’s At Bat 11 iPhone app a try for live baseball game audio. The app works relatively well with VoiceOver on the iPhone and has been a nice way to stay in touch with my favorite teams.

 

While At Bat 11 has many positives, accessibility issues remain that range from the completely inaccessible to the inconvenient. It would be nice to see MLB address some of these before next season. I have shared this feedback with MLB according to instructions on their accessibility page.

 

Note that in the following descriptions, all names refer to names as read by VoiceOver on the iPhone. This is a first list of issues I’ve experienced that I’d like to see improved.

 

Team Schedules do Not Read With voiceOver

 

Steps To Reproduce

 

1. Launch VoiceOver if it isn’t running.  This can be found on the iPhone under Settings:General:Accessibility:VoiceOver.  Note when VoiceOver is running, items that activate with a single touch require a double tap to activate.
2. Launch At Bat.
3. In the lower right corner of the app is a button VoiceOver announces as More.  Activate this.
4. Choose teams from the resulting page.
5. Choose a specific team.
6. On the team page, choose schedule and results.
7. Now touch anyplace on the schedule.

 

Result:

 

VoiceOver is not able to read any schedule detail from either list or month view. Further buttons that appear to advance the schedule are nameless.

 

Player Details Reported As Comma

 

Steps to Reproduce

 

1. From the home screen of At Bat, activate the More button in the lower right of the screen.
2. Activate teams on the resulting screen.
3. Select a team. In my case I chose the Milwaukee Brewers.
4. On the team page, select Roster.
5. Now choose a player. In this example I chose Ryan Braun.
6. Now note how the player details are read.

 

Results

 

Aside from headings that include the player’s name, number and position along with things like regular, situational splits and last 10, the entire page reads as nothing more than a series of commas. Certainly this should be improved so the actual details displayed are read by VoiceOver.

 

Data From Multiple Rows Read in Box Scores When Moving By Row

 

Steps to Reproduce

 

1. Locate the box score for a game. In my example I’m using the box score from a May 22^nd game between Milwaukee and Colorado chosen off the scoreboard from the opening page of At Bat.
2. Locate the table that starts with the column 1 item of player. In my example I changed to details for the Brewers.
3. Switch VoiceOver’s rotor setting to rows. This allows you to quickly move down a given column in the table.
4. With VoiceOver focus on the word player, use the sweep down and sweep up gestures to move down the player column of the box score.

 

Results

 

In this scenario, focus is starting at row one column one of the table on the player column header. You would expect the first sweep down to move to row two column one and read the player name. What you should have read is Weeks, 2B. Instead what is read is Hart, C RF Weeks, 2B. In other words, the data from row three, column one and row two column 1 is combine with the data from row three read first and all data read as if it appeared in row two column 1. You can verify this by sweeping right once and then left once where you will find that the Weeks, 2B value is now read correctly.

 

This pattern of combining one row ahead of where you should be with the current row continues as you move down all rows in the table. Switch to the sweep up gesture and you start to hear the player details one row above the current row combined with the current row. So in either case you need to ignore the first player name you hear and know that it is the second name that reflects reality.

 

In my use of VoiceOver to read tables, the combining of data from multiple rows does not appear to be a common problem. So far MLB’s At Bat app is the only place I’ve experienced this.

 

Stadium Map With Nameless Buttons

 

Steps to Reproduce

 

1. From the home screen of At Bat, activate the More button in the lower right of the screen.
2. Choose the At the Ballpark option.
3. Choose a stadium.
4. From the stadium page, choose Stadium Map and Directory.

 

Results

 

The default here is some sort of map. All buttons on the map however are nameless and reported strictly as button by VoiceOver. Having more meaningful names would be a positive.

 

The list functionality in the directory feature is excellent. What is especially nice is that when you are at a game and you choose some of the directory entries, you get details about the entry based on the closest entry to you when there are multiple locations. For example when at a recent Mariners game, I was quickly able to locate the closest hotdog stand to my actual seat.

 

Conclusions

 

This is not the first time I’ve written about MLB and accessibility. I still believe the track record is mixed, and I am surprised to see issues like the comma for data on player pages issue I reported here present for an organization that has taken such a public stand on being committed to accessibility. That is simply something that is broken and easily discoverable with little knowledge of accessibility or VoiceOver in my opinion. It would be interesting to understand how MLB accessibility testing happens to see how issues like the comma issue fall through the cracks.

 

More Details on iPhone Accessibility

 

This is by no means comprehensive but here are a few references on iPhone and iOS accessibility.

 

Accessibility for iPhone and iPad apps by Matt Legend Gemmell – Worth a read just to understand accessibility independent of the operating system. The Myths section of this post is great.

Accessibility – iOS Technology Overview – Apple developer info on all things accessible in iOS.

iOS App Accessibility – Humanising Technology Blog – Another good overview of how VoiceOver works and some basics on iOS accessibility

 

Response From MLB

 

Update:

 

Today, May 23^rd, I received a call from one of MLB’s contacts in accessibility in response to an email I sent that detailed all the issues in this blog post. In that phone call MLB indicated they could reproduce all the issues I described here. The contact indicated that it was too late to address any of the issues for the next release of MLB’s At Bat app due out shortly. I asked when we might see any of these issues addressed and was told that MLB was planning a second update shortly before the 2011 MLB All-Star game that would be the first opportunity to address these issues.

 

I consider today’s response a step in the right direction. Admittedly I have no idea whether the issues will be fixed or not and if they are fixed when that might be beyond what I was told today. But acknowledging the issues are present to me is a start.

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Blog readers may recall my earlier writing about struggles with the online media experiences for streaming Badger athletic events. It is disappointing to this Badger alum and fan to once again have to point out that Wisconsin Athletics seems to show little care for web accessibility.

 

A posting from the Wisconsin Athletics (UWBadgersdotcom) twitter account earlier today said, “A @BadgerFootball game is better with family & friends. Check out great group tix packages that include free concessions. http://ow.ly/4zwVr.”

 

Well I’m always looking for good reasons to visit Wisconsin and the idea of a family outing at a Badger football game later this year captivated me. Sadly, following the link in this tweet leads to http://wisconsinfootball2011.com/, a web site that was clearly created with no attention to accessibility.

 

Using the latest release of multiple screen readers for Windows, you experience a web site that makes extensive use of Adobe’s Flash. You can read some buttons with labels including one titled Group Tickets. Presumably this is the one I’d want. Activating any of the buttons, including the previously mentioned Group Tickets button, fails to change the content that a screen reader reads from comments about the season this fall from head football coach Bret Belema. In addition, there are multiple buttons in this Flash content that have no labels for accessibility purposes.

 

It is common for Bielema to end interviews as he does in the statement on this web site with the phrase, “On, Wisconsin!”

 

Sadly I must add to this and say, “Shame on Wisconsin!” Shame on the university for ignoring both the legal and ethical responsibilities you have to take accessibility, including that for the web, seriously. This is not the first instance of such behavior. One can only hope it will be the last and that the university will institute policies and follow the same to ensure that accessibility is taken seriously.

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I’ve heard nothing but positive things around the people behind SXSW and accessibility over the years. This posting is not meant to detract from those efforts. In fact, all things being equal, I think most people who put content online would prefer it to be accessible. I do not think people go out of their way to make content inaccessible but rather often do not extend the effort to make content accessible so are left with the default result of whatever process their content publishing tools use.

 

Visiting one of the pages on the SXSW site talking about attending, this is what greets users of screen reading software.

 

icon_hotelmap.jpg

sxsw_go_2011.jpg

-1_23.jpg

sxsw_tech_summit-4.jpg

comedy11_bug.jpg

stylex_171x80.png

sxsw_hiring_hubproof.jpg

 

Looking at the source HTML, we see that the screen reader is doing exactly what’s expected. Namely, it is presenting the alt text, albeit rather confusing in this case. I’m not sure how one should know that -1_23.jpg equals something about iTunes.

 

<A href=”http://www.itunes.com/sxsw” jQuery1300063703657=”50″><IMG class=centerednb alt=-1_23.jpg src=”/sites/sxsw.com/files/-1_23.jpg” width=171 height=84></A>

 

At times I’ve experienced progress but believe the web has a long journey before even something as simple as meaningful alternative text is eliminated as a basic accessibility problem.

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I’ve written previously about frustrations with the Pandora music service to take accessibility seriously and address the shortcomings with the sign in process and the Flash in general used on the web site. While Pandora hasn’t changed the basic response of get someone to help you sign in or lack of addressing accessibility, I am delighted to announce there is Hope for Pandora.

 

Hope in this case is an accessible Windows Pandora client created by the same developer who is the driving force for the wildly popular Qwitter Twitter client used by many computer users who are blind. At a cost of $10, Hope is well worth the investment for the functionality the client makes available today and to support continued work from this developer. With the first release of Hope happening just a few days ago, and the track record I’ve seen of improvements from the developer, this is something I’m more than willing to support.

 

You can learn more about Hope from the product’s readme document.

 

Since I have talked about Pandora accessibility previously, it is worth mentioning that the iPhone version of the Pandora client works well with VoiceOver, Apple’s screen reader. And should you be curious how easy it is to create accessible apps for the iPhone or iPad, read one of the best articles I’ve ever read on accessible software development. Even if you have no interest in the iPhone or iPad, read the article because it does a great job at knocking down many of the myths I’ve heard over and over about how people who have visual impairments use or do not use software.

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People who know me in person know that I’m from Wisconsin and a fan of the Green Bay Packers. Fortunes for both the Pack and accessibility have improved since I was a kid watching Packer defeat after defeat and limited to only radio coverage of the post game aftermath.

 

Today there’s a better than 50% chance the Pack will win a game and I can read all the press coverage I want from hundreds of online news sources. One of my favorites is the Packers Blog from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Packer beat reporter Greg A. Bedard is really a standout reporter and illustration of how to use a blog effectively for sports journalism.

 

Bedard recently started rating player performances after each game and a summary of what the team would do to cut the roster down to 53 by the time of the 2010 NFL campaign. The initial blogs for both of these topics featured a graphical chart for the data being discussed, which was obviously not very accessible.

 

I wrote a simple e-mail asking for a text version of the info, making the standard offer to give more details and such as needed. It was a treat then to see Bedard start including tabular versions of the data by publishing Google Docs versions of the spreadsheets I suspect he uses to generate the graphical info.

 

Oh sure, the accessibility isn’t perfect and the industry behind any tool that generates HTML can do more to make accessibility happen automatically. Hint, The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative has an authoring tool working group devoted to this very topic with guidelines out for last call review.

 

It was refreshing to have these tables just show up after one simple request without a lot of back and forth or need to convince someone that accessibility really does matter. So as they chant at Lambeau, Go Pack Go! And thanks to one beat reporter for making his work available to more of his audience.

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News stories about web site redesign tend to catch my attention in part because I’m curious to see how accessibility is on the new site. More often than not, I find a disappointing experience.

 

Today an article about Nordstrom’s web site being redesigned appeared in the Seattle Times. I have nothing against this retailer but will say this is not a shopping destination for me personally. That said, I was curious about the web site so took a browse over to http://shop.nordstrom.com/.

 

Coverage in the news story says in part:

 

Three years in the making, the new site promises easier navigation, bigger photos and a prominent place where people can express their thoughts about the latest trends.

 

Amazing, because the main navigation for the highlighted areas would fail any accessibility validation. Web site items to shop by department, brand or explore the conversation options, all use strictly OnClick behavior to expand lists of entries within those areas.

 

This is such a frequent failure in web accessibility that screen readers have worked around this problem and with several I tried you can actually expand the lists and see the entries under each area. But if as an example you are using only a keyboard to browse, you appear to be out of luck.

 

This pattern continues at the product category level and I suspect throughout the web site. As an example, try narrowing by any of the suggested options for men’s jeans.

 

Then there is mystery flash again used on the site. I say mystery because it would appear that the Flash content fails to take advantage of the accessibility options for making Flash accessible from Adobe.

 

Web accessibility has a long journey to go. I’m sure the folks at Nordstrom didn’t set out to build a site with basic accessibility challenges. I don’t know if they attempted to ensure accessibility and as I said at the start, just happened to browse this site because an article caught my attention in the news. We need more education, awareness, application of standards and just an overall sense that accessibility matters or else we’ll continually be stuck in the state of having to advocate on a site by site basis for accessibility.

 

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