Modern XMPP project discussion - 2019-11-18

This is a German blog post, but I trust, that you will find a way to translate it, if necessary: "More accessibility in Matrix and Riot". The user is happy, that newer versions of Riot improved a11y (short for accessibility) in the web version as well as on iOS and Android. I wonder, whether there is any coordinated work or guidelines for client developers for XMPP? Or whether the community sees any need in that direction? https://marcos-leben.de/2019/11/17/mehr-barrierefreiheit-bei-matrix-und-riot/

Feel free to show them the way :)

I see the need

and I have a person who’s happy to help with accessibility matters (a screenreader user) for free software

the only request they have before doing manual testing and making suggestions is that you exhausted the automated checks available for the respective platform

they also helped me with optimizing search.jabber.network

(and I bet they’ll also make suggestions on automated tools to use on your platform if you don’t know any)

MattJ, I'm myself a total git when it comes to UIs. Let alone a11y.

Accessibility is part of UX, it's totally within scope of this project (we already have some notes about it)

I wish I knew enough to do useful testing on my own.

Maybe we need an XMPP A11y Sprint?

Ge0rG an a11y sprint sounds useful, as long as it is well-prepared, i.e. people know beforehand what it's all about. It's a complex issue and free software has a bad history of not caring about a11y at all - or breaking it as soon as it works. Probably because of the "scratch your own itch" approach. Most people are not blind etc. so such minorities easily ignored.

Also, it seems that Apple has the best products for blind people at the moment and we know how good XMPP works on iOS...

I’d not say "not caring", but rather "it’s another complex field and we don’t know enough and not enough time and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"