Accessibility Tour of RBDigital, Version 4.7.7 on iOS
Channel: NNELS Canada
Date: 24/12/2019

Full transcript below:

Provides a tour of the RBDigital app, highlighting accessibility features. For a detailed assessment of the app, read full or summarized version of our report here: https://www.accessiblepublishing.ca/reading-app-reports/
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Transcript:

This video was made with sighted assistance. It has been produced with the generous support of the Government of Canada.
Those who are unable to read print have been listening to recorded books and magazines for decades. The idea of an app to give access to this valuable content is tremendously exciting. A few modifications to RbDigital's interface would allow everyone to truly enjoy this experience. But before we dive into some suggested improvements, let's take a quick look at why they're important.
To get the most out of a Smart-phone, those who are blind turn on voice feedback.
Voiceover on
Then, they can swipe quickly to different controls on the screen, and hear any text that appears.
Play Books
Overdrive
Libby
RbDigital
In order to navigate a screen effectively, it is important that all controls can be swiped to. Elements should be laid out in a logical order, and standard controls should be used so VoiceOver can interact with them.
We will now explore three accessibility challenges with the current version of RbDigital on IOS. We'll demonstrate Voiceover's inability to swipe through popups, controls it cannot interact with, and challenges with the magazine view. These issues make it difficult to visualize the screen layout, and harder still to interact with it.
When a menu or feature is activated, the previous screen is dimmed to form an inactive background. This is a common practice throughout the app, but presents a major challenge for VoiceOver users. Instead of being positioned on the new controls, the user is left stranded on the previous screen.
A prime example of this is the Menu button. When activated, it expands with options such as My Account and Log Out.
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However, instead of being able to swipe to these options, we can only navigate the original screen.
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The only way to access the menu field is to tap on the far-left side of the screen,
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then swipe through its controls.
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This is problematic, because blind users will not know where the menu is, or even that they have to tap it.
Another example of this is found in the Search feature. From the home screen of the app, we press Search
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then tap Search eBooks.
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At this point, we should be positioned in the Search box. Instead, Voiceover gets stuck on the dimmed background of the home screen, so it is not possible to swipe to the search controls.
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Here, we must tap the top of the screen to focus VoiceOver on the search pane,
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before its controls can be navigated.
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Unfortunately, reading a magazine with VoiceOver is quite difficult.
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Here, we press the Read button below the magazine called New York Review of Books.
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Once the magazine opens, VoiceOver is left in a non-responsive screen in which no text can be read and no controls can be swiped to.
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In order to pull up the navigation controls, we must first turn off VoiceOver,
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tap the middle of the screen to invoke the menu,
then turn VoiceOver back on.
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Now, we can tap the Text button, to move out of graphical view.
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After a lengthy wait, the first page of the magazine is exposed to VoiceOver. However, there is no way to turn the page. Instead, we have to double-tap the middle of the screen, then select the Contents button.
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Not only are the buttons here unlabeled, they cannot be swiped to, making this process nearly impossible for blind readers. Furthermore, the title of each section is not presented in text, so VoiceOver doesn't speak anything useful here.
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Most Voiceover users will not be able to carry out the above steps. The reading interface needs to be made more accessible, so it is easier to find and read articles of interest.

Controls that cannot be selected when VoiceOver is running are not limited to the magazine view. For example, in order to access reference information about a publication, you must click on the graphic of its cover from the home screen of the app. However, when you attempt to do this with VoiceOver running, nothing happens.
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It takes a lot of time and hard work to produce an app of this caliber, and we appreciate your willingness to explore increasing its accessibility. The modifications requested here can be made without impacting the visual look and feel of the interface, but will be greatly appreciated by those reading your content by voice.
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The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) is a Canadian digital public library of books in accessible formats for people who need them. Learn more at http://nnels.ca.