Hi Paul,
You think the iOS app is bad, the Android app is worse. It consists of a
web view that mostly freezes Talkback. Louisa from RNIB said they had users
who use the Android app, but I reckon they must have low vision as opposed
to being totally blind, since the app is pretty sluggish on Android at best.
Last Email I got, Louisa said Overdrive had made some ten changes to do with
accessibility, but I haven't seen an update yet.
I am using a Vanilla Android Google Nexus 5 on Kitkat, V4.4.4. They don't
come much more vanilla than that, but I am not impressed with the app so
far.
Oh yes, and don't even think about trying to sign in with Facebook, the Sign
In button doesn't work.
So yes, Audible is way better and they are improving accessibility all the
time.
I quite like the RNIB service, but I don't like the Overdrive app, no real
thought has gone into accessibility with it on Android. Other problem is
there seems to be no way to contact Overdrive re accessibility. I contacted
them generally and never received a reply. So how committed Overdrive are
to accessibility I am not sure at this point. I am also not sure it was a
great choice by RNIB, but I haven't tried any of the other library offerings
except Audible, which is fantastic for accessibility and just proves it can
be done and done well.
Challenge to RNIB, if you give me a contact within Overdrive who is
technical enough to understand the accessibility problems with the Android
app, I will try to help or at least point them to resources.
All the best
Steve
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-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Paul Warner
Sent: 27 September 2014 18:59
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] RNIB Overdrive IOS app
Having received my welcome email with instructions attached, I
downloaded the Overdrive app from the App Store - and it took me ages to
get my first book onto my iPod Touch.
The first thing I noticed on my fourth gen iPod Touch running IOS 6.1 is
that the Overdrive app (which is not made by RNIB) is not fully
VoiceOver compliant. On most of its screens, you have to explore by
touch in order to access all of the available controls. You can't always
swipe from one control to another. That's confusing and it means that
you can't use a bluetooth keyboard for all navigation.
Unlike the Audible app, where books to be downloaded are listed along
with downloaded books in the main screen of the app itself, you have to
navigate to the download section on the library Web page after 'checking
out' the desired title after selecting the borrow button. This is not
obvious and, given the fact that the RNIB library is Web based as
opposed to being presented in a cut-down form within the Overdrive app,
it can take some time to find the title you want to download. It just
feels like there are too many steps and that the steps are not presented
in a logical step-by-step way, at least compared to the Audible experience.
Anyway, having audio books available for download like this from the
RNIB is just great and I have already started on my first downloaded book.
Paul
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