I would like to flog a (still live) horse and point out that Discord is even worse. I would even go as far as to say that Discord’s design is aggressively thoughtless for the visually impaired.
My company uses Discord for comms and I’m active in several Discord communities, but my vision impaired co-worker isn’t. Not because of a lack of want, but because Discord has been coasting on accessible design for years. https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4tn00z/when_wil...
Everything takes more resources than we expect, but surely a theme for their client (we do have some proof that it is theme-able) that is friendlier for screen readers shouldn’t take more time than an entire games store?
For me, the big takeaway from hearing about Slack’s issues and contrasting it with Discord is that people just don’t seem to care. And that’s often the status quo until an Apple comes along. We forget this, but back before the resurgence of Apple, design was an afterthought, not a forethought even though there were obvious gains to be had and a better future to lead towards. But the vast majority of companies avoided the obvious win until Apple’s stock price shocked them into caring.
A significant fraction of everyone’s user base (including the core users) would benefit from accessible and thoughtful design, because like the article says, we’re all disabled sometimes. Now, we just need to figure out which company will have to show the world how to do it.
Discord also has a record of cracking down on 3rd party clients, so if someone wanted to make a more accessible text-based replacement for their electron app, they can't.
Most UI designers don't care about accessibility either. In fact, I would say that many designers have aesthetic preferences that are actively hostile to accessibility.
> I would even go as far as to say that Discord’s design is aggressively thoughtless for the visually impaired.
I'd take that further. Discord's UX drives me to despair. It's like no other chat app (which is my basic use-case). Multi-party voice is awkward, much of the interface doesn't lend itself to self-explanation, etc.
edit: The reason for using discord vs anything else is the need for a voice chat app in-game since some party members have issues with steam, and what other decent options are there that don't require self-hosting?
My company uses Discord for comms and I’m active in several Discord communities, but my vision impaired co-worker isn’t. Not because of a lack of want, but because Discord has been coasting on accessible design for years. https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/4tn00z/when_wil...
Everything takes more resources than we expect, but surely a theme for their client (we do have some proof that it is theme-able) that is friendlier for screen readers shouldn’t take more time than an entire games store?
For me, the big takeaway from hearing about Slack’s issues and contrasting it with Discord is that people just don’t seem to care. And that’s often the status quo until an Apple comes along. We forget this, but back before the resurgence of Apple, design was an afterthought, not a forethought even though there were obvious gains to be had and a better future to lead towards. But the vast majority of companies avoided the obvious win until Apple’s stock price shocked them into caring.
A significant fraction of everyone’s user base (including the core users) would benefit from accessible and thoughtful design, because like the article says, we’re all disabled sometimes. Now, we just need to figure out which company will have to show the world how to do it.