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We’ve been keen users of Hackpad here in the UK Government for a few years now. We would like to migrate to Dropbox Paper, but it’s not currently accessible using a screen-reader.
We have vision impaired users who rely on screen-readers and we have a responsibility to support them.
We’ve looked at the code and the main issue appears to be that the application role is applied to the entire UI. This causes screen readers to stop intercepting keyboard commands and pass them back through to the browser instead.
The upshot is that a screen reader is stripped of its usual shortcuts and navigational commands, making the app unusable unless scripting is used to provide the expected keyboard support.
Collaboration tools like Paper can have a huge impact on the lives of people with access needs, but only if they're built to support the full range of technologies that people use.
Working in government on designing services, I need to be able to access knowledge being shared by colleagues across government and also take part in the discussions. As a screen reader user I struggle to do this with both Hackpad and Paper. I'm sure as a business you'd like your products and services to be used by as many people as possible, including those who have access needs.
We can't use a collaboration tool that excludes some of our most crucial team members, just because they happen to rely on screen-readers.
It would be lovely to be able to experiment with Dropbox Paper but right now, we can't even consider it.
Please fix this, Dropbox.
Let us know if there's anything the community can do to help make Paper accessible, eg ideas to improve, test etc
The web is for everyone - by making Dropbox Paper more accessible we can use it across our teams, otherwise we have to look at alternatives.
Another vote to make Paper work better. What can we do to help?
If the application role was to fix screen readers not passing on needed keystrokes to Javascript, find those parts that had that particular trouble, separate them into test cases, and ask the accessibility community what workaround(s) there are. WebAIM mailing list for example is a great place to get feedback and ideas.
We'd love to use Dropbox paper as our collaboration tool - but unfortunately are unable to due to a number of accessibility issues, particularly that a number of our colleagues who use screen readers wouldn't be able to participate.
Please consider the value in making Dropbox Paper universally usable. Accessibility means more than just access.
Please make accessible. The web should be able to be used by everyone
For Dropbox Paper to be useful in business or government, it needs to be able to be used by everyone. Diverse workforces are a good thing, diverse public sector organisations doubly so, as they will better represent the wider population.
Please treat users with access requirements with the same care and thought as you would any other potentially excluded group.
I was encouraged to see this article http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/01/28/dropbox-diversity-drew-houston-judith-williams/79175688/ about your diversity lead, but disappointed to see the focus only on gender or ethnicity issues. Accessibility and disability discrimination needs to be tackled at the same level in the organisation with the same energy.
Dropbox Paper should envision a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
