New Member
Hello all, a member of my ward who is blind has recently been trying to use the church website but has found some of the interfaces completely unusable. He went through some of the steps with a missionary (fully sighted) to get himself unblocked, but recorded his experience which I will share below. Is there someone on the church website team that is focused on accessibility?
Here are his specific observations:
The website churchofjesuschrist.org, is not accessible to blind and visually impaired screen reader users for the following reasons.
1. Form fields are mislabeled.
2. Web elements such as buttons are mislabeled.
3. Redirect to a new page does not explain the structure or architecture of page.
4. Critical buttons are hidden.
DETAIL
1. Form Fields
All Form Fields are mislabeled. I encountered this problem when I went to recover my login credentials.
First the recovery page does not announce that now I am on recovery page. The recovery page has many form fields.
The Membership Number field reads NAME. Elder Carter who is fully sighted told me that this is where I should enter my Membership Number. For a visually impaired screen reader user, it is impossible to tell where to enter Number, when the form is saying NAME.
The next form field should be email as Elder Carter pointed to me. The screen reader calls it NAME.
The next form field is for telephone number. The screen reader calls it NAME.
As you can see, all these form fields are not labeled correctly and as such they are completely inaccessible to screen reader users.
2 & 3. Web elements such as Buttons mislabeled and redirect to a new page does not explain the structure or architecture of page.
After completing the above fields, the next step is to hit the NEXT button. This Button is labeled membership primary 1.
When I tab once the next button reads MEMBERSHIP PRIMARY 2. This second button is the BACK button. So going back is membership primary 2. confusing.
So, I hit membership Primary 1, which redirected to another page.
On this new page, the screen reader announced Church of Jesus Christ, and then it went silent.
Normally on a new page, the screen reader should announce the basic architecture of the page. For example, it should say, this page has three regions, 8 links, 3 radial buttons, 4 form fields.
Hitting letter R should take me to different regions. Eventually reaching the Main Region where the main content is located.
On the website, hitting letter R, does not navigate Regions. It says nothing.
Elder Carter told me that the page is asking me whether I want the Two Factor Authentication token to be sent to my email or to my phone.
So, he clicked on the radial button that selects phone.
Tabbing once goes to what is labeled NEXT button. The screen reader however calls it MEMBERSHIP PRIMARY 1. Again, the back button is membership primary 2.
I received an 8-numeral token. Eight numerals are too many to remember. Four would suffice.
After hitting the Membership Primary 1, I was redirected to another page, which again did not explain the architecture. Elder Carter helped to put the cursor on the form field where to enter the token for the 2-factor authentication. Again, the screen reader said NAME. In this way a screen reader user cannot know that this is where to put the token.
After we put the token. I tabbed to the button that is supposed to say NEXT. Instead, this button says TOKEN PRIMARY 1. The Back button says, TOKEN PRIMARY 2.
Finally, we did all this, and I recovered my login credentials. I could not do this using the screen reader.
4. Critical Buttons are Hidden
After account recovery, my next task was to figure how to access the Button for Tithing.
That Button is totally out of reach. In other words, it is not obvious where to find it on the Member Dashboard.
I hope that these observations help many Brothers and Sisters who are visually impaired and are using the screen reader.
Here are his specific observations:
The website churchofjesuschrist.org, is not accessible to blind and visually impaired screen reader users for the following reasons.
1. Form fields are mislabeled.
2. Web elements such as buttons are mislabeled.
3. Redirect to a new page does not explain the structure or architecture of page.
4. Critical buttons are hidden.
DETAIL
1. Form Fields
All Form Fields are mislabeled. I encountered this problem when I went to recover my login credentials.
First the recovery page does not announce that now I am on recovery page. The recovery page has many form fields.
The Membership Number field reads NAME. Elder Carter who is fully sighted told me that this is where I should enter my Membership Number. For a visually impaired screen reader user, it is impossible to tell where to enter Number, when the form is saying NAME.
The next form field should be email as Elder Carter pointed to me. The screen reader calls it NAME.
The next form field is for telephone number. The screen reader calls it NAME.
As you can see, all these form fields are not labeled correctly and as such they are completely inaccessible to screen reader users.
2 & 3. Web elements such as Buttons mislabeled and redirect to a new page does not explain the structure or architecture of page.
After completing the above fields, the next step is to hit the NEXT button. This Button is labeled membership primary 1.
When I tab once the next button reads MEMBERSHIP PRIMARY 2. This second button is the BACK button. So going back is membership primary 2. confusing.
So, I hit membership Primary 1, which redirected to another page.
On this new page, the screen reader announced Church of Jesus Christ, and then it went silent.
Normally on a new page, the screen reader should announce the basic architecture of the page. For example, it should say, this page has three regions, 8 links, 3 radial buttons, 4 form fields.
Hitting letter R should take me to different regions. Eventually reaching the Main Region where the main content is located.
On the website, hitting letter R, does not navigate Regions. It says nothing.
Elder Carter told me that the page is asking me whether I want the Two Factor Authentication token to be sent to my email or to my phone.
So, he clicked on the radial button that selects phone.
Tabbing once goes to what is labeled NEXT button. The screen reader however calls it MEMBERSHIP PRIMARY 1. Again, the back button is membership primary 2.
I received an 8-numeral token. Eight numerals are too many to remember. Four would suffice.
After hitting the Membership Primary 1, I was redirected to another page, which again did not explain the architecture. Elder Carter helped to put the cursor on the form field where to enter the token for the 2-factor authentication. Again, the screen reader said NAME. In this way a screen reader user cannot know that this is where to put the token.
After we put the token. I tabbed to the button that is supposed to say NEXT. Instead, this button says TOKEN PRIMARY 1. The Back button says, TOKEN PRIMARY 2.
Finally, we did all this, and I recovered my login credentials. I could not do this using the screen reader.
4. Critical Buttons are Hidden
After account recovery, my next task was to figure how to access the Button for Tithing.
That Button is totally out of reach. In other words, it is not obvious where to find it on the Member Dashboard.
I hope that these observations help many Brothers and Sisters who are visually impaired and are using the screen reader.
