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Keith N
Keith N
Sonos Staff
May 6, 2024

New Sonos App and Accessibility

  • May 6, 2024
  • 55 replies
  • 10255 views

At Sonos, we take accessibility seriously and aim to build listening experiences that everyone can enjoy.

 

The redesigned Sonos app was built from the ground up to support both modern and future Sonos experiences, and as part of that, we’ll be implementing ongoing improvements and enhancements over time. On May 7, the app will have basic support for screen readers, allowing you to swipe through and read through all items on the screen. Following launch, ongoing improvements to the accessibility of the updated mobile app will remain a top priority. A software release available May 21 will improve screen readers so you can select items on screen in any order. Further improvement will be added to the experience regularly until we reach parity with the S2 app by late June. 

 

In the meantime, the Sonos Windows and Mac applications will continue to operate as normal until our new web app has met our accessibility standards.

 

Thank you for your patience as we continuously improve the accessibility of the Sonos app. 

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    Pinned Reply By Corry P

    Hi All

    This thread is related to Accessibility functionality of the new app. Any further off-topic comments will be removed. 

    There are plenty of other threads relating to the new app that are not about Accessibility - please feel free to post to them instead.

    55 replies

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    Bumper
    Bumper
    May 8, 2024

    OK, that rules out that theory then. :)

    I’m not sure what’s going on, but it is broken for more than just me. Very intriguing and frustrating.

    I’ve had apple music issues with sonos in the past and removing and then re-adding the service has worked, as well as deleting the app and then reinstalling. I’m clearly grasping at straws but that’s all I’ve got.

    MattMC
    Lyricist II
    May 8, 2024

    This whole experience has been extremely disheartening from Sonos and has shattered your reputation and trust in the blind community. You've demonstrated your commitment to accessibility by releasing an app that completely locks out blind and low vision customers and seemed to deprioritize accessibility until the very end.
    If accessibility is so important to the company, could you have not waited two weeks until the stated fixes were implemented?
    I can no longer recommend Sonos as an inclusive and accessible brand that truly wants all customers to listen better. At the very least, Sonos needs to not only ensure their apps are fully accessible and efficient as soon as possible, but build accessibility and experiences from disabled users from the very beginning to ensure this never happens again.

      jmosen
      Trending Lyricist I
      May 8, 2024

      Well, deleting and reinstalling is no longer an option I’m afraid.

      Bumper
      Bumper
      May 8, 2024

      Well, deleting and reinstalling is no longer an option I’m afraid.

      What I mean is deleting the new app and  reinstalling it again. It will trigger the new on boarding, which if it’s an account issue this may fix. 

      PatBouchard
      Lyricist II
      May 8, 2024

      I’m a VoiceOver user and I'm also experiencing the issues with Apple Music. I can select albums, artists, etc but after that, VoiceOver no longer reads any text labels. I haven’t updated to the new Sonos app on any of my devices, I have not been asked to reauthorize Apple Music, and I have only one AM account. I’ve changed absolutely nothing on my end, and it still broke.

        PatBouchard
        Lyricist II
        May 8, 2024

        Apologies if double posting is frowned upon here, but either posts can’t be edited or that’s another thing that’s inaccessible.

         

        I think cover images might have something to do with what VoiceOver can no longer read. It still reads artist names, and if you manage to get into an album, it reads the track titles. It’s album names, and album and station buttons on the main Apple Music screen, that VoiceOver no longer reads labels for.

         

        Also this is not limited to iOS. Album names on the Windows app are no longer read by JAWS or NVDA.

          Magggus
          Lyricist I
          May 8, 2024
          1. Bring back the old S2 app
            2. Bring back full functionally to the new app or your company is doomed
            PatBouchard
            Lyricist II
            May 8, 2024

            The Apple Music issue seems to be fixed on my end. Both iOS and Windows are back to normal for me.

            Bumper
            Bumper
            May 8, 2024

            The Apple Music issue seems to be fixed on my end. Both iOS and Windows are back to normal for me.

            What do you think was the issue or did you do anything to fix it? 

            PatBouchard
            Lyricist II
            May 8, 2024

            The Apple Music issue seems to be fixed on my end. Both iOS and Windows are back to normal for me.

            What do you think was the issue or did you do anything to fix it? 

            I didn’t do anything at all. Just checked it an hour later and it was back to the way it was. As @Jmosen said, it was probably server side. Something in the content that gets pushed when you access Apple Music.

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