Please make Dropbox Paper screen-reader accessible

[Tim P.3]

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.

[Emmet]

Hi all!

We just wanted to let you know that the team is working on this idea!

Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us and to everyone for supporting it. 

We’ll update you when we know more!

See you around the Community and stay safe! 

[Emmet]

Hi all!

We just wanted to let you know that the team is working on this idea!

Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us and to everyone for supporting it. 

We’ll update you when we know more!

See you around the Community and stay safe! 

[Mallory G.]

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.

[Panagiotis A.1]

I strongly endorse any action that will make dropbox features accessible to its disabled clients.

[Simon E.]

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/79... 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.

[persis h.]

We'd really like to use Dropbox across government to share our work. But we can't because of the issue with screenreaders. 

Please fix it.

[Carol B.2]

We collaborate with our colleagues using screen readers. Please let them come into Dropbox Paper too, otherwise it's not usable for us.  Please fix.

[Mia A.]

Paper needs to be accessible. Let's do it, Dropbox!

[Mr Bootle]

Having seen first hand the positive impact and difference in making a website, application or service accessible I implore you to do so with Paper.

[Sue D.1]

Please fix this so we can use and recommend DropBox Paper.

[Henry C.]

Dropbox has a duty to make sure their services are accessible by everybody.

[Gaz A.]

a11y plz!