need some info on a website

  • Hello all,
    Could someone please help me and/or this site’s owner out? My site uses the WordPress built-in audio player and it works fine. However, the site linked below, which used to use that player, suddenly stopped working with screen readers a month or so ago and I, along with another friend, am not happy. Can anyone tell me what the audio player on this site is? If it’s the WordPress player, does anyone have any idea why it doesn’t work with screen readers anymore? [ redacted ]

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

  • It looks like the player is inside a div labeled powerpress_player, so I’m guessing it might possibly be related to the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting plugin.

    Thread Starter bob cavanaugh

    (@bobdavcav)

    Thanks. Does that mean I should ask this site’s owner to deactivate that plugin?

    I think you should simply make a polite inquiry regarding their web accessibility awareness, and see how the conversation progresses once you’ve brought your concerns to their attention.

    Thread Starter bob cavanaugh

    (@bobdavcav)

    Thanks. I’ll try that, but when I address accessibility with this site owner, I’m either ignored or given the BS argument that this software wasn’t designed with accessibility in mind. One more thing, does allthingsradio.net use the plugin in question? If so, why is its player accessible but the Format Change player isn’t?

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    Maybe it’s worth raising a support topic in that plugin’s forum, so that you’re reaching the right people: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/powerpress/

    does allthingsradio.net use the plugin in question?

    I don’t see any evidence of the powerpress pluign being used anywhere in their source code.

    ..given the BS argument that this software wasn’t designed with accessibility in mind.

    That might be a pretty honest answer, if the response was referencing their own website design as a whole.

    I think @anevins has the right idea. If it’s something you feel compelled to pursue, you might see if there has been any conversations (or start one) about accessibility concerns in the PowerPress plugin forum. https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/powerpress

    Thread Starter bob cavanaugh

    (@bobdavcav)

    Thanks Clayton, I’ll do that. I’m not the only one complaining about this, but I know the site is powered by WordPress, and so I thought I’d have you take a look at it since I’m also using WordPress for my websites.

    Hi Bob,

    One thing you might suggest to the site’s owner is to tell PowerPress to use the default WordPress player. This way they can still use PowerPress, still get the tracking and podcast organization, and have a mostly accessible player. I think if you combine this with your requests to the PowerPress folks regarding their custom player, you might have a bit more luck, or at least a solution you can work with.

    When you advocate, on either side, try to keep in mind that definitely in the case of PowerPress, and possibly in the case of this site’s owner, these aren’t big corporations with lots of time and/or resources. When approaching either side to draw attention to their accessibility problems, you may want to offer to provide some help, at least in the form of some research. They may not take you up on the offer, and I’m definitely not saying you need to do it for free, but I’ve found that, in the WordPress community, an offer of help, however small, will go a long way when it comes to getting accessibility problems addressed.

    Hope this is helpful,

    Amanda

    Thread Starter bob cavanaugh

    (@bobdavcav)

    Thanks Amanda. Radio BB Networks is a small company as well, owned by a man named Lance Venta. I’ve considered reaching out to him in the past to handle the backend, including stuff like this. I’ll let them both know about this.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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