Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Today I will bringing you an app review!

Is Discord Accessible? Today I am going to be reviewing an app for chatting even when you are a gamer and that is Discord. This month AIM is going away forever and found out from someone I used to be buddies with on AIM about Discord and took a look into it and decide to test it out and both on my Galaxy Tab and my IPad. All I have to say is that this this was the most frustrating app ever which….

Disclaimer: This review is an honest one based on thoughts and opinions from the lead writer of this blog! Please respect her thoughts on what she says in this review. Thank you!

I noticed how the download speed is different for both tablets and that is it was very fast on the Google Play Store while it took a bit for the IPS App Store because of the 11 updates to the store and my Mini 2 is slightly old and had to wait a little after it loaded to be installed on my app. With my phone, on the other hand which I had to get it there, did download a lot faster due to the Re-Download button. I think with apps or anything my phone is faster due to it being more of the 5 series and knowing it will be faster when I do upgrade to the 8. With the PC, since I use Windows 10, it did take a bit to go through a security scan since we don’t know what can be out there and I think with apps on Windows it takes a bit to run and install because of the install prompts you have to go through like with most software and programs. At east with an app download it does not need the restart like JAWS and ITunes does.

Navigation and Logging In: I did make myself an account and was able to login easily on both platforms with a keyboard and did have to reset my password on my phone and computer due to forgetting it. The navigation…oh…man…it sucks with voiceover. On my Galaxy Tab, I have to swipe around to get to other parts of the app and some buttons don’t get read out by Text to Speech and goes the same with on my PC and IOS on both the phone and IPad. I wonder why some buttons are “Unlabeled” according to the screen readers? I am not sure if this app is not built to be able to be accessible with any voiceover software which can be handy, I am now wondering if anything with magnification can work with this app since it can be used on devices and with programs from Freedom Scientific too.

With searching for friends, it gets very tedious since it looks different on both platforms. With Android, the search field asks for the tag number, which is a four digit number you get with your username when you register and this field also asks for an email if you don’t have that number. While IOS, you type in both the username and the tag number because if you just put in the number it gives you the message, “We are more than just numbers.” So, I tried that with someone over and over again and had problems with it. I even tried telling this same friend to find me and he couldn’t either. It did take us a few days and well my best buddy Tobi was able to find me very easily while this one dude, Kilt Man, we came up with that I should create a server and I had to create it through the PC version because I couldn’t find the “Create Server” on the very left. I did research into it and I tried looking on the left and of course I hear the “Button Unlabeled” every time and even tried tapping on random buttons which gives me the “Add a Friend” area, “Start a Conversation,” etc. Speaking of that, there is a field where you can search for a conversation and I was able to access it easily on the Android version but won’t on the IOS version where I hear the plunk sound if I tried to do anything. Did the server thing work? Yes it did and he was added to my friends list when he sent me a request.

What about the chat features you may ask? Apparently, like with Skype, you can do a video chat or at least a regular chatting and I was able to test it with Tobi and it worked very well on my Android. I think it will also work with group chat if I do have some friends that want to do it since I remembered doing group chats back in the days of AIM.

Verdict: Is it accessible? It can be but it is not accessible to the point of screen readers. While I had the problems I did, I did reach out to the Discord Twitter page and talked about the issues with it and they responded that they are planning to make it accessible to people who are color blind and for screen readers. I am hoping soon because I went through a lot of frustrations and patience to get around these issues especially getting people to find me. What I would also like to see is an easier person search as in having one place for the tag number and another field for just the username like in the days of AIM where you can search through just username or just do it with tag number. Also, should explain the formatting of how to type both a lot better since I am a beginner with this I didn’t know I had to capitalize letters in the names nor include the number sign or not include it. It is like with explaining how to create a password by saying, “Hey, you need this and make sure you do this.” And finally, for screen reading purposes, make the labels to be seen for screen reading even on devices because I don’t know what “Button 67 Unlabeled” is just put the word for it to read so it would be easier to know what it is and know that it is there for the person who is using it that may be blind or not.

Rating: 2.5 Star Paw prints Out of 5because of some of the things that do need to be improved. It is a good app and it is a good substitute for AIM but it needs to be fixed for better accessibility and easier navigation too because if I am using a keyboard with my Galaxy and IPad I want to be able to go with the arrows to get to the field or swipe very easily to where I need to be.

That is it for this review on Discord. Is there any other apps you want me to take a look at and review, I am open to it because as a blind user and listening to all these podcasts that suggest different apps, I want to be able to put them to the test and see what people are talking about and say, “Hey! It is good! Check it out!” Next post in my Access Tech category is my take on accessibility in gaming, oh yes I am doing my thoughts! Until next time!