Hi Ari,
If it’s an english style riding sticker pack I assume the riding boots
would
be english style rather than western style.
Contacting the True North guys was easy, they had their support email
address listed in the description of the stickers.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 9:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: iMessage sticker packs and accessibility
Sieghard, I have now bought the True North sticker pack. That's so cool
how
they were willing to have a conversation with you about accessibility.
I just got a sticker pack called Equestrian English Horse Riding Stickers,
developed by Bob Pluss
https://appsto.re/us/ihaVeb.i?app=messages
From what i've seen so far, it's pretty accessible. I'll have to check
with
someone sighted to see if some of the labels can be better. For example,
there's a sticker that's just labeled riding boots. But since there's a
couple styles of riding boots, I'm not sure what kind these are, tall
boots
or padock boots. There's also a sticker labeled equestrian rider. Again,
this doesn't tell me too much. And there are multiple stickers where
horses
are trotting,and at least they have numbers after them, so you know which
one is first, second, and so on, but how are they different? Even so, it's
a
great start. There are some horse heads, and the label does tell you what
color they are, but I'd also like to know what breed they are.
Can you tell me how you contacted the developer of the True North sticker
pack? I'd like to contact the developer of this sticker pack and talk with
them about ways they can improve their sticker labels.
Thanks,
Ari
On Jan 10, 2017, at 8:45 AM, Sieghard Weitzel
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi List,
I was curious about the iMessage app store and the various stickers packs
which are available. I haven't looked at this before, but remember some
messages that apparently not all sticker packs are accessible with
Voiceover. I saw one I as a Canadian was interested in, it was $1.29 so I
decided to take a chance and buy it. It is called "True North" and when I
opened it Voiceover did read sticker descriptions, but they were long and
I
think not necessarily good descriptions. It seemed there were some for all
the provinces and territories, but from the app description I think those
are actually stickers of typical animals found there such as the "Spirit
Bear" for British Columbia (a white variant of the black bear), the
bighorn
sheep for Alberta and so on. In the app description was an email for
support
so I sent a message and I received a very prompt reply. My exchange is
below
and I just wanted to post about this here because it's nice to see that
these guys are super responsive and interested in improving the
accessibility of their stickers. Dane, who replied, mentioned they had
already started working on it and that they are also adding a bunch of
stickers to commemorate this year's 150th anniversary of Canada and that
both the new stickers and better labelling would be in the next update. As
there are quite a few Canadians on this list I thought this would be of
interest and maybe others can enjoy these. Here now my original email, the
answer I received and a couple more emails, when I replied this morning I
received a reply in less than 5 minutes:
Hi,
I am blind and use Voiceover on my iPhone which gives me complete
accessibility to all of Apple’s features and apps as well as many other
third-party apps. Unfortunately not all apps are accessible although more
and more members of the developer community are aware of how Apple has
provided the tools to give blind and visually impaired users the same
access
as sighted people have.
I know the app store for iMessages is fairly new and I wanted to point out
that your True North stickerpack which I just purchased with the hope it
would be accessible is in fact accessible, however, the accessibility
labels
you give to each sticker could be improved as they are currently very long
and contain unnecessary information. Here is one example of how Voiceover
reads one of the stickers:
Canada_FIN_618x618_0003_British-Columbia.png.accessibilityLabel
All of the above is read out by Voiceover and while I haven’t asked
anybody
to look at the label, I assume based on your app description that it is
the
British Columbia sticker/image of a spirit bear? If so it would of course
be
perfect if the accessibility label you assign would simple read “British
Columbia Spirit Bear”.
Also, just as a suggestion, in your app description you mention something
like “Nunavut_Eskimo_Dog” or similar. The word “Eskimo” is very
politically
incorrect and should be replaced by “Inuit”. In fact, to call an Inuit
“Eskimo” is an insult. You may want to change it in order to avoid social
media backlash should somebody be insulted by it.
Best regards,
Sieghard
Here is the reply I received:
Hi Sieghard,
Thanks so much for writing in and bringing both of these things to our
attention.
I apologize for not having better voiceover accessibility tags and we'll
work to make sure we improve those for all our apps in the future.
And thanks for bringing to my attention Eskimo being rude. We took these
provincial and territorial animals from Wikipedia, where they say
Nunuvit's
territorial animal is the "Canadian Eskimo Dog." But we're going to change
this to "Canadian Inuit Dog." The last thing we would ever try to be is
rude and we should have taken more care in double checking that reference.
Thanks again for writing. Have a wonderful 2017 ahead.
Dane Homenick
Founder & Chief Coffee Getter
Journo - Explore & Remember
My response:
Hello Dane,
Thanks so much for the almost instant reply, I’m very impressed by this
and
wish all developers and companies would react so quickly and show such a
willingness to improve accessibility. Many sticker packs that are
available
are not accessible at all because whoever designed them could not be
bothered to add any accessibility labels so thanks for doing this, I hope
it’s a relatively easy thing to do for you and in the future I will
definitely look for your sticker packs.
Where are you guys from?
I did a bit more reading on the word “Eskimo” and it actually would appear
that in the 3 countries affected (USA/Alaska, Russia/Siberia, Canada and
Greenland) it is used differently. Here in Canada and it seems also in
Greenland it is no longer used, but apparently it is still widely used in
Alaska according to the below which is from a website of the Alaska Native
Language Center of the University of Fairbanks:
Although the name "Eskimo" is commonly used in Alaska to refer to all
Inuit
and Yupik people of the world, this name is considered derogatory in many
other places because it was given by non-Inuit people and was said to mean
"eater of raw meat."
Linguists now believe that "Eskimo" is derived from an Ojibwa word meaning
"to net snowshoes." However, the people of Canada and Greenland prefer
other
names. "Inuit," meaning "people," is used in most of Canada, and the
language is called "Inuktitut" in eastern Canada although other local
designations are used also. The Inuit people of Greenland refer to
themselves as "Greenlanders" or "Kalaallit" in their language, which they
call "Greenlandic" or "Kalaallisut."
Most Alaskans continue to accept the name "Eskimo," particularly because
"Inuit" refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of
Canada,
and the Kalaallit of Greenland, and it is not a word in the Yupik
languages
of Alaska and Siberia.
Wikipedia has this to say:
Since the late 20th century, numerous indigenous people have viewed the
use
of the term "Eskimo" as offensive, because it is extrinsic and has been
used
by people who discriminated against them or their forebears.
In its linguistic origins,the word Eskimo comes from Innu-aimun
(Montagnais)
'ayas̆kimew' meaning "a person who laces a snowshoe" and is related to
"husky", so does not have a direct pejorative meaning.
In Canada and Greenland, the term "Eskimo" is seen as pejorative and has
been widely replaced by the term "Inuit" or terms specific to a particular
nation or community. The Canadian Constitution Act of 1982, sections 25[7]
and 35[8] recognized the Inuit as a distinctive group of aboriginal
peoples
in Canada.
Under U.S. and Alaskan law (as well as the linguistic and cultural
traditions of Alaska), "Alaska Native" refers to all indigenous peoples of
Alaska. This includes not only the Inupiat and the Yupik, but also groups
such as the Aleut, who share a recent ancestor, as well as the largely
unrelatedindigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Dene.
As
a result, the term Eskimo is still in use in Alaska.
Alternative terms, such as Inuit-Yupik, have been proposed,but none has
gained widespread acceptance.
I think if you want to avoid the issue altogether you could simply call
the
sticker “Husky Dog” or “Sled Dog” as pretty much everybody knows what this
is.
Best regards and all the best for 2017,
Sieghard
Reply from Dane:
Hey Sieghard!
Thanks for this info! We've actually already started redesigning the
sticker to change the name... and since we at improving this sticker pack,
we're going to throw in some 150-year anniversary stickers too! Which
you'll get for free when you upgrade the app once it's done.
We are from Winnipeg (Go Jets Go).
Thanks again for all your help Sieghard!
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