Accessibility: Major issue, can't navigate playlist view with screen reader

[robertbalte]

None of the below information is required. However, the more you provide the easier it will be for us to try and help.

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

Computer

Operating System

Windows 11

My Question or Issue

A major accessibility issue appeared suddenly today. Using a screen reader (I'll use NVDA as an example, but I've tested JAWS as well), you can no longer navigate the playlist view like you could before. The issue seems to have something to do with the new button to choose which columns are displayed in the view, since the issue is only with the main playlist view, not the "recommended" view below it.

To reproduce the issue:

Place yourself somewhere in a playlist view (in e.g. a playlist, an album, etc.) and turn of "browse mode" in NVDA (NVDA+Space). Now try to use the arrow keys to navigate through the list. Then, do the same in a "recommended" view.

What happens:

In the normal view you can't navigate. In the "recommended" view, you can.

What is supposed the happen:

You should be able to navigate in the same way regardless.

[Ivelina]

Hey there @robertbalte,

Thank you for taking the time to post this thread in the Community.

I’m sorry to hear about the accessibility issue that you're experiencing with the screen reader and our service. Accessibility has always been a top priority here at Spotify and we're always looking for ways to improve. That being said, we appreciate you taking the time to reach out and share your thoughts on this with us and we've made the right team aware of the issue.

While our team looks into things further backstage, we'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the app's design. 

It would also be very helpful if you could send us the exact Spotify-version that you're using.

Thanks again and don't hesitate to let us know if you need help with anything else.

[CryticalAce]

Hi @robertbalte,

That's not good!

I tried to install NVDA to see if I could better understand the issue you're facing, but I couldn't figure out how to use it effectively. Can you take a screen recording of you using the software to demonstrate how it should be working and how it isn't doing what is expected? You can post the video in a reply using the insert video button in the post editor or you can upload it to Google Drive and provide a link so that we can view it.

I hope to help get this issue fixed soon!

Cheers,

CryticalAce

[robertbalte]

@Ivelina: I'm using version 1.2.56.502.ga68d2d4f.

@CryticalAce: I'm not familiar with how to do a screen recording, especially not with sound, in Windows, but I'll give a thorough step-by-step guide:

1. Open Spotify, with NVDA turned off (to make it easier).

2. Go to a playlist with a "recommended" section in it.

3. Start NVDA (Ctrl+Alt+N is usually set as a shortcut).

4. Press Ctrl+Home, this takes you to the top of the window.

5. Press H, this should read out the name of the playlist and place you om the heading.

6. Press T (for table), this will place you in the playlist view.

7. Press the NVDA key (usually INSERT, but might be CAPSLOCK) and SPACE, a sound will be played and you are now in another navigation mode.

8. Press TAB, you will now be placed on the button to adjust visible columns.

9. Try ppressing the arrow keys, nothing happens.

10. Press TAB again, you will now be in the "recommended" view.

11. Once again, press the arrow keys (start with DOWN) and move around and you will hear various elemnts read out, like track titles, album titles, and so on. This is how all playlist views should work and did until yesterday.

Hope this helps. Using a screen reader is not easy when you are not used to it. Just ask if I can give any more help.

[CryticalAce]

Hey Robert,

Thanks for the instructions, I'll have a give it a shot and gather some information on how it is behaving to help send to the team!

Cheers,

CryticalAce

[Nandish_HIremath]

Yes thank you, I thought I was the only one who was crazy. I am using NVDA windows 11, and sometimes ubuntu mate with orca screen reader. Pleas fix the bug, NVDA when in focus mode and on the playlist view . same problem, the  library table works perfectly in focused mode can be navigated. The playlist view however is completely broken and cannot be navigated anymore. something is broken.

when on top of the table in focused mode the keyboard shortcut being NVDA + spacebar, NVDA key by default is the insert key above the delete key, however, it can be set as the caps lock key.

navigation through keyboard is done by using the arrow keys. Keys like end and home can be used in order to skip to the end and beginning of the playlist, album or liked songs when used with control key. control + home/end 

the left to write arrow keys, would navigate the  rows of the table from number with the play buttons for every song and title for the title and artist and so on until the more options Butten, where a menu for liking songs and adding to playlist or going to song radio would show up.

All of this is inaccessible and still is. Pleas fix this was perfectly working before.

all details are same with the user above other than  the region. I am using the application from India. not using web player, have downloaded windows application.

[Nandish_HIremath]

Hello Spotify community

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.58.498.g6afe77b7

Using NVDA screen reader.

The recommended list I can navigate using focused mode in NVDA screen reader. Shortcut NVDA  spacebar, NVDA is assigned to my caps lock but by default it is assigned to the insert key above the delete key.

The problems that other users are facing are still persisting. Thought the new update would fixit. However, after dowmloading the update the same problems persist.

The recommended list and library table can be navigated in focused mode, but the liked songs or playlists view cannot be navigated. It used to work  flawlessly,, I could go from one row to the next or go in-between rows using the arrow keys. however, this is not working still, but works on the recommended view correctly. The playlist view is the main part for the songs navigation, pleas fix whenever possible. there have been multiple instances of this being reported throughout the community forum already.

I had also posted a detailed reply of the same problem on another comment or this one I am not shore.

pleas fix whenever possible. And my thanks for reading this all the way through.

[Ivelina]

Hello @Nandish_HIremath,

Welcome to the thread!

We really appreciate you joining with this detailed information of how to reproduce the behavior, as it really helps us with the investigation. We've forwarded the info to the relevant team and as soon as we have any updates on the matter, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, we're here if anything else comes up.

[Nandish_HIremath]

hellow Ivelina

The new update I think solved the problem. I open my Spotify after a windows update, and it installed a new version when opening. And the problem is solved for the most part.

However, there is a problem with the implementation. In Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.59.514.g834e17d4

I am not shore but in focused mode I can go over the rows and where it normally says number above the play buttons for the songs now it says nothing. However, the title artist, album and date added, and duration column headings are readable, that is a win.

Before normally my focus would be on the title column on the top not on the 1st song but the top where it says title. From there I would press down arrow and go to the first song. It is here there are 3 problems one bug and one issue and one divisive implementation which the UI people need to thing about a bit more I would say, as it is subjective.

The performance issue is that in larger playlist views like my Liked Songs I would encounter a problem where it would take ages to navigate to the songs on the playlist. The screen reader would say title, album and artist when I would press left or rite arrow keys, but as soon as I pressed down arrow to go to the first track of the playlist it would not do anything for a long time, i think it is loading or something but I do not know. At first, I thought it is because it is only doing it for large playlists as my Liked Songs have 742 songs within them, but then I tried it with a small playlist with 6 songs and the issue still occurred. If possible, I would like it to go to the next element or song as soon as I navigate to the playlist view table and change into focus mode and press down arrow.

The bug is in larger playlists like my Liked Songs where this happened. Weather I used the NVDA table navigation in brows mode control + alt + arrow keys, or the arrow keys up and down, in focus mode. With 742 songs and the first row being 743 when I would use any navigation method it would skip all the way to song 340 sometimes 329, it changes when I add more songs to the Liked Songs but it dose happen in large playlists views.

My last part would be about implementation of the new navigation. After it is loaded, and I am able to navigate the playlists when I am on the play buttons it would say something like “play yellow by Coldplay – row one column one” and the same with the row changed for the songs as you pressed down and up arrow in focus mode. Before I would press rite arrow, and it would just read the title of the track from the title column without announcing play as this was the title column with no play button. Now this is the matter of subjective preference which I would like to weigh in on and I would encourage the development team to further look into. The new implementation directly skips to the artist column after pressing the right arrow from column 1 to column 3, now I understand the rational behind this, people do not want to hear the title of the song that they already heard when they are on the play button, so there is no reason to go to column 2. However, when perusing the playlists in focus mode looking for a specific song I do not what to hear “play” constantly before the song title on the first row, I used the title row for that, as it would not say “play” and also It would not say “title” before the song title, if I remember correctly it would just say “Yellow by Coldplay - column 2” it would say “column 2” because I was navigating from one column to the next, when I was in the column I could navigate peacefully without hearing “play” all the time and I would just hear the song name and row number when going through the rows with the up and down arrow keys, which would let me know where in the playlist I was. Keep in mind this was before the functionality was lost and was reimplemented in the new update differently. Would it be possible to return to the olde ways, I like it exactly how it worked before. However, once more this is to an extent a matter of preference and mine is one opinion amongst many so I would just like to put my word in to revive the old playlist navigation methods.

Lastly pleas make the navigation snappy like the olde methods before it was not working. This new implementation feels jittery and a bit sluggish when going from one song to the next, the latency is noticeable. With all that being said, thank you so much for getting to the end of this post. I have outlined all the complains I have in great detail, and I understand development takes time and will be waiting patiently.

I understand some of this goes beyond bug reporting, and more towards feature requesting and I apologize for that. Take care, and I do not wish for development crunch for any developer.

And thank you Ivelina for replying to the poste and keeping up with the developments.

          Thanking you

            Nandish Hiremath

[robertbalte]

I've also installed the new update and it indeed solves the problem. Thank you very much! I don't have the problems the previous poster has though, so they might not be universal. Thanks again for fixing this.

[MihailY]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your replies.

We're happy to hear that the issue is solved with the new update.

@Nandish_HIremath, thank you for the additional feedback, we've forwarded it to the team 🙂

Cheers,

[Nandish_HIremath]

Spotify for Windows (64 bit)
1.2.60.564.gcc6305cb

The performance problem seams to be fixed, however the navigation problem in the playlist view where it skips ahead in the list is still there. However this is a small problem, now that the navigation performance is fixed. I do not know what happened I think the application updated. In any case thank you Spotify team.