Accessibility

  • 28 April 2020
  • 23 replies
  • 4830 views
Joakim Larsson
Userlevel 2

Have been using Miro for a while and love the possibilities it brings to be able to collaborate with a remote team. However, when using these kind of visual tools I wonder how you try to empower users with disabilities? I.e. what’s your status when it comes to improve the accessibility overall of your services?

As an example, when testing using a screen reader (What is a screen reader?) I encountered a few issues emidiatly with the onboarding experience:

  • Modals not putting focus on the content
  • Not being able to access the visual information within the board 
  • etc.
     

This is just one aspect of accessibility and would be interesting to hear how Miro is working with accessibility?

Elina Sh 2 months ago

Thank you for following this topic and giving us feedback! 

We understand the product is not accessible for all users at the moment, and we do feel your pain. We are working full speed on changing this. At the moment we are putting together our Accessibility Statement which will outline how we work on making Miro more accessible. We’re planning to release the statement in February, so please stay tuned. 

In the meantime, we'd love to learn more about your accessibility requirements. Please let us know if you wish to participate in user testing and collaborate on making Miro more accessible. This quick survey will take 5-7 minutes to complete [link to Typeform]. 

If you have any specific questions, or would like to speak to the team, please contact us at accessibility@miro.com

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23 replies

R
Userlevel 1

I’m also interested in learning more about the accessibility of Miro. I work at a public institution of higher education and we are obligated to evaluate tech tools from an accessibility standpoint before recommending adoption or use for teaching or use among staff. Would love to be able to speak to these questions of accessibility for the MIRO tools. Thanks! 

 

Kyle.C
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Super interesting!

Miro is an “infinite canvas” tool. At a basic level the necessity grew from the need to take ideas in our minds, and display them visually. It was once a “virtual whiteboard,” a digital way to record what is written by our hands with markers.

 

:grey_question: So for the visually impaired, how are whiteboards used to be more accessible?

:grey_question: Can those same methods be applied digitally?

 

A digital platform definitely opens up the opportunity to give access to what was once not accessible. At the very least, I bet this community can think of some ways to create our boards so that they are better accessible to the visually impaired.

 

@Joakim Larsson @Renee Phoenix are there ways that you place content in your boards that is beneficial to the visually impaired?

B

On this topic of accesiblity, one thing I was surprised not to find were visual “high contrast” options, including for those with poor eyesight or who see colours differently. 

Studying how Microsoft provides accessibility with their new Whiteboard app would be helpful in your app development. 
 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/microsoft-whiteboard/digital-whiteboard-app

S

It’s great the amount of features the dev team are putting into Miro, and I love it as a diagramming tool, however there could really be more in terms of accessibility support.  It’s lack in these areas is making it harder for us to communicate equally with all members of our team, to the extent that we are going back to more conventional tools to provide documentation.  Even simple improvements - like allowing Ctrl+C to copy the text from an element to clipboard when in view mode - would go a long way to helping people who rely on screen-readers, for example.

Thanks,

R

This is a real shame, it basically means Miro can’t yet be used as a main facilitation / training tool - accessibility needs to an integral part of solution design, just as you wouldn’t build a physical meeting room that only a proportion of any given team could actually use.  

G

Agree, it would be great to know what is the roadmap for introducing accessibilities features and tools?

Brittni
Userlevel 5

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen more customers trying to understand the accessibility of our platform. Unfortunately, we don’t have a policy or roadmap in place yet for such improvements. We are aware of the situation and are currently researching/working on this subject. We want to thank all of you for joining in on this important conversation and we hope to come back soon with updates. 

- Brittni
F

Hi Brittni

Just to flag up that it’s not just people who use screen readers you need to cater for - also those who cannot use a mouse and might need to be able to use a keyboard or voice commands to interact with the application.

Fiona

K
Userlevel 3

I posted an idea request here: https://community.miro.com/wish-list-32/accessibility-screen-reader-friendly-high-contrast-mode-short-cut-keys-1947 

 

Please up vote!

 

We are trying Miro out for both design ideation and workshop facilitation. However, not having accessibility functions for participants will be a deal breaker. I’m hoping a resolution comes quickly and we don’t have to switch to another tool.

R

Miro is, essentially, an infinite canvas powerpoint slide. So, I would hope that the features that make powerpoint accessible could be applied to miro. Specifically -- content on the board should be organized into a traversible hierarchy. Some of this could be automated, but much of it would be the responsibility of the board owner.

Miro elements should already be very easy to implement alt-text for. Any text on an element is obviously the text to read. And any arrows/connectors can be read as well…

We use miro extensively in our program, but as a disability activist this greatly upsets me. I would be grateful if miro wanted to consult with me about how to make this platform accessible.

K

I’m just learning Miro but I am struggling with the lack of universal design and accessibility. I am visually impaired and use screen magnification software. What Rua mentions, is exactly what I’m really struggling with today.

Miro is, essentially, an infinite canvas powerpoint slide. So, I would hope that the features that make powerpoint accessible could be applied to miro. Specifically -- content on the board should be organized into a traversible hierarchy.

Being able to tab through elements, drop landmarks with names so I can get back to my place via a text list would be really helpful.

L

We are doing strategic planning work with a seeing eye dog foundation, and many of the workshop participants are visually impaired.  We would love to use Miro because it can simulate our in-person workshops, but are challenged by its lack of accessibility features.  I am putting in a strong vote here to please please put this on your roadmap  now.  Cheers.  

S

Any update on this? I also work for a public institution and would love to help faculty take advantage of Miro for brainstorming activities with students. I wouldn’t be able to do that until there are a few more accessibility features fleshed out though (compatibility with screen readers and being able to navigate using the keyboard only are two major ones). 

N
Userlevel 1

Another vote for more robust accessibility features. This should be a core principle at the company.

Natalie Harrison
IT Accessibility Consultant
Penn State University

R

Are there any updates on a potential accessibility roadmap? This conversation started months ago and I don’t see any new information about accessibility. I care deeply about inclusive practices and work at an institution that also values accessibility -- in fact, accessibility is a key criterion for choosing software. 

D

I am looking for an update from Miro re. accessibility. I work in higher education and vet tech tools. We are not permitted to support the use of tools that are not accessible. Yet Miro has an Education Plan. There is a gap here in the business model. Not having a VPAT is a huge issue for us as we would really like to use Miro at scale, it’s a great tool. Is this on the roadmap?

T

First you built a distributed team collaboration product without putting accessibility up front. That's pretty shameful. It's quite hard to do it this badly without doing it on purpose I'd say!  Then you haven't prioritised fixing despite having been around for a pretty long time now. Lots of cash on rebranding. investment in shipping inclusive features? Not so much. What does that say about your values as a business? Third you're radio silent on threads like this - maybe you're working to address the issue but how would the community know? Please speak up and demonstrate some care here.

E
Rank
Badge

Thank you for following this topic and giving us feedback! 

We understand the product is not accessible for all users at the moment, and we do feel your pain. We are working full speed on changing this. At the moment we are putting together our Accessibility Statement which will outline how we work on making Miro more accessible. We’re planning to release the statement in February, so please stay tuned. 

In the meantime, we'd love to learn more about your accessibility requirements. Please let us know if you wish to participate in user testing and collaborate on making Miro more accessible. This quick survey will take 5-7 minutes to complete [link to Typeform]. 

If you have any specific questions, or would like to speak to the team, please contact us at accessibility@miro.com

D

Hi, I am doing a project with Miro and really really struggling with moving around the board and having the fonts of different sticky notes stay readable? Do you have a way of using the board that allows for more control? I see a similar thing in scrollbars where I prefer a tangible feature versus whizzing around? The gestalt of doing that um in a way hurts my brain and feels viscerally uncomfortable. Is there a way to have more easy navigation, having easier visibility when moving through the board and more flexibility if you don’t enjoy the whirling around feeling. I hope that makes sense. I don’t want to say I hate your technology BUT I am saying using it makes my head hurt and frequently leaves me feeling lost while I am trying to participate in a group activity. Any reccs are welcome. 

V
Badge

Hello, I’m wondering is the Accessibility Statement already out ? If so, where can I find it? I want to show the teams at my workplace that Miro is currently working making Miro accessible. Thanks! 

J
Badge

 I see a similar thing in scrollbars where I prefer a tangible feature versus whizzing around? The gestalt of doing that um in a way hurts my brain and feels viscerally uncomfortable. 

This is also a problem for some of my team members. I have a team member who experiences an extremely uncomfortable form of motion sickness using Miro. It’s great that we can turn off the whizzy mouse cursors but it would be much, much better if users have control over the way they experience the live updating of the board by other users. You’d need to do a bit of consultation with experts in the area to understand what would improve the experience but I’d imagine it’s easier to turn off or dial back the near-real-time updating feature than it has been to make it happen in the first place?

N
Badge

Hello, I’m wondering is the Accessibility Statement already out ? If so, where can I find it? I want to show the teams at my workplace that Miro is currently working making Miro accessible. Thanks! 

+1 on this!

F
Badge

I’m new to Miro and I can see great potential for it in a Higher Education setting. In evaluating new tools like this one, one of our first considerations is accessibility. Just wondering if there are any more developments in this space since the last update from the Miro team a couple of months ago? Is the accessibility statement available?

I’ll watch this space with interest.

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