by David Redmond
Im not going to pretend to be a big GAA fan. I couldnt even rise the
sliotar with my hurley in school, so there was certainly no chance of me
playing for the county. There was a lad with the same name as me who played
for Wexford at some point, but thats about as close as I ever got to being
a GAA star.
Even though I might be salty about my lack of sporting skills, I cant deny
the huge popularity GAA has right around Ireland and indeed the world.
This year, for the first time, those in Ireland will be watching some big
games on a streaming service called GAAGO, after Sky Sports contract to show
games ended. The GAAGO streaming service is a joint venture between RTÉ and
the GAA. Its a big change for sports fans, and it of course raises the
question, how accessible is it?
In this article, well take a look at the GAAGO app and see how accessible
it is for those with sight loss.
App Design
The app layout is standard enough with four tabs on the bottom, and three
buttons on the top right. While the tabs are accessible, the buttons are
unlabelled.
Despite the unlabelled buttons you can make your way around, flicking will
bring you to headings such as upcoming or Live Now, while flicking again
brings you through the matches in that list. Double tapping a match does
bring you to a labeled play button, so it is possible to watch games.
The events tab is very messy with VoiceOver due to an overwhelming number of
useless screen elements. Something as simple as the kick-off time is
announced as an attachment PNG File, which is unnecessary and confusing.
The home and catch-up pages are manageable, while the GAA TV tab appears to
be blank.
Its an experience that is usable but certainly isnt the most enjoyable
from an accessibility point of view. Youll likely be able to watch a match,
but you might be frustrated in the process.
The app doesnt have a dark mode which would help some with low vision, so
that would be an easy win. In fact, if were honest all the issues here
could be fixed without many changes. Add dark mode, a few accessibility
labels, and tidy up the events tab and this will help a lot.
This app is in my view a textbook example of an app that could have been
fine with a bit of access testing. Instead, as one of my colleagues said,
blind people would be as well-off listening on the radio than dealing with
the subpar experience from GAAGO.
Conclusion
Ive often heard television ads promoting the GAA with a simple tagline,
Where we all belong. This is a great tagline, and to the GAAs credit,
they have seemed to do a lot to increase the accessibility of the sport to
those with various backgrounds. This is fantastic to see, but they can go
further.
If the GAA want to be a place where we all belong, then they need to make
their app more accessible to those with disabilities.
The app isnt terrible in my view, but I know of highly experienced screen
reader users working here at NCBI who found the app a struggle. By just
fixing those unlabelled buttons and adding a dark mode, they could really do
a lot to help disabled users of the app have a good experience and add
weight to the GAA tagline where we all belong.
NCBI Technology News.
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