[BlindTlk] sites like tinder

[Bryan Schulz]

Hi,

Thanks for your review.
I will explore it again.
Bryan


-----Original Message-----
From: BlindTlk <blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Humberto Avila via BlindTlk
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2022 9:52 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Humberto Avila <humberto_avila.it104 at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindTlk] sites like tinder

Dear Brian, 

Thanks for asking. I hope you are well, and enjoying your evening, sir. 

In my experience trying my hand at online dating sites, I have found that Tinder.com is accessible. No, it may not be “fully” accessible, but it works, is usable and for what I'd like to do, reading profiles, liking or bypassing profiles, it is accessible. The only part that logically isn't truly accessible is the image-viewing part of profiles. That's quite obvious to me: a screen reader like NVDA isn't able to describe graphics / pictures natively unless you engage with an AI or OCR function. What is more mind-wrenching is the fact that Tinder profiles do not even show up as standard graphics I can just interact with in a meaningful way, in terms of doing OCR or computer vision to describe them. They are buttons. And when I try to use the decently recent edition of the many JAWS features they've come up with, PictureSmart, I get the error message saying, “The current control is not a picture.” The button-overlay images will only have labels like 1/9, 2/9, 6/9, ETC where presumably that is the number of the picture in that order, over the number of images that specific potential person will have uploaded to their profile. To sighted folks, images is all they see and perhaps care about. But at least for me, reading the profile bio and other pertinent info is extremely and critically useful to me in determining whether I should use the right arrow ("like") or left arrow ("nope") on that person. Yes, Tinder has keyboard shortcuts for the desktop / browser version. I've never used the app. 

Having said all this, if you're going to use an online dating / friend-dating platform, it can be worth it, as long as good screenreader navigational habits, skills and abilities are maintained and well practiced. In my experience, I have encountered a mixed bag of results, not necessarily because of the platform itself, but more in how profiles are laid out. Some folks put in as little or as much information as they want, some profiles will have neat resume-style bios, others will simply say, “Hey look at my little cuteness photo!” among other things. That's why I say profiles can be accessible, meaning they can be as perceptible to us as they can be as screen reader users cannot see the cute pictures. Oh, and be prepared to see and hear just about every bit of diverse writing, opinions, and the like. 

Anyways, that is the world of online dating as a Blind person from my perspective. At least with Tinder. I haven't used any others, and don't know of any that are specific to the Blind Community (although would like to learn more about if there are any). 

Take care, and happy searching. 

Best, 

Humberto F


“Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a really hard battle.” — πλατο 



> On May 25, 2022, at 4:30 PM, Bryan Schulz via BlindTlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> 
> 
> Has anyone found a matchmaker site like tinder that is easy to use 
> with jaws and is not limited to people who are blind?
> 
> Bryan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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