Hey Myspace! We like Music, Too

In an earlier article, I mentioned that Myspace.com is, for the most part, accessible to blind users. I'd like to take a few moments now to bring up an area of the site which is highly inaccessible, and needs to be corrected. I've written to the folks at Myspace about this a couple times, and have never received a response. Maybe this article will reach someone there and they can do something to help us blind users out; I can't be the only one who wants to see a change.

As a Myspace user, you're able to add music to your profile. Myspace have listings for several bands, and usually has several songs from each band, which you can add to your profile. This is great, except this can't be done by a blind person using a screenreader without sighted assistance. Many times, I've found songs I've wanted to add, and have hear JAWS (my screenreading program) say "+add+", leading me to believe this must be the Add button. I press the enter key on the keyboard, or try the spacebar, and many other keyboard commands, and nothing happens. I could have my wife assist me by looking at the screen and clicking the Add button next to the song I want, and I probably will, but I definitely think it's something Myspace needs to take a serious look at making more accessible. Perhaps instead of using the Flash movie and containing the buttons within the flash field, Myspace should add actual links for add, play, and other music-related commands. It certainly doesn't sound like an unreasonable suggestion to me. I'd also suggest that Myspace work with someone from Freedomscientific, the makers of JAWS for Windows, which is the most popular of the screenreaders. Perhaps between the two companies, they can come up with a way to make flash content, or at least this portion of it, more accessible. Also, if any other users of screenreaders see this article, please join me in pushing Myspace for action.

Myspace, over all, has done a pretty good job with their site. I can do just about everything else on it with my screenreader. As a huge music fan, this is simply a pet peeve of mine, the fact that I can't add music to my profile without sighted help. To anyone from Myspace who may read this: please fix this problem. Then, your site will be great, instead of just being very good.