Accessibility,
and Navigating the HPR Web Pages with a Screen Reader
Some time in the last year there has been some discussion on the HPR
mailing list about some of the problems I was having, particularly with
the tags page, on the HPR site.
Here is a show in which you can hear both me and my screen reader, as
I navigate the HPR home page, and then the HPR tags page.
Dave Morriss has made a nice job of fixing the issues I had, and made
the tags page a lot more friendly for blind and visually impaired
users.
It's quite a long podcast, and it took a lot of editing. So most of
the polish wore off by the time I 'finished' it and decided enough was
enough.
Comment #1 posted on 2023-02-03 15:11:30 by Mechatroniac
HPR
The site is awkward to download from, now that I am using a standalone mp3 player and my computer instead of an android podcasting app that automatically does it.
I don't understand why things are made more tedious for PC users but this is a degradation. It doesn't help that the podcast apps for PC are garbage. Podfriend doesn't even let you download.
There should be a way to download more than one podcast at once, without mastering some scripting language. The way it stands is if I want to download shows I have to navigate to each individual page and then click to the mp3.
Why not put an mp3 link on the main list so people can download the podcasts without having to go to each individual page first. This is so tedious especially after getting used to the ease of android apps.
Comment #2 posted on 2023-02-04 19:44:52 by Ken Fallon
Podcast Clients
Hi Mechatroniac
Thanks for the feedback. Can you clarify which page you mean when you say "main list". The main page has a link to the media files.
If you want custom control, then I suggest you load the sites RSS feed into any of the many podcatching clients that are available. For example gPodder. They will allow you download all, some or none depending on your wished.
Ken
Comment #3 posted on 2023-02-12 21:58:37 by Mechatroniac
gpodder
gpodder I tried once, the discover new podcasts feature is completely broken.
Why can't there be a straightforward list of mp3s to download that I can save as and download from the list?
I mean in the two week show list... I guess that's good but it is in rss format. Forcing people to use another app when all that is required is html seems regressive. I think rss should be probably part of the html standard but it's not so pain in the ass plugin is required...
Anyway you can search and scroll for the mp3 links in the 2 week feed, scrolling a little too much... then it shows the next 5 weeks as links... why not have an mp3 of each show there.
The full list doesn't even display in the PITA extension I am using.
Can't there be easy html links for mp3s by the 100 or so? I don't really care about the other formats. I mean I like the show notes but when I come here to download mp3s I want to be able to download a bunch at a time and not have to spend a lot of time doing so.
Comment #4 posted on 2023-02-12 22:49:36 by Mechatroniac
awkward web site
Sorry for hijacking your comments Mike, I will listen to your podcast.
I should clarify, the home page, when you scroll down is identical to the 2 week feed, which is a bit of scrolling to find the mp3s but ok since it's on the same page.
Then there is a nice table, with a list of last month's shows. But no direct mp3 links.
So if you are two weeks or more behind you have to click on each show title then go to that page then find the mp3 link to download the show. Then you have to go back and repeat the process, what a waste of time. Can't there be a link to the show mp3 next to the title in that table so I don't have to keep going back and forth?
Go to archive.org hoping they would be better organized. Same shit. They give you a picture of the audio waveform on the link page but no mp3 link. I'd rather have a mp3 link than look at the stupid waveform. Everything sucks. The hapless HTML user is a click labourer for no reason.
It shouldn't be so punishing to people using HTML. This is the web after all and I find the podcast players for PC insufferable, most of the good ones are for android and don't even have a PC version.
I would trade all the rss links for a simple table design, that had like 100 episodes per page, that had direct links to mp3, and if you choose, also read the show notes by clicking the title.
All it would take to make it a little better is adding a small one letter link to mp3s on "Last Month's Shows" table on the home page and extend the table to more months, I'm sure that room could be made. Please?
Comment #5 posted on 2023-02-13 16:47:52 by Mechatroniac
nm
never mind I'm using the crippled gpodder for the rss for now. I think my comments about the website are valid though.
Comment #6 posted on 2023-02-14 17:09:55 by Ken Fallon
Fixed.
I updated the site as requested
I also updated the complete episode guide
https://hackerpublicradio.org/index_full.php
And created a issue of the same change on the new site generation tool.
https://repo.anhonesthost.net/rho_n/hpr_generator/issues/70
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