Does Texture live up to all of the hype?

Texture is a new app to allow users the ability to read magazine articles from any magazine with only one subscription, which seems like a great deal. So, as we always do, we ask the question, Can you use that app for that?

How this app works

Texture essentially takes printed magazines and puts them into a format where a person can read articles from different magazines for a single subscription price. The app lets you sign up through Facebook and lets you try the service for 7 days for free.

Is Texture accessible?

When I tried to sign up for Texture, I was able to find all buttons and text fields with VoiceOver and had no problems. A few buttons were poorly labeled, but it was possible. I was even able to pick which magazines I liked at the time of sign up. Once I signed up and in was when the problems began.

The getting started screen presented a picture where there appeared to be links and buttons embedded in places that VoiceOver could not detect. Many other buttons on this screen were not accessible or had incomprehensible labels as well.

Once I made it to the main screen I could find and select a magazine to view. Once I opened a magazine I found out the truth of this app. Each magazine is scanned, and therefore will not read with VoiceOver. If you are low vision, then you can pinch to zoom each page, which works ok, but VoiceOver users should not waste money on an app that does not provide accessible content.

Conclusion

While it is cool that Texture offers the ability for users to read and subscribe to multiple magazines under one subscription price, it does not allow for VoiceOver users to enjoy content from this service. While low vision users will find the service accessible with Zoom and pinch to zoom, VoiceOver users will have no reason to even sign up for this app.

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