Home

ride

Is Fasten Fascinating?

by
Fasten app icon

Fasten is a new ride sharing service that has moved to Austin to help fill the void from Lyft and Uber, but is Fasten accessible?

Fasten Accessibility

Fasten is the latest app to offer ride sharing in Austin and When I downloaded the app I was able to sign up, set my start and destination, and even see the fare estimate, which makes this app quite accessible with VoiceOver. The main issue currently with Fasten is that their request a ride button is not seen by VoiceOver.

Fasten has a neat looking button that says, “Slide to request,” which VoiceOver does not see. This is a custom control that VoiceOver can’t find on the screen but looks just like the iOS Slide to unlock slider on the lock screen.

This issue actually keeps VoiceOver users from requesting a ride from Fasten, and I think that this service would be very popular if this button was accessible.

I also found that the menu button only says, “Button,” and when you rate your driver many items are not visible, and others just say button.

Conclusion

Fasten is a great app and I think it will be my go to service of choice. The fares are cheaper than others, and the drivers are great If you sign up you get a code that you can give to your friends and their rides will give you credit towards your own rides. Because this is my site I am putting my code here. When you sign up, use the code Mi8826

Keep checking back here at iAccessibility for updates on the accessibility of the Fasten app and on other ride sharing services and feel free to leave comments and feedback about these articles.

First Look: Ride Austin

by
Ride Austin Logo

There have been many new ridesharing services to enter Austin since Lyft and Uber have left us, but one stands out and may be the one service to rule them all. Ride Austin is an app developed by local Austin tech companies and the app is a nonprofit service. The developers have promised that the service would be open source so that other cities could use it to develop their own ride sharing hubs.

Ride Austin Accessibility

Even though the service for Ride Austin is not in place you can still download the app, and I did this to check out if the app is accessible. I was able to fully sign up for the service using Facebook, get and enter a verification code from my text messages, and explore the app without any issues with VoiceOver. The menu at the top left was accessible, and the button telling me that there was no drivers available was also accessible.

The company has not added the portion for a payment method yet, so we will have to wait and see how accessible this part of the app will be, but it is interesting to note that the Ride Austin app is more accessible than Get Me, or FARE. Both Get Me and FARE are for profit apps, and that is why it is interesting that a nonprofit app works better than the others.

Conclusion

Ride Austin is a new service, and it will start operating in June. I suggest that you sign up for the service and show the developers that you are interested in what they have to offer. Ride Austin is a fully accessible app, and lets all speak up and let the developers know that we appreciate this level of detail. Ride now will start with rides downtown and at the airport in June, and will move around the city from there after they see how well the service works.

Ride Austin website

Is FARE Fair?

by
FARE app icon

Many companies have swooped in to the Austin area to pick up the slack that Lyft and Uber have left, but as we always do here at iAccessibility, we must ask if we can use that app for that, and if Fare is fair.

App Accessibility with FARE

A few weeks ago I reviewed Get Me for iOS, and we determined that their app had no VoiceOver accessibility and riders could not even request a ride. FARE is a lot different in this regard. With FARE, a rider can request a ride and see all details about their ride. I did find some text fields complicated and some buttons are not well labeled, but these are issues that the company could easily fix. I think the only buttons I found that were not accessible were buttons to see what kind of car you would pick and they went in order from standard, premium and SUV from left to right. I was able to request a ride and get an estimate, which turned out to be more than the actual ride was, which is something new from an app like this.

FARE also has a few good perks that Lyft, Uber and Get Me does not have. FARE lets you set preferred drivers, and you can even schedule rides in advance. I think these features make them above the standard ride share. They also have no surge pricing which is a major plus. I was able to go through the app and view all of these features with VoiceOver with very few accessibility issues. Unlike other apps, the menu icon is on the top right instead of the top left.

Once you have finished your ride you will be promoted with a tip screen. Here you can say if you would ride with that driver again, set preferred, and tip. You can also see your total price, and they will even show you an itemized receipt so you can see how they charged you, which is just awesome.

One button that needs to be fixed is the ETA button. VoiceOver only reads eTA, and the timer does not update for sighted users as well. While using the app I kept seeing 11 minutes until my driver picked me up.

Besides a few badly labeled buttons, my only other complaint is that there is no Apple Pay support or even support for PayPal. I would like to see their service use more of these as they are more secure payment methods.

Conclusion

While there are some bugs and issues with FARE, the app is far more accessible than Get Me, and it turns out to be cheaper as well. I was even surprised to see a Lyft driver that I previously had on Lyft pick me up on FARE, so I totally added him to my preferred list.

FARE – Website

FARE – iOS App Store

Back to Top