Recap- AMA Discord with Screen Readers

What is this?

This is a recap of the Clubhouse event “AMA Discord with Screen Readers”. I’ll summarize the event, and then offer some observations about my experience moderating a room on Clubhouse for the first time. If you missed this event, it will most likely be repeated. I will explain why toward the end of this post.

Event Summary

I began the event officially by talking about how being a Patreon subscriber of Mastodon led to my first encounter with Discord and that it eventually got me to write the guide hosted on this website. I then explained what Discord was and some of its features. The focus of the developers on using the app to build communities was also talked about.
Next, the floor was opened for questions and comments. Topics discussed included the following:

• What platforms Discord can be used on and the friendliness with screen readers on each.
• The differences between using the free version of Discord and being a Nitro subscriber. Emphasis was placed on the higher audio quality available en each plan.
• Why the option to send voice messages wasn’t available.
• Bots: What they do, which ones are popular, and how to find them.
• Different methods of performing screen share in servers.
  The possibility of doing a tutorial on using bots and moderating servers was also discussed. I will need to find people who are knowledgeable in these areas.

Thoughts and Observations about the Moderation Experience

If I do this again, I’ll want to host the room in a club to increase visibility. This was pointed out to me before the start of the event, and I see the sense in it. This is the main reason I want to run the event again. When that happens, I should also look into having more than just myself as the moderator because I found the process of raising hands to be slow with VoiceOver, and we did lose someone because I took too long acknowledging them, I think.
Just as a passing observation, iPhone microphones are extremely sensitive. I needed to position my headset several times to make sure it wasn’t rubbing against my clothes and transmitting. I noticed others on stage having similar issues.

Conclusion

While I am not particularly impressed with Clubhouse as a platform, I think it makes sense to try this event again. People seem to like the open conversation style and casual drop-in structure of the platform. I also need to find a way to be able to verbally communicate the link to the Discord accessibility feedback form for those who are interested in it. The event concluded with me letting people know to submit their feedback via one of the contact methods on my Clubhouse profile. You can submit your feedback in the comments below.