Hands up how many of you have more than one computer that you regularly use either at work or at home? By computer, we mean laptops, desktops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones. Chances are that most of you reading this will be! No doubt you'll use your different devices for different things, but inevitably, there will be some things you just want to access wherever you are on whatever device. That's where Dropbox comes in.
Why should I use Dropbox?
In essence, Dropbox is like a special folder where you can save various documents including photos, videos and text documents along with virtually anything else. This special folder exists in the cloud, so you can access all your documents whenever and wherever you are as long as you have an internet connection.
No more emailing different versions of files and folders between your different devices or saving items to a memory stick for transportation. Simply save them to your Dropbox folder and they'll be available from any device you own. When you make a change to a document, your Dropbox folder automatically updates so you can see this change on all your devices. Great!
Use a PC at work but a Mac at home or maybe even Linux? No problem. Your Dropbox folder cares not. You can access it from just about any platform and device. What about if disaster strikes and something untimely happens to one or indeed all of your devices? No problem. Your files will still be safe and available through the Dropbox website. Safe, secure and backed up in the cloud. Finally, Dropbox allows you to easily share a folder or certain files with anyone you choose to through a public link. This is a great way of sharing large files with friends and family rather than attaching them to an email.
Does it cost anything?
Dropbox works on a "freemium" model. For free, you can grab yourself 2 GB of storage. You can also earn yourself additional storage space if friends and family sign up to Dropbox after you have recommended them. If you're in need of more space, you can upgrade to a pro account for a relatively small fee. $9.99 a month or $99.00 a year gets you 50 GB of space. $19.99 a month or $199.00 a year gets you 100 GB of space. Not a bad deal!
How do I get going?
First and foremost, you need to create a Dropbox account for yourself. You do this on the Dropbox website. If you're using a screen reader, you can search for the "Create an account" link to get going. If you're a sighted, keyboard-only user, we noted that this link seems to be inaccessible with the tab key. One way around this is to click the "Log in" button first. This will take you to an error screen, but there's also the option to "Create an Account" again which you can reach with the keyboard this time. The good news is there's no CAPTCHA present on the Dropbox site, which could otherwise present a barrier to signing up.
Once you've created your account, you should be prompted straight away to download a Dropbox client for your platform, e.g. Windows, Mac or Linux. We highly recommend doing this. If you don't get prompted to download and install the Dropbox client, don't worry. You should receive an email at the address you signed up with which will have a link to the download.
By installing the Dropbox client on your machine, your special Dropbox folder becomes just a regular folder on your machine, albeit with a special trick up its sleeve. Anything and everything you place in that folder automatically gets synchronised up to the cloud and all your other devices that are running a Dropbox client. Once you're up and running, it's possible to not have to touch the Dropbox website much at all, apart from in the unlikely event that all your other devices give up the ghost and the website is your only other way of getting to your files!
During the install of the Dropbox client, there are some options screens that are difficult to navigate with the keyboard-only. These are the "Upgrade your Dropbox?" and "Choose setup type" screens. We've had some screen readers users test the installation process out for us, and they told us that using the JAWS cursor on these screens is a workable solution. However, as a sighted keyboard-only user, at the minute, we can't see a way of getting around this issue. We'll be contacting Dropbox about this to see if they can address it in future versions of the client installation. At present though, it looks like you may need some assistance with the setup of the Dropbox client if you're a keyboard-only user.
Can I use Dropbox on my mobile device?
You sure can! There are official versions of the Dropbox client available for the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry devices.
References
Digital Accessibility Team
Web Technologies Bulletin Number 2 (2011)
digitalaccess@rnib.org.uk