Mobile
Accessibility
Overview
November 6th, 2013
Agenda
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
About Me
Current Landscape
Standards and Laws
User Demographics
Benefits and Challenges
iOS based products
Android®
Windows Phone®/Windows 8
Blackberry®
Strategies For Accessible Apps
User Impact
App Development
Resources
About Me
SSB BART Group
• Experience
• Accessibility Focus
• Solutions That Manage Risk
• Real World Approach
• Excellence at Scale
• Intelligence That Is Up-to-Date,
All the Time
Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
• Computer Science background
• 15 years in field
• Develop best practices to meet
standards
• Experience: Mobile, Web, PDF,
Flash, MSAA
• Collaborate on accessibility
methodology for repeatable,
consistent evaluation process
• Standards tracking (CVAA,
WCAG, Section 508, etc.)
Current Landscape
Platforms
• Smartphones and Tablets
• Platforms
– iOS
– Android
– Windows
– Blackberry
Laws and Standards
Overview
• CVAA
– ACS
– Video programming
• Section 255
• Section 508
• 47 CFR 20.19
– HAC mobile handsets
• WCAG 2 Level A and AA
• Mandate M376
• ADA
User Demographics
WebAIM Survey #4 for Screen Reader Accessibility
• iOS
– Popular for blind and visually impaired users
– Percentage of users with disabilities greater than general
population
• Android
– Percentage of blind/visually impaired users less than
general population
• Symbian/Windows Mobile
– Percent of users with disabilities dropping
User Impact
Overview
• Blind
– Keyboard/accessible touchscreen
– Name, role, state, and properties
– Dynamically updating content
• Low vision
– Visual focus, size of content
– Color and contrast
– Complexity of layout/size of content
• Motor Impairment
– Touch-screen/D-pad access, visual focus
– Alternative input, one handed operation
User Impact
Overview (cont.)
• Reading Disabilities
– Complexity/distractions of page
– Consistent use of icons and text
– Spacing, color and size of elements
– Dynamically updating content
• Photosensitive Epilepsy
– Blinking and moving content
• Deaf/Hard of hearing:
– Use of multimedia and audio content
– Auditory feedback (sound notifications)
Smart Phones and Tablets
Apps That Benefit Users with Disabilities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Light detector
Color identifier
Money identifier
Barcode reader
Video magnifier
Flashlight
OCR
Daisy book reader
GPS
Point of sale services
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Voice memos
Grocery finder
Switch enabled apps
Mobile learning
Control of video
programming
TTY
Text relay
Video relay/chat
FCC Clearinghouse
Smart Phones and Tablets
The future of assistive technologies?
• A compelling platform for many
assistive technologies
• Sample Capabilities
–
–
–
–
Visual capture
Image recognition and processing
Location based services
Integrated, adaptive
communications
– Plain language control (Siri,
GoogleNow Cortana)
– Processing power to spare
OG reading machine
New school reading machine
Smart Phones and Tablets
Challenges
• Hearing aid incompatibility
• Apps that do not follow accessibility API
– No app store rating for accessibility
– Third party sites rank accessible apps
• Touchscreens without alternatives
• Inaccessible browsers
• Missing assistive technologies or features
• Difficulty upgrading
• Inconsistencies between manufacturers
iPhone and iOS
Assistive Technology and Features
• Includes all iPads, iPhone 3gs+, iPod Touch
4th+
• Many of the same ATs found in Mac OS
– VoiceOver (VO)
• Alternative touch screen access
• Speech output with audio cues
• Refreshable Braille support
– Zoom
• Magnifies entire screen w/ panning
– Assistive Touch
• Allows single touch access to gestures
iPhone and iOS
Assistive Technology and Features (cont.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Switch Control
– Single touch switch access
to actionable controls
Captions
TTY support
Custom vibrations
Mono audio
Visual alerts
iPhone and iOS
Assistive Technology and Features (cont.)
• Invert Colors
– Changes dark colors to
light and light colors to dark
• Large text
• Bold text
• Increased contrast
• Reduce motion
• Guided Access
– Aid to restrict access to app or
region within an app
iPhone and iOS
Input Methods
• Capacitive Touch Screen
– Styli designed for touch screen
– Alternative gestures with VO
– Assistive touch
• Alternative Methods:
– Bluetooth keyboards
• Limited external keyboard
access without VO
– Bluetooth Braille display entry
– Speech recognition
• Siri & Third party apps for dictation
– Accessible on-screen keyboard
• No system-wide custom keyboard
iPhone and iOS
Assistive Technology Versions
•
•
•
•
•
•
When OS is upgraded AT upgrades
To upgrade AT must upgrade OS
Activate/deactivate via phone or iTunes
Access to standard phone features
Access to third party and built-in apps
Many accessible third party apps
Android
Assistive Technology and Features
• Open source platform initially developed by Google
• Assistive technology such as Talkback included in Android
4.3 OS
– Support varies in prior versions
• Talkback screen reader
– Explore by touch support in Android 4.1+
– Supports on-screen keyboard
– Speech output with audio cues
– Braille displays supported
– Latest version required for many
features
Android
Assistive Technology and Features (cont.)
• Screen magnifier available in 4.2+
• Captions supported by media player API
• Other third party screen readers
available
• Custom on-screen system-wide
keyboards available
• Some manufacturers
– Hearing aid compatible
– Mono audio
– Inverse colors
– TTY
Android
Input Types
• Phone with keyboard, and/or
• Directional pad (D-pad), or
• Touchscreen only devices
– May by resistance or
capacitance screens
• Dictation and Speech Control
– GoogleNow
– Google Voice cloud based services
– Third party applications from Nuance
Android
Assistive Technology Versions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Can upgrade OS and AT separately
AT support is limited on older versions of OS
OS upgrades not available for many devices
Access to standard phone features
Access to third party and built-in apps
Many accessible third party apps
Windows Phone
Overview
• Replaces Windows Mobile
• No accessibility layer in Windows Phone 8 OS
– No built-in screen reader
• Bundled with alternative apps (Code Factory)
• Support magnification; large text; high contrast
• Feature like talking caller id, speak SMS
• Windows 8 tablets (e.g. Microsoft Surface)
– Narrator supports touchscreen and IE 10
– Touchscreen magnification feature
– Built-in apps are directly accessible
– Support high contrast theme in Windows 8
Blackberry
Assistive Technology and Features
• Version 10.2
– System touch screen reader on Z30
• Version 10 - Z10 and Q10
– No screen reader or accessibility API
• Version < 10
– Accessibility API in version 4.6 and above
– Older Screen reader available
• All versions
– Color inversion and gray scale color mode
– Text enlargement/magnification
– One-handed operation including sticky keys
Blackberry
Assistive Technology and Features (cont.)
• Hearing aid compatibility
• Visual, audible, and vibration
notifications
• Closed captioning support for
multimedia
• Support for connection to a TTY device
• Browser Zoom
• Voice dialing
• Video Chat
• Some models
– Tactilely discernible keyboard
Strategies for Accessible Apps
Recommendations
• Mobile Apps
– Focus on iOS and Android
– WCAG 2 Level A and AA and Section 508
• Web Apps
– HTML 5 and ARIA based
– WCAG 2 Level A and AA
– Responsive design and progressive enhancement
• Embedded Web Apps (WebView)
– Supported with Talkback (issues with some pages)
– Supported with iOS
Strategies for Accessible Apps
Recommendations (cont.)
• PhoneGap (uses web view)
– Supported in iOS
– Near future support for Android
• PDF and Word Documents
– Most apps only render text
– No heading, table or alt text indication
– Adobe Reader follows Order panel
• eBook Readers
– EPUB 3 standard
• Rapid Development and eLearning Tools
– AIR apps do not expose accessibility
Strategies for Accessible Apps
Recommendations (cont.)
• Normative Testing
– Accessibility Inspector
– Adobe Edge Inspect
– Screenshot testing for contrast
• Functional/Use Case Testing
– End users with disabilities
– Core tasks of the app
– Different end user personas
App Development
Overview
• iOS
– Cocoa /Objective-C/Xcode
– Accessibility Inspector
– Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines
– Set label, traits, hint, frame and value
– Notifications
• Android OS
– Keyboard accessible UI elements
– Label widgets
– Accessibility events for custom view components
– Use Lint for Accessibility Checking
Resources
• iOS Accessibility Best Practices
https://www.webaccessibility.com/best_practices.php?technology
_platform_id=222
• Android Accessibility Best Practices
https://www.webaccessibility.com/best_practices.php?technology
_platform_id=286
• Designing for Accessibility (Android)
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/design/accessibility.
html
• iOS Accessibility
http://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios/accessibility.html
• Blackberry Accessibility Overview
http://us.blackberry.com/support/devices/blackberry_accessibility/
Resources
• Accessibility Management Platform (AMP)
http://amp.ssbbartgroup.com
• iOS app accessibility rating http://applevis.com/
• Accessible Android app lists http://androidaccess.net/
• BBC Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/accessibility
/mobile_access.shtml
• Bridging Apps connects children with disabilities with
appropriate apps http://bridgingapps.org/
• WebAIM Survey for Screen reader accessibility
http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey3/
Next Steps
SSB BART Group
www.ssbbartgroup.com
Jonathan Avila
jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com