Mobile Accessibility
Landscape
Jonathan Avila
About SSB BART Group
• Unmatched Experience• Accessibility Focus• Implementation-Oriented
Solutions• Solutions That Reduce Legal
Risk• Organizational Stability and
Continuity• Knowledge That Is Up-to-Date,
All the Time• Published and Peer Review
Auditing Methodology
• Fourteen hundred organizations (1445)
• Fifteen hundred individual accessibility best practices (1595)
• Twenty-two core technology platforms (22)
• Fifty-five thousand audits (55,930)
• One hundred fifty million accessibility violations (152,351,725)
• Three hundred sixty-six thousand human validated accessibility violations (366,096)
Agenda
• 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
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 #5 for Screen Reader Accessibility
iOS •Very 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 – but growing
Symbian/Nokia•Percent of users with disabilities dropping
Windows Phone/Blackberry •< 1% total users
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
• 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
The future of assistive technologies?
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 orregion 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 (Current version 4.4)– 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
• 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
Input Types
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• Third party assistive technology
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
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
Assistive Technology and Features
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•Support for Android*PDF and Word Documents •Most apps only render text•No heading, table or alt text indication•Adobe Reader follows Order paneleBook 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 (iOS)•Lint (Android)•Safari developer tools•Adobe Edge Inspect (DOM)•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 Touch UI/Objective-C/Xcode
•Accessibility Inspector
•Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines
•Set label, traits, hint, frame and value
•Notifications
Android OS•Keyboard accessible UI elements
•contentDescription, hint, labelFor, states
•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/screenreadersurvey5/
Questions?
Thank You
Contact Us
Jonathan AvilaChief Accessibility Officer
SSB Contact [email protected]
(800) 889-9659
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