Native Mobile Accessibility Development

The Android operating system comes with various accessibility features packaged for free. These accessibility features enable wider users who have difficulties using the device either because of their disability or due to any other reason. The operating system is adding features and enhancing each feature in every release. Below are few such features. Depending on […]

Talkback is the default screen reader available for Android operating system. You can switch it on from Apps > Settings > Accessibility > Talkback. Just wait before you turn it on. Read this chapter completely before you turn on the feature. Interaction Method The default interaction that is tap to select or open a screen […]

IOS comes with lot of accessibility features built into the operating system. The categories’ are divided into the user groups. The accessibility settings can be found at Settings > General > Accessibility Some accessibility features built in the operating system are listed below. VoiceOver: VoiceOver is the built in screetn reader. Zoom: Zoom magnifies the […]

VoiceOver is a built in screen reader available in any IOS device. To switch it on navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility > Voiceover. Hang on!!!!, The interaction mechanism changes once you switch on voiceover. Tap is now just selection not activation. So read this chapter completely before you interact with voiceover. Remember that […]

The elements on the UI need to be exposed to the accessibility services such as Talkback and Voiceover. Content authors should ensure that the accessibility label is available for every UI element the user is expected to interact or navigate. The normal text displayed on the screen will be accessible by default and the content […]

The interaction mechanism of any UI element depends on it’s type. User should know if the element is a button, link, slider, text field or any other element to interact with it. On web we called it is a role or type. In Android it is called as the view and in IOS it is […]

Accessibility hint is an additional information user may require to interact with an element. It is similar to an instruction content author want to provide when interacting with a special control. So, the accessibility hint is not required for standard UI controls. They are available as part of the control themselves. When the content authors […]

As explained in the talkback and voiceover chapters, users depend on swipe gestures to navigate between the items on the screen. Imagine the tab navigation on a desktop screen. The only difference is that the mobile swipe gestures navigate to all elements irrespective of their type. In other words, tab key navigates only to the […]

The content on the screen though visually looks as a single statement, while navigating with the screen readers bring them in separate swipes. The below content Song Name : Name of the song Singer : Name of the singer Duration: 4 minutes May be read by the screen reader as Song Name : Name of […]