Introduction to
Mobile accessibility
Digpen 7
25 Sep 2014

Introduction
Jon Gibbins
– Accessibility consultant at Dig Inclusion
– Web developer since 2003 – or 1999!
– Assistive technology since 2002
– Training since 2012
– Passionate about accessibility – why?
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Photo credit:
LG, GD910 watch phone
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Jon Gibbins / Drake Music
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Introduction
What we will learn:
• How people with disabilities use mobile
devices
• Barriers typically faced by users with
disabilities
• Mobile accessibility principles
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• This session will focus on iOS and Android
– Current market share favours iOS and Android devices
– iOS accessibility features and API is most developed
– Android have some good accessibility features and are
improving all the time
• Demonstrations
– Mostly using VoiceOver on iOS and Mobile Safari
– Android features will also be demonstrated with web
features shown using Chrome or Firefox nightly
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Introduction

Introduction
• Questions are encouraged
– Nobody knows your work like you know your work
– If you have a question, or want to know more,
please put your hand up
• Links
– Web accessibility training resources
– WebAIM screen reader survey (Jan 2014)
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Ensuring that anyone can use your websites
and applications to find information, buy
stuff, play games, watch video…
Making a website or application more
accessible to people with disabilities
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Accessibility

Accessible
People with disabilities can perform the same
functions…
receive same information…
and participate as
producers and consumers.

Mobile
• “Mobile” is not just about phones
– Tablets, games consoles, TVs, etc.
– More users: cheaper technology reduces Digital Divide
• Mobile Web
– Sites and applications built for viewing on mobile
browsers
– Note: Feature gap to native apps is narrowing due to
standards such as HTML5 and ARIA
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Mobile accessibility
• Making a website or application more accessible to
people with disabilities using mobile devices
• The basics are the same as on desktop:
– Alternatives: images, audio, video
– Labeling: form controls, headings, buttons
– Good structure: landmarks, lists, heading levels
– Use native controls where possible
– Content order
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Why?
• Mobile devices are the cheapest way for
people to get online.
• Innovative assistive technologies are
available for free with operating systems,
such as iOS and Android.
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Who?
• Four main user groups with diverse needs:
– Vision (blind, partially sighted)
– Hearing (deaf, hard of hearing)
– Mobility
– Cognitive and learning
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Who?
• Hidden disabilities
– Chronic fatigue
– Photo sensitivity
– Mental health
• Aging
– Spans various disabilities and user groups
– Often first-time users
– Note: Older people, like young children, find primary solid colour
easier to see and draw meaning from than pastel colours, etc.
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Who?
• Temporary
– Broken wrist
– Repetitive strain injury
– Tiredness
• Cultural
– Language
– Colour and iconography
• Technology
– Particular software and hardware requirements or preferences
(mobileaccessibility.info Device Details)
– Connectivity, data limitations, etc.
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How?
• Assistive technology users
– Speech output (screen readers)
– Braille output
– Voice input
– Magnification
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How?
• Access services
– Captions
– Subtitles
– Audio description
– Sign language interpretation
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Quick screen reader demo
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Who?
Shared web experiences on mobile devices:
• Common ground between mainstream users and
users with disabilities
– Comparable to temporary disability (in the car, at
concerts, walking)
– http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/experiences
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Who?
Shared web experiences on mobile devices:
• Empathy
– Accessibility is about understanding people and
the barriers that they face
– Getting your own experience of accessibility helps
you to put yourself in the shoes of others and keep
accessibility in mind when building and testing
your sites and applications
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Who?
Shared web experiences on mobile devices:
• Innovation
– Assistive technology that are useful to all users!
– For example, Siri or custom vibrations on iOS
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Constraints of mobile
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Mobile by definition is disabling for all…
• Small screen
– iPhone is 1/12 of a typical desktop screen
– 40-pixel finger is big on small targets
– Can be hard to reach some parts of the screen
• Small text sizes – like having low vision
• Small input devices
• Eyes-free – like being blind, e.g. in car

Constraints of mobile
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Mobile by definition is disabling for all…
• Reliant on touch
• Not as usable in the rain
• Need for special gloves
• One-handed usage
• Low light
• Connectivity, data limitation

Capabilities of mobile
• Better integrated accessibility than desktop
• Location and direction
• Camera and augmented reality
• Accelerometer (tilt/orientation, movement, speed)
• Touch screen
• Proximity (NFC)
• Environmental awareness (light/dark conditions)
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Capabilities of mobile
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• FaceTime used by deaf people
• Custom vibrations as ringtone
equivalents
• Speeches given using iPad with Proloquo
• HueVue app that helps colour blind
people to identify colours

Capabilities of mobile
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• Braille:
– V-B-Reader app (Android) that enables Braille to be read
using vibrating touch screens
– Touch-screen Braille writer
• Innovative assistive technology that’s useful to all users!
– Apple’s Siri voice recognition
– Google Voice’s voicemail transcription
– Custom vibrations (iPhone setting and Android app)

How?
Two main interaction methods:
1. Explore by touch
– Drag finger over screen
– Items under your finger are
described by screen reader
– Tap with a second finger or
double tap to open/activate
2. Gesture navigation

How?
Two main interaction methods:
1. Explore by touch
2. Gesture navigation
– Swipe right/left moves focus to
next/previous content in
sequence
– Items are described by screen
reader as focus moves
– Double tap to open/activate

iOS Accessibility Features

iOS Accessibility Features
VoiceOver
1. Triple click the Home
key to activate
2. Dial to open the Rotor
3. Swipe up/down to
navigate parts
4. Swipe right/left for
next/previous content

iOS Accessibility Features
VoiceOver
1. Triple click the Home
key to activate
2. Dial to open the Rotor
3. Swipe up/down to
navigate parts
4. Swipe right/left for
next/previous content

iOS Accessibility Features
VoiceOver
1. Triple click the Home
key to activate
2. Dial to open the Rotor
3. Swipe up/down to
navigate parts
4. Swipe right/left for
next/previous content

iOS Accessibility Features
Other accessibility features
• These mostly “just work”, but must test in
combination – e.g. VoiceOver running with
Zoom may experience focus issues
• Pinch zoom
• Zoom (system-wide)
– Three-finger gestures for zoom
control/movement
– Zoom up to 5x
• Large Text / Dynamic Type

iOS Accessibility Features
Other accessibility features (2)
• LED Flash
• Mono audio and balance control
• Hearing aid support
• TTY (used by the Deaf)
• iMessage
• Visual Voicemail
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• Invert Colors / Black on White
• Assistive Touch
• Captioned content
(QuickTime)
• Guided Access
• Speak selection
• Custom vibrations

Android Accessibility
Features

Android Accessibility Features
• TalkBack
– Bundled since version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
– Since Jelly Bean, it behaves a lot like iOS
– Eyes-Free Keyboard
• Download as necessary for accessing web views
• Haptic feedback
• Large text
• Zoom
• TalkBack on Jelly Bean (9 mins 47 secs.)
– http://youtu.be/w3Sz3KNkQ4U

Android Accessibility Features
TalkBack
1. Install Eyes-Free keyboard
2. Enable TalkBack via settings
3. Explore screen by touch
4. Single tap to activate

Android Accessibility Features
Browsers with good accessibility support
• Native (WebKit)
– being replaced by Chrome as default browser
• Chrome
– requires Ice Cream Sandwich
• Firefox Nightly
– looks set to provide the best accessibility support
• Ideal Web Reader

Standards and guidelines

The problem:
• There is no one set of internationally accepted mobile
guidelines and standards
• WCAG was written for desktop
• Mobile is more diverse than desktop and is developing
quickly – more browsers, OSs, hardware, software
• We fall back on WCAG 2.0, which provides a sound
foundation but is only the start of the story
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Standards and guidelines

• BBC Mobile Accessibility Guidelines
– The best reference we have to date
– Technology-agnostic standards and guidelines
– Technology specific techniques – HTML, Android, iOS
– Getting to grips with a mobile accessibility strategy
• Resources for Mobile Accessibility Guidelines
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Standards and guidelines

• Web Accessibility Initiative resources (now fairly dated)
– Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) 1.0 (last updated mid-2008)
– Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
– Relationship between MWBP and WCAG
• Mobile Accessibility Guidelines by Funka Nu
– Released in March 2012, these are more up to date
• Nielsen Norman Group have a useful report:
Usability of iPad Apps and Websites
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Standards and guidelines

Device-specific guidelines and standards:
• iOS Accessibility Programming Guide
• Android Designing for Accessibility
• Android Developers Accessibility Guide
• Nokia user experience for touch checklist (PDF)
• Nokia user experience checklist for keyboard (PDF)
• Design Guidelines for Windows Mobile
• Widget Accessibility Guidelines
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Standards and guidelines

• Be aware of the laws governing accessibility in your
country
• Section 508
– US Federal Government websites
– ‘information and communication technology’ must be WCAG
2.0 compliant
• 21st Century Act says by 2013 phones must ship with
accessible browsers
– No defense for inaccessible content when handsets and
browsers are accessible
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Legal requirements

General principles

• We know what assistive technology is, but how does it work?
• Accessibility APIs
– Present user interfaces as information rather than a purely
graphical medium, translating an application’s user interface into
information that assistive technology can understand
– Allow an application’s user interface to be changed by the
assistive technology
– Provide a common vocabulary we can use when talking about
accessibility.
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Theory: accessibility APIs

• Accessible Object Properties
– User interface is represented as a hierarchy of accessible objects
– Each object has a variety of properties, such as:
• name: Defines a label. (“Hi, what’s your name?)
• role: Defines the behavior. (“So, what do you do?”)
• state: Defines the current condition. (“How are you?”)
• Accessible Events
– Accessibility APIs notify assistive technologies of changes by
broadcasting events
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Theory: accessibility APIs

The Mobile Web

The Mobile Web
Principles of mobile accessibility
• Use progressive enhancement
• Use web standards as intended
• Support platform accessibility settings and assistive
technology
– HTML5 input types and contextual keyboards, e.g. number,
email, date
– Support for ARIA is good on Mobile Safari and Chrome and
Firefox for Android
– iOS/Android do not identify the type of landmark roles
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Forms

Forms
Typical barriers of access
• Missing labels
– Voice output and sighted users don’t know what to
input
• Lack of input types
– Users forced to use free input, likely to make mistakes
• Error handling
– Lack of help prevents forms being submitted
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Forms
Label form inputs:
• HTML label element is best
<label for="first-name">First Name</label>
• WAI-ARIA aria-label
– only works when there is no HTML label
• HTML title attribute
<input id="name" name="name" type="text" value=""
title="Your name">
– But not accessible to sighted users
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Forms
Group related form elements:
• Group related elements using
<fieldset>
• Caption the related elements using
<legend>
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Forms
<fieldset>
<legend>filter by</legend>
<input type="radio" name="filter" id="a">
<label for="a">television</label>
<input type="radio" name="filter" id="b">
<label for="b">radio</label>
<input type="radio" name="filter" id="c">
<label for="c">cinema</label>
</fieldset>
Browser output:
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Forms
• Voice output:
“Filter by radio button television, radio button radio,
radio button cinema”
Or:
“Filter by radio button television, Filter by radio
button radio, Filter by radio button cinema”
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Forms
• Replace free input with drop downs, radio buttons, etc.
• Use HTML5 input types
– Supported in Mobile Safari and Webkit (Android)
– Contextual keyboards in iOS
– Previous, Next…

Forms
• Use colour to reinforce meaning, not alone
– Avoid ‘All fields marked in red are required’
– Inaccessible to blind, colour blind users
– Colour output may also vary across devices
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Forms
• Consider inline validation
(when appropriate)
• Draw focus to error
• Don’t rely on colour alone
• Make message clear
• Suggest how to correct
• Provide ease of navigation away from error
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Error handling
• Use programmatically readable instructions
– Add ‘required’ to the <label>
<label for="name">Your Name (required)
</label>
– Progressively enhance with:
<input type="text" required> (iOS 5+)
Note: Using both techniques does not result in ‘required’ being
announced twice.
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Session timeouts
• Users with visual, physical or cognitive disabilities may
need more time to read and interact with pages
• Choose one of the following recommendations:
– Allow users to turn off the time limit
– Allow users to adjust the time limit (allow a range of
options and at least ten times the default)
– Allow users to extend the time limit (show a warning
before timeout, give at least 20 seconds to easily extend
time, e.g. by pressing the space bar)
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Focus management
• Screen reader focus is not the same as
keyboard focus on desktop
• Set focus in a web view:
var button =
document.getElementsByTagName('button')[0
];
button.focus();
• Set focus using tabindex="0"
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Speech
Control speech verbosity
• VoiceOver announces ‘12345’ as ‘Twelve thousand
three hundred and forty-five’
• Announce ‘One, two, three, four, five’ using:
.address {speak: digits;}
• VoiceOver announces ‘1 != 2’ as ‘One equals two’:
code {speak: literal-punctuation;}
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WAI-ARIA

ARIA
<div tabindex="0" act="20" class="T-I J-J5-Ji nu T-I-ax7
L3" style="-moz-user-select: none;" data-tooltip="
Refresh">
<div class="asa">
<span class="J-J5-Ji ask">&nbsp;</span>
<div class="asf T-I-J3 J-J5-Ji"></div>
</div>
</div>
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ARIA
<div role="button" aria-label="Refresh" tabindex="0"
act="20" class="T-I J-J5-Ji nu T-I-ax7 L3" style="-moz-user-
select: none;" data-tooltip="Refresh">
<div class="asa">
<span class="J-J5-Ji ask">&nbsp;</span>
<div class="asf T-I-J3 J-J5-Ji"></div>
</div>
</div>
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“Refresh button”

<a href="#">Favorite</a>
ARIA
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<a href="#">Favorite</a>
ARIA
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“Favorite link”
“Click the Favorite button to favorite a
post” would not be correct for assistive
technology users.

ARIA
<a role="button" href="#">Favorite</a>
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“Favorite button”
Fixed semantics!
But… using a button element would
be even better and would provide
expected behaviours for free!

ARIA
Mobile support for WAI-ARIA
Source: http://caniuse.com/#feat=wai-aria 70

Structure and layout

Structure and layout
Typical barriers of access
• Headings and Landmarks not marked up
– Voice output users can’t navigate
• Landmarks are not labeled
– Voice output users don’t know where they are in a
page
• Content order is incorrect
– Flow of content is illogical
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Structure and layout
• Responsive Design
– Screens of 320-pixel width are typical but not guaranteed
– Test only the elements that change at each of the supported
screen resolutions
– Remember to test both landscape and portrait
• Guidelines
– http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/12/guidelines-for-responsive-
web-design/
• Resource: Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte
– http://www.abookapart.com/products/responsive-web-design
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Structure and layout
• Use semantic and structured
mark-up
– Headings
– ARIA landmarks
– Lists
– Data tables
• HTML5 structural elements
not yet well supported
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Structure and layout
• New HTML5 control types are well supported on iOS (5+) and
Android (Chrome and Firefox)
– type="date"
• type="month"
• type="time” …
– type="email"
– type="range"
– type="tel"
– type="url"
– And more…
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Structure and layout
Landmarks
• Landmarks describe parts of the page (e.g. main,
search, navigation)
• iOS and Android do not currently distinguish between
types of landmark
– Next item of content is read with the landmark instead, for
example:
role="main"…
<h1>Mobile accessibility</h1>…
VoiceOver announces:
”Landmark, Mobile accessibility, heading level 1”
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Structure and layout
Content order
• Ensure a logical content order:
– An H1 follows role="main"
– Main content follows an H1
– An H2/3/4 follows
role="complementary"
– An H2/3/4 follows role="navigation"
– Duplicated links grouped in one <a href>
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• Logical order is generally left to
right, top to bottom
• Sometimes poor code choices
cause strange focus order
• Generally best to let the order
of elements in the source code
determine the focus order
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Structure and layout
Content order

Testing
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Top 5 tests
1. Browse the site with a screen reader
2. Check markup and structure
3. Interact with all forms
4. Tab/gesture through the page
5. Images have appropriate text alternatives
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Top 5 tests
1. Browse the site with a screen reader
– Tests the user experience
– Can pick up many issues in one go
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Top 5 tests
2. Check markup and structure
– Quick check: W3C Nu Markup Validator
– Appropriate markup structures and semantics
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Top 5 tests
3. Interact with all forms
– Are they clearly labelled and include
instructions?
– Check error messages are clear and easy to find
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Top 5 tests
4. Tab/gesture through the page
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Top 5 tests
5. Images have appropriate text alternatives
– Use the alt text decision tree
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Top 5 tests
• Missing?
– Pages and frames are titled
– Link text is appropriate to target (covered by tabbing through)
– Headings exist and are appropriate
– Navigation is consistent
– Alternative means of locating pages is provided
– Repetitive navigation can be skipped
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Top 5 tests
• Missing?
– Non-HTML content is accessible (PDF, Flash, etc.)
– All visible content is conveyed to assistive technologies
– Hidden content is not conveyed to assistive technologies
– Appropriate colour contrast
– Colour is not used as the only means of conveying information
– Animated content can be paused, stopped, or hidden
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Top 5 tests
• Missing?
– Accessible alternatives for audio and video content
– Language
– Role and state information
– Animated content must not cause seizures
– Users are allowed enough time
– Content can be resized
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• Make a test strategy
– Henny Swan has developed a great starting point
• http://www.iheni.com/mobile-accessibility-tests/
– Test with:
• Both zoom and speech output features off
• Speech output only
• Zoom only
• Both zoom and speech output features on
• Inverted colours
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Testing

Testing on iOS
• Cheat sheet for learning the gestures used on
VoiceOver for iOS: http://a11y.cc/iosvoref
Tip:
• You can use the Simulator or AirPlay to check colour
contrast.
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Summary
Let’s recap…
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Summary
• An introduction to mobile accessibility
• How people with disabilities use mobile
devices (iOS and Android)
• How to go about building in accessibility on
mobile
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Questions?

Thank you!
• I’m Jon Gibbins
– @dotjay on Twitter
– For more information contact: jon@diginclusion.com
• Slides will be available on Lanyrd
• Feedback gratefully received!
• Please also tweet feedback and photos #digpen
• Note: Contributions from The Paciello Group used with
permission
© Jon Gibbins 94

Appendices
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Benefits of digital inclusion
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Making a case
• Search engine optimisation
• Increased usability and business
• Reduced development and maintenance time
• Improved stability and interoperability
• Reduced server load
• Cost savings
• Reputation
• Competitive advantage
• Compliance with law
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Making a case (continued)
• Informed by:
– Web statistics
– Cost versus savings analysis
– Corporate Social Responsibility
– Non-quantifiable benefits
• Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your
Organization
– http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/
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Making a case (continued)
• Search engine optimisation
– “The Internet’s biggest blind user is Google”
– Valid code is easily digestible
• Increased usability and business
– Close ties between accessibility and usability
– Expanding and diversifying the customer base
– Overall increase in business volumes
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Making a case (continued)
• Reduced development and maintenance time
– Accessibility can save your developers time
– Easier to automate testing
• Improved stability and interoperability
– Accessibility encourages valid code, making your websites and
applications more robust and more likely to work with other
software
• Reduced server load
– Leaner code, easier to serve, less bandwidth
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Making a case (continued)
• Cost savings
– Proven return on investment
– Increased sales and improved profitability
– Time and reduced server load
• Reputation
– Corporate Social Responsibility
– “An accessible website will make you look good”
– A better, more usable website will earn you a good reputation
– Loyal customer base, word-of-mouth advertising, and repeat
business
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