Mobile apps are developed and deployed at a very fast pace, so how can accessibility become a part of that? With automation, quick testing, and definition of done for accessibility we can make it apart of the dev process!

1. Accessibility In The Mobile
Development Lifecycle

2. Name: Mark Steadman
Title: Director, Mobile Accessibility
Company: Fidelity Investments
Name: Zach Gadoury
Title: Senior Accessibility Engineer
Company: Fidelity Investments
Hi There!

3. Why Does Mobile A11y
Matter?
• Global traffic on mobile devices has increased from 6% in 2011, to 54% in 2021
• Anything and everything has a mobile app now.
• Some sites even force you to USE the mobile app
• Quick, easy access:
• Communication
• Ride Sharing
• Banking
• Food delivery/Grocery Delivery
Source Credit: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/

4. Assistive Technology
Usage
A study was done on Assistive technology usage in the Netherlands:
Android
• 59% of users have one or
more accessibility setting on.
• 22% have more than one
accessibility setting on.
iOS
• 45% of users have one or
more accessibility setting on.
• 15% have more than one
accessibility setting on.
Source Credit: https://appt.org/en

5. The Problem:
Mobile & A11y In Development
No Information Standards? Slows Down Dev
• Difficult to find a11y info
• Resources are scattered
• Trying to mimic web in
mobile
• WCAG Applied to mobile
• UAAG
• HIG
• Testing takes too long
• Applying a11y is
difficult
• Too hard to learn it all

6. The Solution:
Keep Velocity, Add A11y
• Introduce accessibility into the development
lifecycle without slowing down the
development process
• We achieve this by breaking it into
phases.
• Piece by piece, bit by bit accessibility
gets introduced and ACCEPTED as a
practice
• We want to make it so “I will get to
Accessibility later” is no longer a statement
being made!

7. Small Wins, For Big
Gains

8. Phasing In Accessibility
• Phase 1: Automation
• Linting
• Automated Testing Tools
• Automated Testing Libraries
• Phase 2: Quick Manual Tests
• Visual Testing
• Quick Assistive Technology Checks
• Phase 3: Definition of Done
• Phase 0: ‘Ten minutes a day’ Accessibility learning

9. Phase 1: Automation

10. Linting
• A linter is a tool that statically analyzes source code to flag programming errors and bugs
• This includes Accessibility!
• Benefits of Accessible Linting
• Catching issues as you build HTML content
• Building accessibility knowledge for your developers
• Allows your team to build an accessible gate on commit
• Customizable to the framework you are developing in

11. Linting
• Linting is built directly into Android studio
using the Android Testing Framework to
check for issues as you code
• Quick and reliable
• Helps developers learn from general
accessibility mistakes as they code
• Linting for accessibility issues is a bit
more difficult in iOS
• Very few linters have accessibility
checks
• SwiftLint
• Two accessibility checks
• Only for SwiftUI
• Xiblint (By Lyft)
• Storyboard accessibility checker
Android iOS

12. Linting Demo

13. Automated Testing Tools
• Google Accessibility Scanner
• Application that can scan your content for
accessibility issues
• Has around 14 or so checks
• Easy to use and very simple to run after
your application is built
• Xcode Accessibility Inspector (Audit)
• Built into Xcode
• UIKit and SwiftUI
• Allows you to run an audit of your
content and catch accessibility
issues
Android
iOS

14. Automated Testing
Libraries
• Accessibility Test Framework
• An Espresso testing library that
checks for accessibility issues in
automated UI tests
• Simple setup, and easy to
implement for each different UI
test case
• A11yUITests
• Open source testing library by
Rob Whitaker
• Super easy integration
• Allows you choice of testing
suite and what views to test
• Works with both UIKit and
SwiftUI
Android iOS

15. Automated Testing Libraries

16. Phase 2: Quick Manual
Tests

17. 'Minute to win it’ Test Cases
• Quick screen reader tests:
• Roles for Actions
• Headers
• Appropriate Accessible Text
• Image Descriptions
• Quick visual tests:
• Persistent and Visible Labels
• Use of Color
• Images of Text
• Text Resizing
• Heading and Structure
• Flashing Content
Testing doesn’t have to take forever! ”Minute to win it” test cases can help create a much more accessible
app, with very little effort! Here are some examples!

18. Demo: Screen
Reader Test

19. Demo: Visual Test

20. Phase 0: Ten Minutes
of A11y a Day

21. Ten Minutes a Day
• As simple as the title, take 10 minutes a day for accessibility knowledge gathering.
• Taking an accessibility training course
• W3 Accessibility Foundations (Free)
• Udacity Web Accessibility (Free)
• Deque University (Paid Subscription)
• Reading accessibility article:
• The A11y Project
• A11y Weekly
• WebAIM News Letter
10 minutes 20 minutes 40 minutes 1 Hour

22. Phase 3: Build
Definition of Done

23. Building a DOD for A11y
• The ultimate goal is to have accessibility be apart of definition of done
• Truthfully, it may take some time to get to this point.
• Working with Product Owners to get buy-in for adding more to definition of done is a fight in and of
itself
• This can come in a varying different ways, however in its simplest form we want it to
enforce the phases we have laid out previously

24. Example Definition of Done

25. Bringing it home
• Following these simple phases can help ensure:
• Enforce the importance of accessibility
• Not slow down delivery velocity
• Not overwhelm developers to “do accessibility now”
• Build developer knowledge of accessibility
• At the end of the day the goal is to create developers that truly care about the
content that they create and build a culture of accessibility that is lasts and
endures

26. Name: Mark Steadman
: @Steady5063
: Mark Steadman (Mark-Steady)
Connect With Us
Name: Zach Gadoury
: @ZachGadoury
: Zach Gadoury(Mark-Steady)