A presentation given by accessibility expert, Kath Moonan, at a Mobile Monday Belfast accessibility workshop in September 2011. The workshop was sponsored by Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards and ICT KTN.

1. Accessibility Experience
How to tackle accessibility in your app
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2. Hello!
• @ladymoonan
• Accessibility Lead,
Vodafone Group UE
• 10 years experience
• Senior consultant at
AbilityNet
• UPA UK accessibility chair
• User centered design
approach
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3. Smart access #vsa2011
Accessibility #a11y
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4. How to tackle accessibility in your own app
1. Talk to people with access needs
2. Plan from the beginning
3. Follow guidelines
4. Accessibility isn’t just about screen reader users!
5. Test with people with access needs
6. V1.0 may be a work in progress
7. You don’t have to be perfect to be accessible
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5. HOLISTIC APPROACH
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6. 19 markets (total population 1.76 billion)
Approximately 136 million people needs
Everyone has access
experience
moderate orat some point
minor disability or have an
access need
Approx. 30 million people have a severe
disability
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7. 1. Talk to smartphone users with access needs
• If you’re talking to people you are probably doing this
– Mild vision impairment, dyslexia, colour blindness, older users
• Contact disability organisations / adult groups / charities
– Self organised, grass roots groups as well as charities
– Ensure the people with access needs are from your target
audiences!
• Interest groups:
– www.blindtechsupport.net
– http://www.nida.org.uk/ (Northern Ireland Dyslexia assoc.)
• Use social media #disability #dyslexia
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8. Just Ask
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9. Inclusive design toolkit
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10. 2. Plan from the beginning
Accessibility
Number of changes
Requirements Development Deployment
Project time line
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11. 3. Follow guidelines
• Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0
Best practices for mobile web design and development
• WCAG 2.0
Technology agnostic guidelines from W3C
• BS8878
Web accessibility: Code of practice
• Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities Who is
affected and what challenges they face
• Designing for accessibility
By and for Android developers
• Android accessibility
from the Google Eyes Free project
• http://www.iheni.com/mobile-accessibility-guidelines/
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12. Key points
• Follow common design patterns
• Don’t break built in accessibility
• Simplicity is accessibility
• Reduced functionality helps
• Android: Poor access for partially sighted / low vision
– Provide display options – text size, colour
• Follow web standards
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13. 4. Accessibility isn’t just about blind people!
• Arthritis is the most common condition for which people
receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA)1
• 1in 30 people in the UK experience sight loss2
– The majority of vision impaired people are partially sighted
• 1 in 7 people in the UK with a hearing impairment3
• 1 in 10 are affected by dyslexia4
• 974,000 people with a learning disability in England5
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14. Key points on mobile usage
• “If I can do it on my phone I will” (Partially sighted user)
• Users may have a limited amount of time using phone /
app
• Users don’t know how to use their device
• May be using older versions
• Users don’t want different products – mainstream
accessibility
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15. 5. Test with people with access needs
• See step 1!
• Include a percentage of users with access needs in every
sample
• Use personas and walkthroughs
• Use simulators (with caution)
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16. 16 Designing an accessible mobile app
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17. 6. V1.0 may be a work in progress
“If your product demonstrates
enough of its unique selling points
(USPs) and no more than that,
you’ve achieved your minimal
viable product, and you should get
it out there right now.”
Jonathan Hassell, Chair of BS
88788 committee
This doesn’t mean don’t address
the issues at a later stage!
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18. Upgrades
• Be careful not to degrade accessibility during upgrades
• Don’t keep changing the UI and not informing users
(Facebook)
• Tell users about accessibility features
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19. 7. You don’t have to be perfect to be accessible
“We may not end up with a
perfect 10 for accessibility.
I’m enough of a realist to
know that few websites
launch in a perfect state,
irrespective of accessibility
or not.”
Accessibility expert Leonié
Watson on Government
Digital Service (GDS)
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20. Final word to Leonié
“Design like you give a damn!”
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21. Thanks
@ladymoonan
Kath.moonan@gmail.com
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