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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2021 - 06 - 11 - ID#nxbpu7
2
What should mobile app developers do more in order to improve accessibility on apps? (self.Blind)
submitted by prox76
Hi everyone!

I am currently working on a research project regarding Accessibility and Inclusive Design for cross-platform mobile apps. Therefore I would like to know what annoys you the most when using apps on your smartphone while using the screen reader. What do you wish developers should do more often that would help you on your everyday usages of common apps? Do you prefer VoiceOver on iOS or TalkBack on Android?

Since I don't know any visually impaired people around my community, any input regarding this topic would be really helpful!
Marconius 4 points 2y ago
Ultimately, build native apps specific to the platform so you can take full advantage of the accessibility features offered in both iOS and Android. Using React-native to create cross-platform apps is rife with problems and cannot inherently utilize the accessibility features of both platforms since they are so different. Apple has published their inclusive design best practices as have Google, and those should be followed to the T along with a clear understanding of the WCAG and how to translate the criteria into native apps. There is so much refactoring and work that has to go on under the hood just to build in accessibility that it's just better overall to use the native code base and elements, especially since that will make an app much more robust for accessibility improvements in the future.
prox76 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
I totally agree with you and thanks for the insight! In fact the research looks in detail into React Native. There is a trend currently in mobile development in which people opt-in into cross-platform frameworks and the problem there this, as you pointed out, that not all native features can be fully mapped and therefore resulting in weak user experience. Lucky enough, the React Native dev team is aware of that problem and they are working on it ($1) so let's hope for the best! Thanks again!
Marconius 2 points 2y ago
It's almost too little, too late. There are lots of designers and engineers out there who learn how to create things with Reactnative with no understanding at all about accessibility or inclusive design, and trying to build it in afterwards and fill in those gaps is very hard and super expensive. I've already tested and trashed multiple apps that used React-native and have had to teach and show devs how to test for a11y and they were shocked to see the sheer scale of how much they had to fundamentally change with their apps to make them work correctly.

These apps also create viable legal risk for companies, because it's quite easy to have someone approach with an ADA lawsuit if the app is the only way to utilize a service or provide some kind of equitable service for users. There is not nearly enough being done in the education phase for designers and developers to have them learn about inclusive design coming out of schools and boot camps, and it's going to take a massive push to get more design houses to understand this.
vip-sizzles 3 points 2y ago
Unlabeled buttons. Having Voice Over simply saying button, button doesn't provide much info.
spider_lord 1 points 2y ago
Label everything, and I mean everything.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 2y ago
Little things don’t bother me that much but an app that just don’t work and obviously no one actually tried to make it accessible.
DariusA92 1 points 2y ago
Layouts that move on its own. They are really a pain to work with. Also, a cluttered interface makes using an app difficult.
prox76 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Noted. Thank you for your input!
Rethunker 1 points 2y ago
You can find statistics to answer at least some of your questions by googling for the WebAIM surveys.

https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey8/

You can go back and look at older results.

They recently collected data for the next survey.

Also, if you can find some BVI people to talk to, you’ll learn a lot. Then try a survey armed with that knowledge; you’ll be able to ask much more focused questions.
prox76 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Super useful information! Thank you very much
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