Mobile Accessibility Resources

General Resources

Guidelines

• Mobile A11y: website by Rob Whitaker: Mobile A11y is a collection of blogs and resources about how we as mobile developers can improve accessibility on mobile devices. (Accessed on 21.10.2022.)
• Funka (formerly Funka Nu): Mobile Guidelines: these guidelines were developed in 2012 and can be downloaded in three language versions: English, Spanish and French.
• Funka (formerly Funka Nu): Mobile Navigation Guidelines: this document is based on customer research that was done between October 2013 and February 2014.
• W3C:
  • Web Accessibility Initiative: Mobile Accessibility.
    Update 23.10.2023: this page now redirects to Mobile Accessibility at W3C.
  • Mobile Accessibility: How WCAG 2.0 and Other W3C/WAI Guidelines Apply to Mobile (work in progress) by the Mobile Accessibility Task Force (Mobile A11Y TF).
    Update 23.10.2023: since the first public working draft of February 2015, no new versions of this document have been published on the W3C's website. The latest draft on GitHub is the Editor's Draft 11 December 2018.
• Mobile Accessibility: How WCAG 2.0 and Other W3C/WAI Guidelines Apply to Mobile, World Wide Web Consortium, 26.02.2015 (working draft).
  Update 23.10.2023: see above.
• Henny Swan: Resources for Mobile Accessibility Guidelines, Henny Swan's blog, 7 September 2011.
• IBM AbilityLab Mobile Accessibility Checker (see also: Techworld: "IBM launches accessibility test tool for mobile apps", 4 March 2015). The Mobile Accessibility Checker was based on IMB's Bluemix (later renamed to IBM Cloud).

Developing Mobile Apps

• Whitaker, Rob: Developing Inclusive Mobile Apps: Building Accessible Apps for iOS and Android. Apress, 2020. (XVII + 342 pages) ISBN 978-1-4842-5813-2.
• Heathcote, Chris: Making great accessible mobile apps, Accessibility in government blog, 04.05.2021.
• Adam, Paul J.: iOS vs. Android Accessibility, Paul J. Adam (no date; accessed on 28.11.2023).
• Lemcke, Markus: Der Sinn barrierefreier Progressive Web Apps, Dev-Insider, 22.08.2023 (13-minute read).
• Mendix Accessibility Conformance: Ensure Your Apps Are Accessible, Mendix (no date; accessed on 09.01.2024).
  Mendix is an example of low-code approaches to app development. Other examples include Appery.io and FlutterFlow, which don't have any accessibility documentation.

Mobile App Inspection and Testing

• Henny Swan: Mobile Accessibility Testing Guide for Android and iOS – free, The Paciello Group blog, 02.11.2017. This blog post links to a freely available PDF document that describes how to test native apps and web applications on Android and iOS.
• Best Practice Guidelines for Developing Quality Mobile Apps by the App Quality Alliance (AQuA) covers quality in general and privacy. (The GSM Alliance’s guidelines Smarter Apps for Smarter Phones do not cover accessibility at all.)
• Hick, Andrew: How mobile apps undergo accessibility monitoring, Accessibility in Government blog, 18.10.2023.
• Essentials of Mobile App Testing by (AQuA) focuses on testing for quality in general. In addition, AQuA also provides guidelines and testing criteria for Android, iOS and Java ME.
  The guidelines are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
• IBM: IBM AbilityLab Mobile Accessibility Checker: description of a commercial product that supports the development of accessible apps.
• Microsoft Windows Dev Center: Accessibility testing - UWP app developer, 8 February 2017.
• Building and Testing Accessible Apps: recording of a AbilityNet webinar organised on 30 September 2014 (YouTube, 45 minutes; closed captions are available).
• Use the Accessibility Inspector in XCode and iOS simulator: a short video by Ted Drake (YouTube, 80 seconds, no speech).
• Accessibility testing with Android Studiow: a short video by Ted Drake (YouTube, 100 seconds; closed captions are available).
• Mobile Accessibility at Twitter: hour-long video where Sommer Panage explains Twitter accessibility for Android (27 May 2014; YouTube; no captions).
• Leduc, Jaclyn: How to Test for Mobile Accessibility, 3 Play Media, 16.10.2019, updated on 17.10.2019.
• Jan Jaap de Groot / Native mobile accessibility testing #id24 2023 (Inclusive Design 24 #id24 on YouTube, 50 minutes, 21.09.2023).
  The slides for the talk can be downloaded from Jan Jaap de Groot's LinkedIn post.
• Vinkle, Scott: Mobile Screen Reader Testing, Scott Vinkle, 30.10.2020.
• Color Contrast Grid: Create a color grid showing contrast ratios (accessing 10.02.2022). See also the Contrast Grid Tool repository on GitHub.
• Macron, Davis: Mobile Accessibility Testing with Appium And Accessibility Tools, The Right Messages, 21.09.2023.
  Other resources about Appium (not limited to accessibility):
  • Appium 2.1 Documentation, Appium.
  • Iasseh: Appium Tip #18: How To Use XPath Locators Efficiently, Smartbear blog, 18.01.2016.
  • Appium Basics: The Complete Guide, Perfecto (no date; accessed on 29.11.2023).
• Kohler, Tanner: Conducting Mobile Accessibility Research with Screen-Reader Users, Nielsen Norman Group, 14.05.2023.
• Appt Evaluation Methodology (Appt-EM), Appt.org, last updated on 04.07.2023 (accessed on 11.11.2023).
• van Workum, Paul: Voor apps gelden maar 44 succescriteria uit WCAG, Stichting Appt, 03.06.2021.
• Abra Desktop, Abra (no date; accessed on 07.02.2024).
  This is a dekstop application for evaluating the accessibility of Android and iOS apps. The website is in Dutch, but the application's user interface is in English.

Web Development for Mobile Devices

• Cullipher, Vivian: 3 Important Reasons to Make Your Mobile Website Accessible, Microassist Digital Accessibility Digest, 25.01.2018.
• Bailey, Eric: An Introduction to the Reduced Motion Media Query, CSS-Tricks, 10.02.2017.
• Averitt, C.B.: Accessibility for Mobile Web: Improving Color Contrast, Deque Blog, 06.02.2018.
• Pickering, Heydon: Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications. Rakuten Kobo / Smashing Magazine, September 2014. ISBN 9783944540801 (e-book in ePUB 2 format, DRM-Free).
• Wright, Tim: Accessibility in Resizing Text, 24 Accessibility, 08.12.2017.
• Référentiel d'évaluation de l'accessibilité des applications mobiles (RAAM 1) : Introduction, Portail de l'accessibilité numérique, Le Gouvernement du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, 21.06.2021. This evaluation method is based on the standard EN 301 549 v.3.2.1 and is available under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 LU licence. See Référentiel d'évaluation de l'accessibilité des applications mobiles (RAAM 1) version 1.0 on GitHub.

Finding Accessible Apps and Devices

• Global Accessibility Reporting Initiative (GARI) is a project by the Mobile Manufacturer’s Forum (MMF) that is designed to help consumers and developers learn more about the accessibility features of mobile devices and to help them identify devices with the features that may assist them with their particular needs.
  The page Building Accessbile Applications provides links to resources available elsewhere.
  The GARI database is available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Other Links and Resources

• Kalcevich, Kate: Mobile Accessibility Barriers For Assistive Technology Users, Smashing Magazine, 19.02.2024 (ten-minute read).
• Accessibility stats, Appt (no date; accessed on 28.04.2023; CC BY-SA 4.0 licence).
  Based on research in the Netherlands, the percentage of smartphone users who have at least one accessibility setting enabled is by no means a small minority.
• Sethfors, Hampus: Hand tremors and the giant-button-problem, Axess Lab, 09.04.2018.
• Onderzoek naar de toegankelijkheid van apps: Welke accessibility-instellingen gebruiken Nederlanders nou écht op hun telefoon?, Q42 (no date, probably January 2021).
• Holly: How do blind and visually impaired people use a mobile phone?, Life of a Blind Girl, 03.02.2019.
• Applying EU regulation to native mobile apps (IAAP on YouTube, 61 minutes, 07.12.2021).
  Presentation by accessibility consultant Jon Gibbins, which starts at the timestamp 4:56. This is essentially about compliance to EN 301 549.
• Wolters, Sanne: Deze ondernemers maken apps toegankelijker voor mensen met een beperking, NU.nl, 29.11.2022.
• Bram Duvigneau over de digitale toegankelijkheid van de CoronaMelder app (Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport on YouTube, 3:02 minutes, 06.10.2020). (This video has open captions in Dutch.)
• Taylor, Michael: A Blind Person's Perspective on Mobile Accessibility in Ecommerce, UsableNet blog, 21.08.2024.
• What Is Accessibility in Mobile Apps?, Bureau of Internet Accessibility, 26.11.2021.

Specific Mobile Platforms

• John Rempel: "Comparing the Accessibility and Screen Enhancement Features of Google Android Lollipop 5.0 and Apple iOS 8.1.1 for People with Low Vision", AFB AccessWorld Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 1 (January 2015).

Android Accessibility

• Accessibility | Android Developers (official API documentation).
• Resources for Developers and Publishers by Google Accessibility provides some pointers and resources for developers.
• Google Accessibility Scanner and Get started with Accessibility Scanner: Google's tool for scanning Android apps for accessibility issues. (See also Valentina Palladino's article Google releases new tool to scan Android apps for accessibility issues on Ars Technica, 24.03.2016.)
• Apps4Android, Not Just For Profit (NJFP) corporation, developer Android accessibility applications.
• Principles for improving app accessibility, Android Development (no date; accessed on 28.11.2023).
• Device Traits, Google Assistant SDK (no date; accessed on 28.11.2023).
• Coleman, Graeme: Android accessibility: roles and TalkBack, Tetralogical, 07.07.2022.
• Accessibility on Android, Xamarin | Microsoft Docs, 29.10.2019.
• The Journey to Accessible Apps: Making Visual Text Accessible, Xamarin Blog (Microsoft), 19.08.2021.
• Maya Ben-Ari: Inclusive design and testing: Making your app accessible - Google I/O 2016 (YouTube, 40 minutes, 20 May 2016).
• Munim, Ataul: What’s Next? A Practical Introduction to Accessibility on Android, ProAndroidDev on Medium, 22.04.2018 (twelve-minute read).
• Phil Weaver, Eve Andersson, Casey Burkhardt, Hugh Oh, Mark Riccobono: Improve Your Android App's Accessibility, talk from Google I/O 2015.
• Casey Burkhardt, T. V. Raman, Alan Viverette: Enabling Blind and Low-Vision Accessibility On Android, a presentation from Google I/O 2013.
• Apps4Android: Category “Accessibility Guidelines”.
• Google I/O 2012 - Making Android Apps Accessible (on YouTube): T.V. Raman, Charles Chen, Alan Viverette, Peter Lundblad on the platform-level accessibility APIs introduced in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
• Android 5 0 Lollipop accessibility features (on YouTube) by Android Central.
• BBC: Mobile Accessibility Standards and Guidelines v1.0.
• Accessible Android (blog)
• Designing for Accessibility by the Eyes-Free project.
• Paul J. Adam: TalkBack & Magnification Accessibility in Android 4.3+.
• Henny Swan: Accessibility testing with Android Talkback, The Paciello Group blog, 6 October 2015.
• Chris Hofstader: Testing Android Accessibility: I Give Up, 9 January 2014.
• Android KitKat 4.4.2 – TalkBack.
• Chris McMeeking: Blind TalkBack Accessibility IS NOT Inclusive Design (YouTube, 20.09.2017, 8 minutes).

React Native Accessibility

• Accessibility, React Native (no date; accessed on 14.10.2023).
• React Native accessibility, Appt (no date; accessed on 14.10.2023).
• Lacerda, Aryella: Introducing React Native Accessibility Engine, React Brasis on Medium, 28.02.2021 (accessed on 14.10.2023).
• Rejmann, Jakub: Building Accessible React Native Apps: A Guide to Inclusive Design, Solveq, 28.02.2023.
• Ancheta, Wern: Making accessible React Native apps, Pusher (no date; accessed on 14.10.2023).
• Gallagher, Nicolas: Accessibility, React Native for Web, last updated on 24.08.2023 (last accessed on 14.10.2023).

iOS Accessibility

• Apple: Accessibility - iOS (overview for users).
• Apple: Use Accessibility features in iOS.
• Apple Developer: Accessibility in iOS - iOS Technology Overview.
• Apple Developer: Accessibility for Developers.
• Apple iOS Developer Library: Understanding Accessibility on iOS.
• Apple: Accessibility for Developers: general entry point about accessibility for developers.
• Whitaker, Rob: iOS UIKit Accessibility traits, Mobile A11y (no date; accessed on 28.11.2023).
• McMeeking, Chris; Barrell, Alistair: What iOS Traits Actually Do, Deque blog, 21.08.2015.
• Léonie Watson: iOS App Accessibility, 21 February 2011.
• University of Minnesota: Accessible iOS Apps (a list of examples).
• AppleVis is a community-powered website for blind and low-vision users of Apple's range of Mac computers, the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV and Apple Watch. It hosts lists of iOS and macOS apps, a forum, a blog, podcasts, lists of accessibility bugs, guides and tutorials for users, and reviews.
• Adam, Paul J.: Announcing the iOS SwiftUI Accessibility Techniques Open Source Project, LinkedIn, 11.12.2023.
  See also the iOS SwiftUI Accessibility Techniques repository on GitHub (Apache 2.0 licence) and the Accessibility Techniques app in the App Store.
• Clarke, Alice: The 6 Best iOS 14 Accessibility Features, Gizmodo Australia, 19.01.2021.
• Cole, Ryan: How to Design for Accessibility with Your iOS App, Intuit Engineering, 26.07.2022.
• fastlane is a tool for automating beta deployments and releases for both iOS and Android apps. See especially accessibility_test plugin (not updated since December 2019).
• Brisbin, Shelly: A Timeline of iOS Accessibility: It Started with 36 Seconds , MacStories, 11.07.2019.

Windows Phone Accessibility

• Microsoft: Accessibility on my phone (Windows Phone 7).
• Windows Apps Team: Testing for accessibility in Windows Store apps, 25 March 2014.
• Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN): Guidelines for designing accessible apps.
• Microsoft: Windows Apps Team: Testing for accessibility in Windows Store apps, 25 March 2014.
• Clint Rutkas: A First Look at Building Windows 10 Universal Apps, MSDN Channel 9, 24 March 2015. (Video of 46 minutes; available under Creative Commons.)
• Guy Barker: A tip on how to find some high contrast bugs, Microsoft Windows UI Automation Blog, 16.03.2016.

Java Mobile Accessibility

• LWUIT on Java.net (no changes since 2012?). LWUIT is still available for download (see Oracle Java for Mobile and Embedded Devices - Downloads, but it is not clear what Oracle will do with Java ME in the future.)

BlackBerry

• BlackBerry: BlackBerry Development Guide (PDF).
• BlackBerry: Introduction to the Accessibility API (Accessibility - BlackBerry Java SDK - 6.0).
• BlackBerry: BlackBerry JDE API Reference: Overview