In a world with a growing population that uses mobile devices, we encounter people having issues with the usage of mobile applications every day. Sometimes, we are not aware of that because we are not affected. But, as mobile engineers, we should consider use cases like that.
As Apple said at the World Wide Developer Conference in 2020, “... 1 in 7 people in the world has some kind of accessibility issue,” and we should consider making our apps accessible to those people as well.
In general, accessibility is about making our apps accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. When thinking about disabilities, we need to know that some are permanent. Still, some of them may be temporary or situational, which should also make usage of our apps challenging at times.
Fortunately, mobile devices today are equipped with assistive technologies that can help us deliver great and accessible apps. This way, all users will use our apps and enjoy using their features.
When talking about accessibility, it is essential to consider the framework or guidelines written for accessibility in general. Even with that, we must try to understand all areas of accessibility we want to cover. The most common areas (defined by Apple) are; cognitive, motor, vision, and hearing.
Currently, there is no standardization for most used platforms or frameworks when talking about mobile platforms. Still, as a base for accessibility on mobile, it is used Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for Web (WCAG).
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