Accessible Mobile Apps (Bi)Weekly - Issue #35

Hey everyone,

I hope you're having a great week. As always, don't hesitate to reach out with any suggestions for the next issue via email (hello@accessiblemobileapps.com) or Twitter (or Mastodon).

- Robin

Axe-Con March 15-16 (Free, online conference)

"Axe-con is the world’s largest digital accessibility conference that welcomes developers, designers, business users, and accessibility professionals of all experience levels to an accessibility conference focused on building, testing, and maintaining accessible digital experiences." - deque.com

From our Slack Group:

"Understanding the cost of not being accessible" - karlgroves.com (Thanks Quintin for sharing this!)

Not in the Slack group? Use this link to join our Slack workspace for mobile accessibility. Ask technical questions, share resources, get advice from other developers, and most importantly connect with developers who share your passion for a11y.

Twitter has removed captions from Spaces on iOS, and they don’t work on the web or Android

"Twitter Spaces, the company’s social audio rooms, no longer lets you use captions if you’re listening on iOS. Twitter still advertises that you can turn on captions through the three-dot menu in a Space, but on iOS, that option currently isn’t there. On other platforms, it seems like captions should work but don’t." - theVerge.com

App accessibility: Commonly overlooked accessibility practices for mobile apps

"So, I’m not here today to discuss topics that have already been widely covered, such as color contrast, button size, image alt-text, or the use of icons, because learning materials about those are already ubiquitous. Instead, what I will do today is list some the things that are often overlooked in app design accessibility, to bring greater awareness to designers or engineers who are designing mobile apps." - medium.com

iOS

Cheating the System for Fun and Profit (or how to use macOS Assistive Technologies to test in the Simulator)

"Let’s take a look at how we can use macOS’s assistive technologies, like VoiceOver and Voice Control, as well as Hover Text, to more easily check some accessibility in the simulator, without having to deal with the (shortcomings of) the Accessibility Inspector. This will help you not having to always immediately run your device on an iOS device to test it… mostly — the experience on an iOS device should still be your source of truth because of certain differences between the platforms, even within an iOS app on the Mac. But we’ll get to that." - BasBroek.nl

A11yUITests

Android

Android Accessibility Shortcuts- Explained

React

Building Accessible React Applications: Best Practices for Senior Engineers

"In this advanced article, we’ll discuss the latest best practices for building accessible React applications. We’ll cover topics such as accessible forms, custom components, focus management, internationalization, and much more." - medium.com

Design

Figma: A11y Annotation Kit

"We use this library at Indeed to help designers document accessibility considerations to share with developers when handing off designs. It's quick and easy to add callouts for elements, indicate focus order, or specify keyboard interactions. We hope this helps others create more accessible websites and products." - figma.com

Neurodiversity Design System

"The NDS is a coherent set of standards and principles that combine neurodiversity and user experience design for Learning Management Systems. Design accessible learning interfaces supporting success and achievement for everyone." - neurodiversity.design