How do you ensure mobile accessibility in your team?

1 Plan ahead

One of the key steps to ensure mobile accessibility is to plan ahead and incorporate it into your project scope, budget, and timeline. You should define your accessibility goals, standards, and guidelines, based on the needs and preferences of your target users and the best practices of the industry. You should also assign roles and responsibilities for accessibility within your team, and communicate them clearly to all stakeholders.

2 Design with accessibility in mind

When designing your mobile app or website, you should follow the principles of inclusive design, which strive to create solutions that work for everyone, regardless of their abilities, contexts, or devices. When considering design aspects, think about color contrast and readability, typography and layout, images and icons, and touch targets and gestures. For example, use colors that are easy to distinguish and read, arrange content logically with clear headings and labels, provide alternative text for images and icons that convey information or functionality, and make sure touch targets are large enough and well-spaced. Additionally, avoid relying on color alone to convey meaning or functionality, use fonts that are legible and scalable, use descriptive captions for media content such as audio or video, and avoid complex or custom gestures that may be difficult or impossible for some users to perform.

3 Develop with accessibility in mind

When developing your mobile app or website, you should use semantic and valid code that follows the web standards and accessibility guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or the Mobile Accessibility Checklist. Additionally, you should use appropriate markup and attributes to ensure that your content and functionality are accessible to assistive technologies, like screen readers, magnifiers, or voice control. Some of the development aspects to consider include keyboard and focus operations, forms and inputs with clear feedback and instructions, dynamic and interactive content with ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) enhancements, and performance and compatibility across devices, browsers, and operating systems.

4 Test with accessibility in mind

The final step to ensure mobile accessibility is to test your app or website with real users and tools, and evaluate its accessibility performance, usability, and compliance. You should conduct manual and automated testing using a variety of methods and scenarios. User testing should involve people with different abilities, preferences, and assistive technologies. Accessibility testing should use tools such as Lighthouse, axe, or WAVE to check for errors, warnings, and suggestions. Lastly, you should hire an accessibility expert or consultant to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your app or website and provide a detailed report with recommendations.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?