Mobile Accessibility Issues

Hello all, welcome back to our course on digital accessibility and today we'll try to dive a little bit deeper into mobile accessibility and the related aspects. So mobile accessibility in India is both a legal mandate and an ethical imperative. So uh we have to ensure that digital inclusion for the country's large population of people with disability is there and uh uh there are several legal mandates which we will also talk about in the upcoming slides uh around mandates related to mobile accessibility which also have to be followed and it has a significant legal uh economic and social importance and uh which is of course driven by uh the recent court judgments and national legislations. So we've also discussed the legal and the economic aspects related to accessibility in general not just pertaining to mobile accessibility but when we say any digital product largely we are also talking about mobile as well as web- based products. So all of the legal aspects and all of the economic aspects that we have discussed in one of the previous sessions do very much apply to mobile accessibility and app application related accessibility as well. So just to get an understanding of the various facets which influence um mobile accessibility and why it is important in a country like India particularly. So first and foremost is that it is now a part of the fundamental right the right to life and liberty which is the fundamental right of all citizens now mandates around access to information and digital accessibility fall under right to life. So as companies, as engineers, as designers, we have to ensure that all our applications right from the beginning whenever we are creating those applications are um accessible to widest possible audience base not just you know just only for persons with disabilities but also to um um persons who are aging and with there's a large aging ing population in the country not just in India but globally as well in countries like Japan and the European Union aging is has become one of the major um uh you know access related barriers. uh so we have to ensure that as well and in order to include more and more uh geriatric population of our country in the digital ecosystem we have to ensure accessibility of all our products and platforms particularly for them as well in one of the following follow-up sessions we will discuss the special use case of aging population and we will also discuss the special use case of persons who are blind and uh because these are two very big uh chunks uh both in terms of the numbers but also in terms of the variety of issues and the barriers that they face. So we will have a special session on each of those uh difficulties and barriers. uh but to just uh take an essence uh related to the fundamental rights I think um we have discussed it several times in one in all of these uh slides and now we have to ensure that it's not just um um a part of matter of design or policy or um you know just the experience itself. It's also part of the legal mandate and it is thus very important to consider. Then we have also discussed that uh um it mobile accessibility also ensures uh market expansion because we are able to cater to a wider customer base and hence that uptick uh really also reflects in the economic and the profitability aspects of your product and the company. Uh so uh ensuring mobile accessibility allows businesses to reach a larger uh and underserved market segment which is largely untapped particularly in India and accessibility um gaps uh when filled. uh so those applications lead to increased user retention, increased trust and uh increased customer loyalty and thus greater profit profitability. So I think this is also a very important aspect. Then of course comes uh the legal and ethical responsibility beyond the legal compliance. Um making digital platforms inclusive also reflects the corporate social responsibility. CSR is no longer just you know supporting uh these initiatives in with a financial support. But it's also uh a matter of compliance within the company within their own ecosystems within their own hiring policies within their own creation and innovation policies uh and um um their commitment to equality itself which will eventually reflect in um more inclusive product design. So um then of course I think we have had we have discussed it earlier as well that most accessibility features such as navigation, clearer navigation, uh keyboard accessibility, language alternatives and like they they just don't um remove the accessibility barriers for people with special needs but also enhances user experience for the so-called called general or able or our most uh wider audience base right or so-called normal user. So uh and including those with uh people with temporary or situational impairments. So I think uh this part we have discussed in several sessions at length. You can maybe go back and refer to those sessions uh to get a deeper picture of course. Then um another important aspect is improved brand image because uh the company is not just um you know producing or developing uh compliant applications or platforms. They are also prioritizing inclusivity uh within the company that builds company's reputation builds trust within the customers and potential partners who value uh you know socially conscious businesses and this has become a very um important aspect when it comes to VC funding for startups etc. how socially aware you are of the socioeconomic fabric of the customers you are going to serve or you are just you know influenced by uh other parts of the world and just making a replica for of it for India or something like that. So this social awareness and social consciousness of businesses is something which is a key component when it when it comes to securing uh big VC uh funds. So um particularly for startups I think this aspect becomes even more relevant and important. Now let us talk about particularly um compliance related aspects in India and um mostly uh uh related to mobile access. So the legal framework for mobile accessibility in India is primarily uh based on the RPWD or the rights of persons with disabilities act of 2016 and uh subsequent judicial and regulatory actions. So the RPWD act of 2016 uh this is like a cornerstone legislation mandating that all public and private sector service providers make their services including digital platforms and mobile applications accessible to persons with disabilities. Non-compliance can lead to penalties ranging from 10,000 to 5 lakh and this is probably going to increase in the upcoming years because uh the government is hellbent on um enforcing these mandates. uh Supreme Court mandate. Uh recently uh there was a landmark judgment uh in uh April of 2025 where the Supreme Court has reinforced the RPWD act ordering the government to establish mandatory enforcable accessibility standards requiring immediate action from various sectors like banking and finance. And this particularly has also reflected in recent SEBI mandate which came in of October of 2025 where all financial and uh banking platforms have to comply to bank u web and uh um mobile accessibility compliance benchmarks. So while the RPWD act does not directly site the international standards, they cannot do that because they are in Indian law but there is a um Indian alternative called GIGW and the rules and the subsequent directives align with them. So they have issued a list of guidelines of themselves which are directly borrowed uh from the W CAG uh guidelines. The key standards include uh web accessibility web content accessibility guidelines or the W CAG. You may think that why we are talking about web content accessibility guidelines again because largely the digital interfaces um only uh most of the time the the principles remain the same when you are even um you know um designing for a mobile based interface or you are designing for a wider window uh kind of a web- based interface. uh so largely and we we are all aware that nowadays we also open a lot of websites on the mobile and a lot of applications are actually web- based applications which um which are running on your mobile phone. So only the responsiveness or the uh design orientation um layouting as all of those factors uh change when it comes to a smaller interface which is like a handheld mobile interface. So but then these are internationally recognized technical standards uh that all entities public and private are expected to follow particularly level double A conformance. So in one of the previous sessions where we have dived deeper into the W CAG uh guidelines we have spoken at length about the uh level A level double A level AAA compliance standards and what is the meaning of that. uh you can go back to your uh those sessions or you can uh jump to the W CAG resource web page and uh you can see the list of criterians that are falling into double A double A level compliance implicitly means that it is also double A level compliant. So A and A when it's complete then only you can move to double A and once it is complete then only you can move to AA. So double A means that all um double A and A level criteria are fulfilled in your apps and your web pages. Then there is also as I mentioned there's something called a GIGW guidelines for Indian government websites 3.0. These set these set the standards for government's digital platforms and incorporate many accessibility features which again align with the WAG. So the WAG and the acquaintance with WAG guidelines is something which is going to help you u in attaining knowledge and expertise related to digital accessibility be it web be it mobile. So make sure that you go through that again and again in order to develop your knowledge base and expertise. So then there is also IS7802 Indian standards on accessibility requirements for information and communication technology or ICT products and services uh notified by the Bureau of Indian Standards or BIS. You I'm sure might have heard about BIS and we have also discussed this in one of the previous sessions where we spoke about uh the BIS standards. Uh the same standards also extend to mobile accessibility and um there are uh linked resources in that session as well and you can again uh go to um go and you know search for these um keywords and you will be able to find the related web pages or you can go back to our session on compliance and WAG and you will get all of these um uh resources linked in those session slides as well. So in order to make sure that the enforcement action is uh done, a chief commissioner for persons with disability has taken action against non-compliant establishments imposing fines and demanding accessibility audits signing signaling a shift from self-regulation to active enforcement. I think this is the most important part. So long. Uh there were these laws till 2016 and the law stated the act stated that you uh it should be compliant. You have to comply comply with the guidelines and all of this. But sadly uh people were not uh you know in enforcing uh those uh compliance criterion on their products. So now it is no longer a self-regulation but it is active rely active enforcement of the law by the government itself and there's a chief commissioner uh who can uh you know impose fines or uh um signal uh accessibility audits that need to be done in order to ensure the enforcement of mandates around accessibility. key accessibility practices uh for mobile apps. Again uh the compliance involves integrating accessibility from the start of the design the development process and uh again follow the POR principles the perceivable operable understandable and robust principles. Um the WCAG guidelines as we have discussed in one of the previous sessions are also divided as per these uh headings themselves. They are segregated among uh amongst themselves like in this um um headings itself and uh we have also at length discussed about what is the meaning of perceivable. So providing text alternative. So making sure that your um information which is what whatever is there on your application is perceivable by uh a variety of users despite uh their ability barriers. Right? So um here we talk about multimodel output output interfaces output feedback systems multimodel interactions multimodal ways of uh representing the information and then also basic things like uh text alternatives for the images captioning uh for videos or uh sufficient contrast and all of those. Then um second is uh ensuring operability, ensuring functionality, engagement with your application either through keyboard or providing uh big enough buttons um touch targets uh to offer um alternatives to complex gestures. Um that means that operability basically um here we are talking about multimodel output devices. Here we are talking about multimodel input devices basically. So there should be multiple ways of interacting uh with the system and uh even those ways have to offer if it it's like a haptic or a touch based uh touch based system then the targets have to be of a certain size the text has to be certain size um the the links should not be empty all of those things right then uh understandability complies with uh we have also again discussed as at length. You can go back to the POI principles session and maybe uh get a deeper understanding of all of these principles. Here we are just kind of u summarizing it for the benefit of the topic. Use simpler languages, consistent layouts or descriptive labels. Uh provide clearer error messages. So understandability uh relates to the semantic processing or the semantic aspect of uh of your application. Robustness is um compatibility with a wider range of assisted technologies, compatibility um with different kinds of platforms or OS like an Apple versus an Android and all of those aspects. Then regular testing with automated tools and uh real users with disabilities is crucial to identifying and addressing accessibility barriers effectively. So these are uh these this is basic summary of uh key practices for mobile apps uh to ensure accessibility. Um we will talk about some of the commonly occurring issues particularly in mobile access. So poor contrast is something which keeps popping up. uh again and again because somehow as designers or as an engineers we are placing less value on it in terms of uh access and uh or many a times um compromise the contrast just for the aesthetic quality of it. So uh we have to ensure that that does not happen. insufficient target uh touch target size. So buttons cannot be very small u because otherwise uh it becomes very difficult for users to accurately tap uh particularly for users with uh motor impairments. Lack of all text. So if there are images or icons but there is no all text then the screen readers or such assisted technologies or what we call talk back in a mobile phone is not able to uh speak what is there on the image and image description then it is inaccessible to persons who are visually impaired or who have low vision unresponsive text resizing. So apps for some reason are not able to handle user preferences for larger text. So even if uh on my phone the OS the Android OS allows um having larger text the main main um in interface or navigation pages may have larger text but as soon as I jump into uh into um an app the text my text preference gets lost. So um this is this is like a core level issue right so when you're developing your application make sure that it complies with uh aligns with user preferences which are already um there present on the mobile phone itself on in the OS uh settings inconsistent focus order. So uh many times screen readers or keyboard users cannot navigate through a content in a logical or a predictable sequence because the background architecture is not uh predictable or a logical sequence because many times you've seen that uh on an app like for example you um think about um a Zumato app or a Uber app there is also unnecessary unnecessary images or ads sometimes which um which you know uh if they come in between a sequential readout of the text then it is uh haphazard loses loses the connection between the previous and the next information. So the predictable sequence uh gets disturbed. So uh for this I think uh there is also a section uh in the mobile accessibility uh guidelines and also in one of the books which I will just refer you to it's called mobile accessibility rituals there's also uh chapter on that where it is uh when where the author talks about having two uh um information architectures. So where uh there is one architecture which is accessible by the screen reader and there is one architecture which is there accessible by the front end or the interface visual interface user because many times the logic may be different for both of them. non-keyboard accessible controls. Most of the times um when the apps are designed for um mobile use, we tend to skip the fact that maybe some of the users would be using it using a keyboard or interacting it. So this again falls into the operability category and we have to ensure that uh um so custom controls or menus etc. um are also accessible using a variety of uh input devices like a keyboard or a screen reader. Inaccessible media like videos uh particularly or audio only content if they don't have transcripts then they become inaccessible to uh people who are visually impaired or hearing impaired. So again here are some tips uh for mobile interfaces. Um use proper color contrast. Um adhere to the WAC recommendation of at least 4 is to 5 to one 4.5 is to one uh for normal text and 3 is to one for large text. Size touch targets appropriately. Make sure your buttons are decent size. There's enough space between two closely placed buttons. Um the colors indicate what they are trying to do, what the action is for. Use the concept of affordances in order to create a good call to action. You can refer to the session on affordances in order to get an idea about what is the meaning of that. That can be really useful in for this point actually. So you can refer to affordances. Then provide all text uh to images and other non-ext contents like videos. Make sure that you enable zoom and text resizing. Uh because this as uh we um mentioned earlier uh make sure that the users can pinch to zoom and that text uh resizes without breaking the layout. The app should respect the devices dynamic type settings. So um apps should take information from the devices dynamic type settings and um uh if the user has already put preferences about um their preferred uh font size and type uh related um font type then it should respect that. Ensure logical focus order. Test the navigation with the keyboard or screen reader to confirm a logical and consistent flow through the app's content. I think this is really important because it is uh like testing from the lens of a person with vision impairment. Then of course we're not uh negating actual user testing but this is something that you can also do just to uh see whether the sequence is coming out as a logical sequence or not because screen readers are a logic are a sequential output device. The design for different types of inputs ensure that functionality is available via both touch and non-touch methods. So like keyboard alternatives etc. for gestures include captions and transcript. Provide captions for videos uh for audio content. Optimize data entry. So use tools like drop-down and check boxes and radio buttons instead of requiring to type everything in long uh text. So and allow for autofill wherever possible. So all of these settings are there right? I mean if if I have already entered some like longer information like email addresses or phone numbers or home address, postal address and it is there present on my device. It should the app should allow for um uh autofill and you know garner data from the device wherever possible. Test with assistive technologies like talk back or voice over in iOS, talk back in Android and test features like switch access to experience the app from a users's perspective. So switch access feature is something which you can explore on your phone device. Incorporate user testing. Include people with disabilities in your testing to identify and fix real world problems or accessibility barriers. This is something which nothing no process can negate. Now let us try to see uh whether WAG talks about mobile accessibility and they have a uh decent list of uh resources. So I have linked this. So um this is called um this page is double mobile accessibility at W3C and uh this also covers u a good number good amount of detail and you can you can go through this page maybe we'll uh take up a few aspects of it. So W3C3 provides specific guidance on mobile accessibility. You can click here um and see this is uh again uh a series of success criteria and all of those. These are the editors. So right now it is a draft document but still you can see that there is a lot of uh information available. So success criteria 1.1.1 non-ext content again here you can you can uh expand and read whatever we they're talking about capture mobile platform sensory all of those. So and uh particularly read about where how and where your uh interface can fail the criteria right. So that is the most important aspect. So all of these uh criteria are there and you can go and read. So alternative text can be provided directly in the view. So yeah, I mean all of these uh criteria are there and you can go through and use of color, orientation, sensory characteristics, meaningful sequences, uh resize of text, all of these criteria are present and um it customizability essential. It also has um you know all of these categories like uh to describe how much is essential and how much you have to ensure and how much is okay to customize. So then it's also um it's also telling you about WKA actu ICT. So um applying the success criterion uh images of text to non non-web documents and software. So there can be images uh which contain text. So then the then the text becomes inaccessible to a talkback uh algorithm or a screen reader. So you have to ensure that that does not happen. contrast. So all of these like keyboard, no keyboard, no keyboard trap. So so all of those uh aspects are so and you can also read the GitHub connections which are there. So here note in work in progress, read issue number. So they have automatically linked uh useful resources under each criteria. So these documents and these resources themselves are very comprehensive and very rich. So when you are creating your um application referring to these can be really helpful multiple ways. Focus order. So I'm just browsing through it right now. You can use the document as per your uh requirement. Authentication uh this is something which is um you know there in a lot of banking websites u banking apps and all of those things. So how to do it? How to incorporate accessible ways of authentication? So like cognitive function test which is like a remembering a password or solving a pres puzzle. Alternative a mechanism uh is available to assist the user in completing the cognitive test. Object recognition cognitive test is to recognize objects. I think I'm sure you might have seen where uh you know you get a matrix of images and you have to identify which ones have a cat in it or something like that. So all of those things identify non-ext content the user provided to a website or something. So all of those things are there which is very much relevant and and please note that this document itself is like a draft note but still it is quite rich and you can refer to it easily. Then there is also this document which is how uh WAC 2.0 and other guidelines apply to mobile. So mobile accessibility considerations primarily related to principle one uh which is perceivability. So small screen size most common characteristics of a mobile device. We can um you know take it up in another session again and uh you know talk about all of these aspects in detail. Some of it we have already spoken about in different sessions and it also talks about which which criteria falls under which level of double aa. You can go through uh this contrast is double A, contrast enhance is AAA, resizing of text all of these are there and it is again a very detailed document and uh you can go through this uh resource as well. It is quite uh usable. So I think this page itself is quite usable and uh you can go through uh this at your own convenience and as per your requirement. So uh to summarize uh in today's session we spoke about the importance uh of mobile accessibility the key principles that govern u accessibility compliance some of the commonly occurring issues some tips to uh ensure mobile accessibility and we also saw a very rich resource which is uh the W3C mobile accessibility uh guide and uh this is also very good book which is called mobile accessibility rituals um uh which talks about um particularly accessibility related uh tips and um um you know how to fix those problems and issues uh particularly for mobile uh application development. So thank you for uh staying with us in this session. Uh look forward to meeting you in the next session.