What is Mobile app accessibility?

 

• • Trying your best to assist people with disabilities is just the right thing to do. By doing so, you’re also widening your reach and opening up your app to a new audience.

  

  For any mobile app to be successful, You have to make sure that it reaches the widest audience possible. If more people can access your app, it helps you boost your download rates and eventually increase your profit margin. But for your app to have a greater reach, it has to be accessible to everyone. Many custom mobile app development companies are providing these types of services. So what does it mean when we say mobile accessibility?  

  According to the Web Accessibility Initiative, mobile accessibility refers to making websites and applications more accessible to people with disabilities when they are using apps on their mobile phones and other devices. This concept refers to more than just smartphones and tablets. Other devices need to be accessible, such as smart TVs, smartwatches and other wearables, car dashboards, airplane backseat monitors, And household appliances.

  Mobile technologies, as we are well aware, are growing in leaps and bounds changing the world around. It is the responsibility of the tech world to be able to reach out to people from all spheres, including people with disabilities, even if it is not directly profitable. Now more than ever, people are relying on apps for their daily necessities including people with disabilities. In the world of accessibility, mobile app personalization is often pushed to the low priority by companies and app owners, even as usage and engagement on mobile are on the rise. According to Pew Research center, 37 percent of Americans primarily use mobile devices to connect to the web, and the other  20 percent of Americans own a smartphone but do not have broadband internet at home. Yet, the primary and sometimes only digital asset that organizations address for compliance is their website.

  According to the World Health Organization, over 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability (57 million in the United States alone). So, if you haven’t considered mobile app accessibility thoroughly in your design, you’ve severely restricted the audience you can reach.
  
  

  What is Mobile App accessibility? 

  When a mobile site or an app is called accessible, it means that it can be used by someone with a disability. It could be someone who is blind that uses software that reads websites and apps out loud.  Or someone who can’t hear properly and turns on captions when they watch a video. Mobile app-accessibility describes the importance of developing mobile applications or mobile sites for smartphones, tablets, and wearables to be user-friendly to the 1+ billion people worldwide who have a disability. 

  When developed correctly, mobile websites and apps work for all of these people. But most of the time, mobile technology is not developed with accessibility best practices in mind.  Why is that? It is often an honest oversight. Nobody intends to exclude people with disabilities from using a website. Many developers were taught best practices for mobile accessibility. Or sometimes the goal of mobile accessibility is pushed to the backburner. Either way, people with disabilities get affected.  They also want to use online banking, shop, read the news, and talk to friends and family online but they don't always have the option. 

  Accessible apps make a huge difference.  Something as simple as adding captions can boost engagement. Captioning has increased video engagement by over 500% over the last 8 years. As more people grow older, there will be an increasing market for apps that take advantage of these types of assistive technology. Even basic smartphones come with these features and apps for people with disabilities.
  
  

  Who needs mobile accessible apps?

  As we previously stated,  accessible mobile apps are for people with some kind of disabilities. Here are some common categories of disabilities that can largely impact someone’s mobile app experience. 

  • Lack of ability to move dexterously or tap with a purpose
  • Inability to process external stimuli such as sound and sights
  • People with cognitive impairments when they have following too many different screens or themes

  Let’s go over the numbers again to see how many people this affects. Well, in the United States alone there are roughly 57 million people who have a disability. If we break this number down even further. About 20 million people have trouble lifting or gripping, which could limit their ability to hold a cell phone. Having these impairments can impact their ability to use your mobile app. So it is evident that enough people are affected by this to prove that you need your mobile app solutions to be accessible. Read more- What is Mobile app accessibility?