Lecture 7

Question 1

What does it mean to design accessible mobile technology?

Answer 1

• Making devices usable and content accessible
• Being sensitive to distinctive qualities of technology e.g. screen size, interaction modalities, portability and their target user groups.

Question 2

What assistive technology is available on mobiles?

Answer 2

Output technology: screen readers (could be separate apps or built into operating system i.e. VoiceOver)

Input technology: voice input (dictation app or voice-based assistant i.e. Siri)

Question 3

What are some common issues with mobile devices?

Answer 3

• Touchscreens
• Small screen sizes
• Different input modalities, including speech and 3D Touch enabled by pressure sensors
• Device use in different settings, such as bright sunlight.

Question 4

WCAG to Mobile: Perceivable - 7 points

Answer 4

1) Minimise content on screen
2) Make content and controls a reasonable size
3) Adapt link length to viewpoint
4) Form fields below instead of next-to
5) Support changing text size
6) Do not suppress pinch to zoom
7) Increase contrast

Question 5

WCAG to Mobile: Operable - 5 points

Answer 5

1) Support external keyboard
2) Reasonable target size and spacing
3) Gestures should be easy to carry out and discoverable
4) Use “touchend” events (i.e. action only get carried out if finger is lifted off on target)
5) Controls should be operable with one hand

Question 6

WCAG to Mobile: Understandable - 6 points

Answer 6

1) Be careful with changing screen orientation
2) Be consistent in layout
3) Put important items upfront
4) Group items that perform the same action
5) Indicate actionable items
6) Provide help for (custom) gestures

Question 7

WCAG to Mobile: Robust - 3 points

Answer 7

1) Support the right onscreen keyboard for data type
2) Reduce text entry
3) Support platform accessibility

Question 8

Why is AI being used for accessibility?

Answer 8

To increase autonomy and greater social inclusion

Question 9

What are some examples of AI for accessibility?

Answer 9

• Machine learning/computer vision
• Personalised adaptable interfaces responsive to user and environment
• Intelligent environments like smart homes
• Through assistive (robot) “carers”

Question 10

What are the basic ideas of adapting user interfaces?

Answer 10

Monitor what the user is doing and adapt the user interface accordingly.

• On a desktop, a system usually monitors user interactions with program functions
• Use AI to suggest “better” UI
• System automatically changes its interface.