How do I make my iOS / Android apps compliant with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act?

Question

Is it possible to make iOS and Android apps compliant with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act? I have an upcoming meeting where this question will be raised.

Answer 1

See here for Apple's docs on how to make apps fully accessible: Accessibility Programming Guide for iOS

In particular:

If you use only standard UIKit controls, you probably don’t have to do much additional work to make sure your application is accessible. In this case, your next step is to ensure that the default attribute information supplied by these controls makes sense in your application

Answer 2

I've done a couple of section 508 reviews but don't take what I say as the final word or a legal opinion.

Section 508 is usually used in government contracts and is part of the purchasing process. If your app is not completely 508 compliant this won't mean you can't get the contract, it just means you may lose out if someone has an app that is more compliant then yours with the same general feature set and usability.

As far as 508 compliance on a mobile device the VPAT, which is the form you need to fill out does not specifically mention smart phones. Take a look at http://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility To view the current VPAT. If I had to fill out a VPAT I would focus on "Section 1194.21 Software Applications and Operating Systems" since you are writing an application for what is basically a computer with assistive technology on it.

I'm a totally blind iPhone user and from my personal experience with the accessibility of Apple's built in applications as well as many third party applications I would say creating an application that is 508 compliant or very close is doable.

Android is a different story. I don't have any firsthand experience with Android but do to the different levels of Android, different hardware, and customizations from the device makers that may negatively impact accessibility you can't guarantee your app will be accessible. The best you can do is try to find a handset with good accessibility, develop on that handset, and in the VPAT make it clear that you only tested with one specific hardware device so your results will vary. With Apple it's safe to say that if an app is accessible on iOS 4.0 it will be accessible on an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPod touch since they control the operating system and hardware. My understanding is that Android's accessibility API is more limited then Apples so that is something else to take into account.

For an introduction to making iPhone apps accessible other then Apple’s documentation see this

For an introduction to general Android accessibility see this. Pay attention to the choosing a phone section for more detail on the fragmentation issue I mentioned earlier.

For a developer introduction to writing accessible Android apps see this