System-class Accessibility
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article illustrates system-class accessibility with our work enabling iPhones to be used nonvisually using the VoiceOver screen reader. We reimagined touchscreen input for nonvisual use, introducing new gestures suitable for control of a screen reader, and for output we added support for synthesized speech and refreshable braille displays (hardware devices that output tactile braille characters). We added new accessibility APIs that applications could adopt and made our user interface frameworks include them by default. Finally, we added an accessibility service to bridge between these new inputs and outputs and the applications. Because we implemented support for VoiceOver at the system level, future accessibility features that we have released since have directly leveraged this work to provide a consistent user experience.
Source: Queue
DOI: 10.1145/3704627
Authors: Chris Fleizach, Jeffrey P. Bigham
Institution: Apple (United States)
Language: English
Subfield: Human Factors and Ergonomics
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4404686347