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Re: open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or not

for

From: Daniel Tang (dtang)
Date: Feb 22, 2011 5:06PM

Paul:

Thank you for the info.

Daniel Tang

Accessibility Specialist

CDAN Global Co-Chair

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:13 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] open vs. closed products or accessibility
supported or not

Apple's Mac and iOS platforms are accessibility supported. They include
accessibility features at no extra cost such as the VoiceOver screen
reader, Zoom screen magnification, and White on Black reverse contrast
mode. VoiceOver supports accessibility of native apps and web sites
accessed through Safari.

Just like any other platform it is up to the developers of the app or
website to include the necessary accessibility attributes to interface
with Apple's Accessibility API and make their product sound great with
VoiceOver.

To inspect for accessibility you can run the accessibility inspector on
the app in the iOS device simulator. The Inspector will display in text
what accessibility attributes are applied to each element clicked on.

You can also use VoiceOver on the physical iPhone or iPad device to test
apps and websites for accessibility. I do it all the time. I love to use
my iPhone and iPad as a web accessibility testing tool! It's also a
great way to explain my job to people. ARIA works as well.

All I know about Android is that many features are accessible but not
all their native apps are such as the mail and the browser which is a
pretty big limitation. I hear they are working on it and hopefully one
day it will be able to compete with iOS.

I know blackberry has a screen reader that they charge extra for unlike
iOS or Android.

Don't know anything about WebOS. I hope they are working on it though
with their HP TouchPad tablet coming out.

For the open/closed system question. You could say that Apple's app
store is closed because they have special requirements to gain entry.
Disappointingly though, accessibility is NOT required for entry. But
their Safari browser is essentially an open system, if you don't count
flash or other plug-ins. It's based on the open-source WebKit project
that's used for
Android and Chrome too. So there are no special requirements to create a
Web App for iOS.

Paul Adam
Accessibility Specialist
Center for Policy and Innovation
<EMAIL REMOVED>

-----Original Message-----
From: Hoffman, Allen [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:02 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] open vs. closed products or accessibility supported or
not

Question:
When is a system considered accessibility supported, or "open/closed"?.

If a system has available assistive technology, available accessibility
services for applications to utilize, but no inspection tools are
available to determine if indeed object information is being used, and
if so, is it accurate, is the platform considered accessibility
supported or open/closed?

So, for Apple platform what inspection tools are there?
So for Android, what inspection tools are there?
So, for Blackberry what inspection tools are there?
So, for WebOS what inspection tools are there, or for that matter what
accessibility services are there?

I know Linux and windows inspection tools exist.



Allen Hoffman