As the digital universe is transforming our life and the world we live in, allowing everyone to access the same advantages of this digital world and manoeuvres are also becoming an ethical issue and consideration. In spite of disabilities and shortcomings everyone deserves to be at par when it comes to accessing technology and that is what we feel acceptable and ethical. But do not technologies intrinsically have some inbuilt challenges preventing everyone to engage and take part? This is particularly true when it comes to people with physical disabilities or shortcomings.
To make sure everyone can enjoy the same accessibility and ease of engagement with modern technology and interfaces, developers have the responsibility to make their apps and user interface more accessible and usable. At any point of time, a device or app or any technology should not create any hindrance for people suffering from certain disabilities. This is the only way technology can really add substantial value to the life of everyone and can make the life of people better.
People suffer from various types of physical disabilities that make it challenging for them to interact and engage with certain interfaces and apps. For instance lack of eyesight or visual ability is the common problem that put hindrance for input and interaction for users. Similarly, there can be hearing difficulty or other types of physical challenges. Does your app provide these disabled people enough ways to interact in spite of their shortcomings? If not, it is time to give the app a boost with some accessibility features and elements to help anyone use it irrespective of their in capabilities on certain scores.
Now question is how to deal with this question of disability in development? Or to put it more precisely, how to develop the apps with zero hindrance for the disabled persons? Here we are going to explain a few tips in this respect.
First of all, well within the Software Development solutions Life Cycle you have to take appropriate measures to make the software universally accessible. From the very beginning of the development process accessibility features and elements should be well integrated. You need to start such integration when the app is still in its conceptual or design phase. If you want to build an accessible app product, keep the following two aspects in mind.
- The first principle is widely referred as programmatic access. Through this accessibility features are programmed within the app. This ensures allowing all UI controls to be extremely friendly to the users irrespective of the physical condition and level of ability of the user.
- The second accessibility principle is ensured with easy keyboard access. When the keyboard input methods and navigation features are made friendly for easy user interaction across the devices and platforms including web, mobile, and desktop, it solves the challenge of accessibility. Maintaining ease of use conventional approach is crucial to facilitate engagement and traction from disabled users. For people with visual disability or problem of movement, easy and familiar navigation is a crucial aspect.
To conclude, disabled people can never be assessed as a liability or obligation. Every developer to create a better world should try to make their app more easy to use, easy to access and easy to engage for users irrespective of their level of physical ability.
