Android & Kotlin

Android Accessibility by Tutorials

Learn to build accessible apps on Android using WCAG through hands-on, step-by-step tutorials. By Victoria Gonda.

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Who is this for?

This book is for intermediate Android developers who already know the basics of Android and Kotlin development and want to learn about accessibility.

Covered concepts

  • Importance of accessibility
  • Onboarding your team to accessible apps
  • Testing
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
  • Android accessibility
  • Custom views

Accessibility is an important, often overlooked, part of building a quality app. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can be confusing and it’s often unclear how to apply these guidelines to Android.

In this book, you’ll learn about building accessible apps on Android using WCAG through hands-on, step-by-step tutorials.

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Before You Begin

This section tells you a few things you need to know before you get started, such as what you’ll need for hardware and software, where to find the project files for this book, and more.

Section I: Android Accessibility by Tutorials

Begin your journey into learning about building, testing and customizing accessible apps on Android using WCAG through hands-on, step-by-step tutorials.

1
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Why should you design your apps with accessibility in mind? This chapter presents many reasons why accessibility is a priority in modern app design. From creating a better, more marketable product to treating others with care. It can even increase productivity.
2
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Say Hello to Accessibility! Learn how to use lint to find accessibility warnings and some simple ways to solve some common accessibility issues in one or two lines of code. Introduces WCAG and other resources to understand accessibility requirements and universal design so all users of your app enjoy a cohesive experience.
3
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To understand the accessibility improvements you're making, you need a way to verify your changes. That's why in this chapter you'll learn how you can test for accessibility improvements, as well as how to use accessibility services to experience the same thing your user might.
4
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Understanding the basics about screen readers is key when working on accessibility. In this chapter, you'll learn more about this tool, as well as how you can use content descriptions and layouts to make your app more perceivable.
Features including video, audio or animation often focus on a visual and auditory experience. This chapter explores how you can present the same information to users who can't enjoy the visual or auditory experience in the way you've designed.
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In this chapter, you’ll gain an understanding of what color contrast is and how you can use it in your app. By investigating types of vision impairments, contrast, and night mode, you’ll have a better understanding of how to make your app more perceivable.
Navigation is important to almost any app. In this chapter you’ll learn how you can allow your users to navigate your app using a variety of assistive technologies.
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This chapter continues discussing operability by looking at movement and timing. The way you handle conveniences such as auto-advance and gestures can make a big impact on how easily people can use your app. Here, you’ll learn some tricks about how to approach these kinds of features.
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Even if someone can perceive and operate your app, they may not understand it. This chapter will teach you how you can treat language, iconography, consistency and error handling in a way that improves your app’s understandability.
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To make a robust app, it needs to know how to interact with the accessibility services on any device. While working with Android’s components, most of this work is done for you. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to interact with accessibility services when building custom views.
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Part of making your app accessible includes building it with neurodiversity in mind. By making your app more configurable, contextual and aware of phrasing, you show your users that you care about them.
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You recognize the importance of accessibility, but how do you get your team on board to dedicate time to it? In this chapter, you’ll learn how to increase education and buy-in on your team, as well as how to integrate accessibility into your processes.

Section II: Appendix

It’s not easy to remember everything there is to know about accessibility. That’s why this appendix gives you a checklist of items to look for when building your app. You can tailor these for use in PRs or audits.