The Role of the Native Mobile Accessibility Engineer

Date & Time

Wednesday, March 15, 2023 - 11:20 AM PST  

Location

Elite 1-3  

Description

In this presentation, we’ll access the impact of inaccessible native applications and share some real-world examples. We’ll show their impact on people and showcase the importance of specialized accessibility engineers in this area. We’ll then explore why we believe the role of the native mobile accessibility engineer is misunderstood, frequently looked at as an add-on to the web accessibility engineer role. We’ll look at the impact of this, exploring incorrect issues that can get logged as a result. We’ll conduct a deep dive into what we have found to be key requirements for native mobile accessibility engineers and how they differ from that of web. We’ll explore the following requirements: 1. The ability to map Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)—An in-depth knowledge of WCAG and an understanding of which success criteria apply to native code 2. Knowledge of native code—Not at the level of a developer, but an understanding of the views and the accessibility knowledge layer on each of the platforms and how they impact people 3. Screen reader expertise—Without the ability to inspect the code in native, the use and understanding of the various platform screen readers is key to identifying accessibility defects. 4. An understanding of accessibility features and how users interact with them 5. Keeping up to date with operating systems 6. Knowledge of design patterns and Google and Apple’s intent for components 7. Empathy for users and product teams  

Audience

• Higher Education
• Information & Communications Technology
• Research & Development
• Marketing
• Employment & Human Resources

Audience Level

Intermediate  

Session Summary (Abstract)

We all have a mobile device and use native applications. Yet many applications aren’t accessible, and the native mobile accessibility engineer role has yet to be defined. We’ll share how we defined requirements of the role and its importance.  

Primary Topic

Mobile Technology  

Secondary Topics

• Development
• Digital Accessibility
• Emerging Technologies
• Research

 

Session Type

General Track  

Presenters

• Michael Keane
  Optum
• Saleem Ur Rahman
  Optum

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