Are You Factoring Mobile Accessibility into Your Adoption and Retention Plans?

It’s no secret that smartphone users fast outnumber PC users, which is a crucial factor for application success. Further, mobile access must also consider users with some degree of disability — a larger share of the population than you may think. According to a 2022 survey, some degree of disability touches 73% of consumers today, 85% of whom use smartphones. As a result, companies need to adopt an accessibility-first mobile mindset and not relegate it to the back burner.

What is Mobile Accessibility?

According to the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C, mobile accessibility is the process of making apps and websites easier to use for those with disabilities when using smartphones as well as other devices like tablets, televisions, smart home appliances, etc… The websites and applications we build are optimized for an accessible touch experience, minimal viewing challenges from colour contrasts, text to audio options, alternative text for images, and so on.

Traditionally, mobile accessibility has seen slow progress due to the assumption that most apps and websites are primarily consumed on desktop devices. At least in enterprise scenarios, desktop use was supposed to be the de facto standard. However, the consumerization of enterprise applications, coupled with the massive rise in remote work in the last two years, has caused a spike in mobile use. Today, it is not uncommon for employees to collaborate primarily via their smartphones, use their mobile devices for research, and even rely on a tablet as their primary work device.

Progressive web apps, or PWAs, offer the perfect combination between the convenience of browser-based experiences and the prowess of a natively installed app. As the mobile user base grows, PWAs will be in high demand. Indeed, companies delivering seamless PWA solutions will have the edge over the competition — for example, through a 36% increase in conversion rates. In the future, legacy mobile apps requiring redevelopment or legacy systems requiring mobile front end will adopt the PWA approach as it offers: Progressive web apps do not require any updates.

• PWA apps are easy to load on the smartphone. They do not be available in storefronts or play stores.
• It avoids creating separate apps for Android, iOS, and other platforms. PWA applications save money and time as developers do not rebuild apps for different platforms.
• Users do not need to access the Internet to read content or posts already browsed earlier. With PWA, all previously opened posts are stored on the device.

Decentralized applications, or dApps, are another top trend for 2022–23, primarily owing to the popularity of the blockchain and the metaverse. These new Web 3.0 requirements require reimagined software services with a different architectural core.

In this context, mobile accessibility does not only mean your applications and websites are reachable to the widest possible audience. It is a crucial pillar in your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program, ensuring that company resources are equally accessible to all.

How to Achieve Mobile Accessibility for Greater Retention

Right at the outset, companies need to acknowledge the importance of mobile accessibility and not treat it as a compliance checkbox. Even for users without a disability, accessibility features can be of great help. For example, subtitles underneath a video meant for people with a hearing impairment can be extremely helpful for users consuming video content during their commutes or in noisy environments. It is called situational disability — a phenomenon most of us face every day but remains unaccounted for during app development.

There are several ways to weave mobile accessibility into your software development lifecycle. It includes:

● Manual testing: Manual accessibility testing brings strategic and expert knowledge of software and UX testing to the development process. Using this technique, a company can isolate each point of bottleneck that may impact the app experience for users with a disability.

● Automated testing: Automated testing complements the manual testing process by repeatedly checking the accessibility features after every iteration and CI/CD cycle.

● Accessibility-first mobile developers: These are technical professionals well-versed in accessibility engineering, as well as the other fundamental tenets of app building and design. However, this is a scarce breed of developers, and most companies work with accessibility agencies to retrofit the features they need into their applications.

● Compliance: While most compliance mandates like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAGs) apply to website content and not apps, future policies could focus on mobile accessibility. Therefore, prioritizing it could future-proof your business and reduce efforts in the long term.

● Device accessibility and enhancements: Today, mobile devices have many built-in accessibility features. For example, Android phones can perform local speech recognition without being connected to the Internet, and iPhones support Bluetooth hearing aids. Organizations can design these existing capabilities to help accessibility in their mobile applications.

● Free tools: There are a host of mobile accessibility tools one can leverage when building apps. It includes a11yTools, ColorSlurp, GTXiLib, etc. for iOS and Accessibility Scanner, and Accessibility Insights, etc. for Android, among others. You can find the complete list here.

Why Accessibility is Crucial for Adoption and Retention

As mobile use skyrockets, one cannot hope to hold onto one’s users without making accessibility a top priority. Mobile-accessible apps and operating systems will support users across different stages of their life as their disability requirements change with age and time. It also means that mobile apps remain user-friendly under challenging environments such as crowded places, noisy rooms, scenarios where one’s hands are multitasking, etc. Eventually, mobile accessibility supports greater productivity for a broader audience in a more diverse set of usage conditions. It makes it crucial for driving adoption, no matter the nature of the app you are building.

Is mobile accessibility a key priority when envisioning an app’s framework? Let me know in the comments below, or email me at Arvind@AM-PMAssociates.com.