Ian Stoba, Project Manager, Accessibility Engineer
Once a developer uploads an APK or App bundle to an open or closed track, the Play Administration tests it on a variety of devices running different versions of Android, and then generates a pre-release test report to inform the developer of any problems with the app.
A year ago, the team incorporated best industry practices and Google’s own experience to add a section called “Accessibility suggestions” to the test report. This test will help you identify if your app contains common problems that are not friendly to people with disabilities, such as buttons that are too small to affect the user’s touch experience; Is there enough contrast between the text and the background for the user to read and understand?
Since its launch in July 2018, accessibility Testing has benefited more than 3.8 million apps and provided more than 171 million optimization suggestions. Each piece of advice is accompanied by detailed instructions and specific implementation methods. Whether you’re self-employed or working for a large company, the test report provides insights into how to optimize your app’s accessibility.
Fortunately, the team’s efforts have borne fruit. At this year’s Google I/O conference, four times as many people signed up for accessibility in-person sessions as in 2018. Google employees at the site reported that developers often asked questions about specific optimization recommendations in the test report. Google employees share more recommendations based on these key questions. Developers at the conference believed that accessibility optimization is not only a responsibility to users, but also helps to expand the potential market for apps and thus create more business value.
Accessibility testing in the pre-release report is just one of the ways Google is raising awareness of accessibility in the global developer community. We’ve also partnered with Udacity to launch a free course on Website Usability and an Android version of the Accessibility scanner on the Play Store. In addition, to make it easier for iOS developers to test their apps for accessibility, we also launched the iOS Accessibility Scanner on GitHub. Through these efforts, we have pooled our resources and put Google’s mission into action: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
If you want to learn more about developing accessibility features, read the Android Developer Guide or the Google Developer Style Design Guide.
Click here to go to the Official Android Developer documentation for details
