Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

Evaluating Web Accessibility on iDevices

If you have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you have a screen reader. VoiceOver comes built-in to all modern Apple touchscreen devices. VoiceOver can be enabled in the device Settings, or by quickly pressing the Home button three times. The following core functions are available:

• Read the entire page: Swipe two fingers upward
• Stop reading: Tap with two fingers
• Read through page elements: Swipe left or right
• Open or modify the rotor (a list of elements which can be navigated): Twist two fingers on the screen
  • Select from multiple rotor element by twisting
  • Once selected, swipe up or down to cycle through the selected rotor element
• Read from current location: Swipe downward with two fingers
• Select an element: Press and drag finger to an item, or navigate to an item using another navigation gesture
• Activate an item: Double tap
• Zoom: Triple tap

Basic web accessibility evaluation (checking alternative text, form labels, heading structure, reading and navigation order, etc.) can easily be performed on any Apple touchscreen device.

HTML5 Input Types

HTML5 introduces several new form field types – search, tel (for telephone numbers), url, email, datetime, date, month, week, time, datetime-local, number, range, and color. While browser support currently varies (if they are not supported, browsers simply present a text input), it is getting better. These new input types will greatly facilitate usability and better accessibility. For example, an <input type=”number”> might present a numbers-only keyboard, require only numbers be inserted, or alert the user if something other than a number is inserted. An <input type=”date”> might present a date picker to support easier insertion of a date. Because the date picker would be browser-provided (and presumably accessible), authors would not need to provide a date picker, something that currently requires scripting and effort to make accessible.