One question - does this app work across all Indian cities? -----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of ra...@barrierbreak.com Sent: 30 September 2013 22:00 To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] M-Indicator: Implementing accessibility can help make a difference
M-Indicator: Implementing accessibility can help make a difference The second one in 'App a Month' blog series by BarrierBreak to talk about Mobile App Accessibility! This time Bhavesh, who is blind chose to review one of the most popular travelling apps - the 'M-indicator'. He shares his experience below. Why M-Indicator? Every day I travel from Vikhroli to Goregaon to come to office and vice versa. Sighted people can see the indicator as soon as they reach the railway station. However for me, this app is very useful, as I can check the time table of the trains or buses in real time, whenever I need without sighted assistance. This app also helps me to check which buses arrive on a particular bus stop wherever I happen to be. This is very helpful when there are no people nearby whom I can ask about the timings and do not have to be dependent on someone for the train or bus details. M-Indicator with Talkback The app was reviewed for accessibility on the stock android, running Jellybean 4.3 OS, on the Google nexus 7 tablet. The app was tested using "Talkback", a free screen reader available for android platform, which enables the visually impaired users access the android devices based on spoken descriptions. Features of the app The following are some key features that this app offers: Railway: Checking the railway time table for the trains across Mumbai, View Indicator Symbols used to indicate station names on the railway station indicator, Railway ticket fare etc. Get quick updates on rickshaws and taxi fares per KM, so that you know how much to pay while traveling. Bus: includes buses arriving at particular bus stop, Search buses between source and destination. View category wise list of picnic spots e.g. Beaches, Hill stations, Waterfalls, Caves etc. Note: at this point, the talkback screen reader does not support the auto complete feature in the case of apps. The auto complete feature is where you enter data in an input field, and the list of suggestions gets populated. So let's get on with the review. My experience Railway When I launch the app for the first time, the talkback screen reader read the advertisements which appear on most of the screens, followed by the list of features such as "Railway", "Bus" etc. However it did not announce the element type such as link or button for each item that is present on the screen. The screen reader also did not announce the Hints to activate the element. Hints are descriptions which are provided specifically for screen reader users; that include information about gestures that required to be used to interact with an element. I did some guess work and double tapped on "Railway" to see whether it opens another screen, and it worked! The app loaded "You are at" screen of the railway section. I noticed that first Talkback screen reader announced "Button" for some buttons, followed by "Home 1″, "Home 2″ and so on. When I asked a sighted friend who was next to me, he told me that visually the information was laid out differently for sighted users. Actually the screen was divided in to 2 rows, and the buttons correspond to "Home 1″ and "Home 2″, and "Office 1″ and "Office 2″ icons respectively on the screen which was very confusing. When I activated the first button, a pop-up was displayed containing the instruction to click on "*" icon to make a bookmark for home and another "*" icon to make it a bookmark for office. However this instruction went over my head like a bouncer goes over the batsman's head in a cricket match. In other words the instruction did not specify the necessary steps to achieve the same. After reading the instruction from the pop-up, I search for "OK" button or "Close" button for the pop-up to close. However the same was not present on the screen. Next, from the "You are at" screen of the railway section I tapped on "W" for western railway (Again through guess work!) as the same was not announced as a button. On the activated screen, I had to select the direction I needed to go. Again the information was laid out differently for sighted users. Screen reader announced "Churchgate followed by "Button", and then a "Button" followed by "Dahanu road". This was frustrating! Once I selected the direction, the list of trains was displayed. A good thing to note here is that the screen reader read the list of available trains, including their expected timings. I could select the train I need to catch and know the list of stations it halts at. Next I accessed the "Ticket fare" screen of the same section. But I could not enter the source and destination in the respective input fields. I had to manually select the stations displayed after activating the unlabeled buttons besides "Source" and "Destination" input fields respectively to get the ticket fare. The rail map was displayed using images that lacked alternate textual description, due to which I could not access the information that was conveyed using the map. Bus I accessed "Bus number" screen from this section. I entered the bus number in the "Search" input field. However there was no "Search" button. Instead the list of suggestions gets populated on the screen, as soon as I started entering the data. Conclusion While the app seems really useful to get the information at hand, it is not accessible for visually impaired users. Note: Although I have discussed the findings of the elements present in the railway and bus sections, the findings apply to all of the internal screens where such elements are used. Apart from the issues I mentioned above, issues, such as inaccurate and incomplete titles for screens, incomplete labels for input fields, incorrect instructions and missing instructions on some screens make the app more difficult to use. If this app is made accessible, this will surely become my favorite app! Let's hope that this review helps to identify the issues present in the app to make it accessible. I would urge developers to develop more of such apps and make them accessible, so that all can use them effectively, including the people with disabilities. Thanks & Regards Ramya Venkitesh - BarrierBreak Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessind ia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
