How Mobile Apps are ‘failing’ users with disabilities and why Accessibility matters

Last month, software development firm ArcTouch released findings of a study which examined the state of accessibility in mobile apps. The recent report, which is called the State of Mobile App Accessibility Report (SOMAA), is espoused by ArcTouch as an assessment of “the accessibility of 50 leading Android and iOS apps across five industries: Food & Delivery, Payments, Fitness, Shopping, and Streaming.” The SOMAA report was put together with disability-led accessibility platform company Fable.

At 30,000 feet, the SOMAA report paints a rather bleak picture of disability inclusion.

“Our analysis of app accessibility reveals a concerning reality: The vast majority of apps are failing users with disabilities,” ArcTouch wrote of the high-level takeaway on the SOMAA site. “72% of those who rely on any of the four assistive technologies we tested may have a poor or failing app experience in at least one step of a typical user journey.”

ArcTouch’s head of accessibility Ben Ogilvie explained to me in a recent interview awareness, which is the core of reports like the SOMAA, is “certainly on the rise” and noted accessibility is increasingly part of conversations surrounding technology. What the SOMAA report lays bare, Olgilvie told me, is the implementation of accessibility in mobile software “needs more help.” Apropos of this story being published in May, Olgilvie also said accessibility’s amplification in the tech industry’s mainstream consciousness can partly be attributed to annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day celebration. GAAD, as the occasion is colloquially known in the community, falls on the third Thursday of each May; this year’s occasion is slated for next Thursday, May 15.

One of two men behind GAAD’s creation is Joe Devon. A web developer by trade, Devon served as an advisor to ArcTouch as the company was putting together its SOMAA report. Devon is quoted on the SOMAA site, saying in part that investing in accessibility isn’t merely the right thing to do morally speaking, it actually is “what’s best for your business and brand.” The rationale is perfectly logical: the more accessible a company’s product(s) are, the more a user base—and sales—will grow and, importantly, diversify. As the world’s largest marginalized and underrepresented group, disabled people comprise a lot of potential users for businesses to target and market towards.

Devon expressed excitement for the SOMAA report largely because, as the co-founder of GAAD, the report’s existence means accessibility will be relatively top of mind for more than a single day of the year. Still, he shared an anecdote in which he saw someone on social media jokingly post that once GAAD comes and goes every year, the disability community can “look forward to 364 days of global accessibility oblivion.”

Ogilvie, who worked at Apple in the 2000s and whose immediate family copes with disability, said the main driver for creating the SOMAA report was to provide insight on the accessibility of mobile apps, akin to how WebAIM looks at websites. There isn’t much software which measures accessibility, he added, so the work must be done manually. “We decided we needed that data, so we decided to look at it and start doing that research as far as where things are in accessibility for mobile apps,” Ogilvie said.

Ogilvie called the findings from said research “disappointing but unsurprising.”

Both Ogilvie and Devon said there are companies who do right by accessibility, as well as those who create ad campaigns that admittedly “tug on heartstrings,” according to Devon, but are otherwise nothing more than patronizing lip service. Many corporations will produce flashy, poignant videos that go onto websites with zero captioning or audio descriptions, Devon added. Then there are companies whose internal teams want to do right by the disability community, but gets unsupported by other people within the organization. The report doesn’t put anyone in particular on blast out of professional courtesy, but Ogilvie said “you could tell the apps that had teams that were consistently working towards building things accessibly and going beyond the minimums and thinking about the user experience throughout the entire user journey.”

Devon concurred, saying accessibility support is “all over the map.” He said to be successful, it boils down to “having a champion” for disability and the disability community from within. The most ardent supporters of accessibility, Devon said, are companies who people have been personally affected by disability in one way or another. That’s a big reason why accessibility awareness has been on an upswing in recent years, but Devon acknowledged the increase in traction isn’t necessarily commensurate with an increase in desired results vis-a-vis the new SOMAA data.

If the numbers don’t improve, that’s a 5-alarm fire for Olgilvie and Devon.

Ogilvie noted a perceptual problem in which third-party developers oftentimes will presume a company like Apple for instance, whose work in the accessibility area is nigh universally renowned, makes their platform(s) accessible “out of the box” so individual apps needn’t be made accessible by their own devices. VoiceOver, Apple’s screen reader for Blind and low vision people, does provide app makers a lot “for free” in terms of the API, especially with labels. Still, it’s up to the developer to dig deeper and put in the work to customize VoiceOver such that it works fluidly with their specific software.

“There are a number of misconceptions around accessibility when it comes to mobile,” Ogilvie said. “Our report disproves that you can’t just leave it to the platform and assume it’s accessible by default. You do have to pay attention and put in the work.”

As to feedback and the future, Ogilvie said companies who have read the SOMAA report have had a positive reception. He said they have lauded the report as “a clear call to action to drive change,” which is precisely what the report was born to do. Olgilvie said it’s supposed to “spark those conversations [around accessibility] and give companies some kind of benchmark to measure against as a place to start.” Ogilvie said the team hasn’t settled on a cadence for future versions of the SOMAA report, but said keenly “my hope is we will be able to produce this with some regularity.”

Fore his part, Devon said the future of mobile accessibility will be fascinating to watch unfold—especially as ever-burgeoning technologies like artificial intelligence grip the industry with an even tighter hold. It’s too early to tell, he noted, whether AI will help making mobile apps more (or less) accessible. That said, Devon said if the SOMAA report can carry influence on companies, “then they’ll put in an effort to make sure [to prioritize accessibility] because they’re the builders of apps… they’re tool builders.”

“If we make a push for [companies] to make sure the code they push out is accessible, [the prioritization of accessibility] will get better,” he said.