Nicholas, Unfortunately, my own experience suggests that requiring developers to provide information on the accessibility of their apps as part of the App Store submission process would be the worst possible solution.
On a daily basis I receive emails from developers which show that they have no idea of what VoiceOver is and why it matters to blind users. Despite this, they will often make claims about VoiceOver support and accessibility that bear no relation to reality. The prospect of having the App Store filled with this level of misinformation is not an attractive one! And, to be frank, I'm not sure what could be done to raise awareness to the level that would be needed to make this system work. And, to work, it has to be a system that we can rely on. If any system does allow for misinformation, then potentially this could be far more frustrating than no information. So, if developers can't be relied on and the sheer number of apps in the App Store makes it unrealistic to have humans testing them all (which, of course, would potentially introduce subjectivity into the process), the only viable solution would be an automated one. Some form of script that would check each app against a number of criteria. However, whether this is technically possible is something far above my pay grade (smile) Just my tuppence worth (smile) David On Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:49:27 +1000, Nicholas Parsons wrote: > I agree that: > ‧ Some indication of an app's accessibility prior to purchase > would > be incredibly useful; however > ‧ A simple user rating system would be inadequate for the > following > reasons: > – It would require someone to purchase the app in order > to rate it > without knowing whether it is accessible, which is what we're trying > to avoid; and > – the rating could be manipulated; so > – the current ability to leave comments about > accessibility as > reviews is much more helpful than a single rating would be; however, > ‧ Developers could be forced by Apple to give some information > about > the app which would be an indication as to the app's accessibility. > For instance, answering yes or no to the following statements: > – Does the app include VoiceOver support? > – Does the app use Apple's accessibility API? > – Was the app built using only Apple's built in UI > elements? > – Was the app built using any custom UI elements? > – Was the app built using largely custom built UI > elements? > ‧ The answers to the above question would not tell a consumer > whether or not the app was accessible, but it would be a good guide. > ‧ The exact questions to ask may be different to above — I'm not > a > developer so I'm not sure the exact questions to ask, but I think > they would be a start. > ‧ Whether or not Apple would consider such a system is another > question entirely. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, > send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
