Page 120 - GIGW2

CH 11 Mobile App Guidelines

11.4.5 State information for a UI control

In addition to the role of a UI control, assistive technologies must identify
the current state of a UI control. For example, the state of checkbox checked/
unchecked, tab selected or not, a push button pressed or not etc. should be
notified. This information must also be reported as soon as it is changed. The
standard UI controls provide this information by default, but for custom
controls, this information must be supplied by platform specific accessibility
APIs. The changes of state of UI controls MUST be dynamically updated
and accurately available to the assistive technologies.
11.4.6 Grouping of Related UI elements

Related UI elements such as book title and author name for a book MUST
be grouped together so that assistive technologies can present it as a single UI
element, reducing the gestures for interaction. This also helps to increase the
touch target so that users with low vision, users having motor difficulties and
users with big fingers can more easily interact with it. The following points are
important for grouping related elements:
a. A group must have only one actionable UI control.

b. Updating UI controls such as progress bar must not be grouped with any
other control as users need only the updated information.
11.4.7 Simple interface and enough spacing between elements

UI should be clean and simple. Vertical and horizontal scrolling should be
avoided. This allows users with low vision to zoom and interact with the controls
with ease. A non-interactive space of at least one point for iOS or 1 DP for
android MUST be provided between actionable UI elements. This allows
users with low vision, users having motor difficulties and users with big fingers to
avoid touching a wrong UI element.

11.4.8 Touch Target

Many users find it difficult to interact with small screen elements. It could be due
to big or unsteady fingers or motor or visual difficulties. So, the touch targets
MUST be at least 9x9mm regardless of screen size.

11.4.9 Bring focus to the active UI control
Since Mobile screens are small, all the UI elements cannot fit on the screen at a
time. UI elements such as buttons that take less space are used to bring up other
UI elements such as dropdowns. For example, users would activate the “MM”
button to bring up the month dropdown. In such scenarios, the dropdown should
get the focus when the user activates the button. If the focus is not set properly,
blind and low vision users may not be able to realize that the UI has changed.

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