Making your app accessible is all about making your app as user-friendly as possible to users that have different needs. The goal is to make an interface that is predictable and easy to navigate without depending on (at least not completely) visual queues.
Before learning more about IOS accessibility testing tools, to get familiar with IOS accessibility, here are some accessibility settings that iOS provides – Voiceover, Zoom, Magnifier, Display Accommodations, Speech, Larger Text, Bold Text, Button Shapes, Transparency Reductions, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion and On/Off Labels.
We compiled a list of tools that can help you with accessibility testing for IOS apps.
- a11yTools – Web Accessibility
a11yTools is a collection of HTML Web Accessibility Testing Tools in one location in a Safari Extension used for quick and easy Accessibility testing. Run your favorite Accessibility testing tool and then take a screenshot showing the a11y error to developers and designers. a11yTools is a one-at-a-time testing tool where you pick the HTML Accessibility element or feature you’re testing once-per-page rather than running all tests together. Test and results can be stacked on top each other e.g. to show both Headings and Image Alt Text Properties. - Accessibility Inspector in Xcode
Apple provides the Accessibility Inspector testing tool that can be launched by choosing Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Accessibility Inspector in the menu bar or Dock. You can download Xcode from the Mac App Store for free. The Accessibility Inspector presents a utility window that displays the information properties (and values), action methods, and position in the accessibility hierarchy of the object currently under the mouse pointer. - Color Contrast – Mobile accessibility checker
Color Contrast is a tool to measure the contrast between two colors in a screenshot or mobile website, helping ensure your app meets the internationally recognized recommendations in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), for both versions 2.1 and 3.0 (Silver) Color Contrast has the following features:- Audit web pages for compliance using AXE.
- Generate a report that can be shared using SMS, Email or Notes.
- Verify color contrast directly from Safari and Photos app.
- Verify that the color contrast between two colors in an app, website or photo is sufficient to pass WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines / Section 508.
- View suggested colors
- ColorSlurp
ColorSlurp is the ultimate color tool for developers and designers. Pick any color on your screen using the high-precision magnifier. Create and organize palettes with advanced color editing tools. Check color contrast for perfect accessibility. Pick colors with your camera on iOS, export, sync with iCloud, and much more. - Contrast — Color Accessibility
Make sure the text you’re designing isn’t too light in your interface designs with Contrast. Combine this simple little menu bar app with your favorite design tool and design with accessibility in mind. Enter hex codes manually or use the built in color picker for sampling colors directly from your designs. Tear the app from the menu bar and use it as a floating window wherever you’d like. It’ll stay on top of your active design tool for quick access to the WCAG contrast scores. - Flow Analyzer for Mobile
Automatically pinpoint accessibility issues in iOS and Android mobile applications and generate actionable reports. - Google Scanner for A11y
Google Scanner for A11y abbreviated GSCX is a developer assistant, as an objective-C library it sits in an iOS app’s process scanning it for issues to catch them before the developer even writes a test for them. The scanner comes built-in with checks for catching accessibility issues and supports an extensible plugin framework for adding your own checks. - GTXiLib – Google Toolbox for Accessibility for the iOS platform
It is a framework for iOS accessibility testing. GTXiLib has XCTest integration and can be used with any XCTest-based frameworks such as EarlGrey. GTXiLib enhances the value of your tests by installing “accessibility checks” on them; your existing test cases can double as accessibility tests with no other code change on your part. GTXiLib is able to accomplish this by hooking into the test tear-down process and invoking the registered accessibility checks (such as check for presence of accessibility label) on all elements on the screen. - UBKAccessibilityKit
UBKAccessibilityKit allows you to audit your iOS app on device, removing the need to stop and inspect each element via Xcode. UBKAccessibilityKit can be added to your exisiting project and includes the following features.- Add in custom colours using the colour hex code.
- Brand colours;
- Change text, tint and background colours live in app.
- Check colour contrast on text, tint and background colours
- Dynamic text sizes supported
- Highlight warnings as they are detected using the “Outline warnings” feature
- Minimum size
- Missing accessibility hints
- Missing accessibility label
- Missing accessibility traits
- Missing accessibility value
- Missing isAccessibilityElement
- Show touch points on screen, handy for when you’re doing presentations or recording a video and want to show touches and swipes on screen.
- Swap foreground (Text & tint) colour with the background colour.
- Warnings & Validations
- Web Inspector to Debug Mobile Safari (iPhone or iPad)
Code capturing for iOS can be set up using the developer tools in the Safari web browser. Similarly, the Safari instance on your desktop will show the dev tools for the browser on the iOS device. - XCUITests for Accessibility
This blog by Rob Whitaker discusses Apple’s XCUI Test framework. XCUITests uses your app’s accessibility tree, this means any well-written XCUITest is an accessibility test.
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