For Windows programs, then the Microsoft Accessibility Design Guidelines for Software are your starting point.
If you use the standard components - well I do Win32 programming - things like edit boxes, combo boxes, lists, sliders, buttons, they all have accessibility built in.
The main thing you need to watch out for, from my own experience writing a metronome and music software that's accessible for blind musicians
And need to test it with screen reader software as you may get surprises when your dialogs are read out by a screen reader - at least ,test with JAWS and Window Eyes - both have demo modes - you can also use the Windows Narrator - if you get your program accessible with that - though many programs aren't accessible with Narrator so that's not a big deal if yours isn't.
- and need to fix any issues that arise.
That's not that much work at all if you use standard Windows components - especially for dialogs. It's all built in. Even the visual contrast also - if user has their display set to black on white or white on black, a standard dialog will display fine.
But if you make your own controls and your own custom controls then you have to be much more careful about it - and make sure that you have accessibility designed in from the start - and then whatever you build with those controls, make sure you can get to them with the tab key.
Those are the main things for a Windows developer. It's actually not that hard especially if you make sure it's accessible from an early stage. But many programs are not accessible including industry leading software.
As for sighted people - as it says in the Windows guidelines - test your program with high contrast display - does your program also display high contrast black on white or white on black throughout? If not then some users won't be able to use it. If icons or controls for instance are distinguished by colour - make sure there is some difference of shape also - enough so that when set to black and white users can still see a difference.
Also if it uses tiny text and doesn't show the text larger when user has their computer set to larger text size, again that's making it harder, means they will need to use Magnifier to see what your program does.
And - for colour blind people - then if colour is important for parts of your program - this is a minor thing if you've already made it accessible for black and white - but I often choose shades of red and blue as the default colours - which you'll be able to distinguish so long as you have more than one colour receptor.
In music software, then the programs by Native Instruments are all completely inaccessible to blind musicians, to take an example - including some of the most widely used programs in the industry..
If you use the standard components - well I do Win32 programming - things like edit boxes, combo boxes, lists, sliders, buttons, they all have accessibility built in.
The main thing you need to watch out for, from my own experience writing a metronome and music software that's accessible for blind musicians
- Tab order - are the controls all reachable via the tab key - the normal way blind people navigate - this is a major fail of much software that they can't get to many of the controls at all
- Keyboard shortcuts - do you have well thought out keyboard shortcuts for the things users may want to do frequency - if not your program may be usable but laborious to a blind person
- Always permit text input and display - if there's a rotating knob for instance, blind user needs a text field that they at least can hear, so they know what the position is - and a keyboard shortcut to manipulate it. This can all be invisible to sighted users - or an alternative interface that pops up only if a screen reader is detected or such like.
- Labels. With buttons they can just read the text on the button to know what ti does. With lists and drop lists they can read the lists. But with e.g. an edit field, then they can't see the visual layout so need a label sometimes when sighted people can see what it is by the visual layout - you can make an invisible label for it.
And need to test it with screen reader software as you may get surprises when your dialogs are read out by a screen reader - at least ,test with JAWS and Window Eyes - both have demo modes - you can also use the Windows Narrator - if you get your program accessible with that - though many programs aren't accessible with Narrator so that's not a big deal if yours isn't.
- and need to fix any issues that arise.
That's not that much work at all if you use standard Windows components - especially for dialogs. It's all built in. Even the visual contrast also - if user has their display set to black on white or white on black, a standard dialog will display fine.
But if you make your own controls and your own custom controls then you have to be much more careful about it - and make sure that you have accessibility designed in from the start - and then whatever you build with those controls, make sure you can get to them with the tab key.
Those are the main things for a Windows developer. It's actually not that hard especially if you make sure it's accessible from an early stage. But many programs are not accessible including industry leading software.
As for sighted people - as it says in the Windows guidelines - test your program with high contrast display - does your program also display high contrast black on white or white on black throughout? If not then some users won't be able to use it. If icons or controls for instance are distinguished by colour - make sure there is some difference of shape also - enough so that when set to black and white users can still see a difference.
Also if it uses tiny text and doesn't show the text larger when user has their computer set to larger text size, again that's making it harder, means they will need to use Magnifier to see what your program does.
And - for colour blind people - then if colour is important for parts of your program - this is a minor thing if you've already made it accessible for black and white - but I often choose shades of red and blue as the default colours - which you'll be able to distinguish so long as you have more than one colour receptor.
In music software, then the programs by Native Instruments are all completely inaccessible to blind musicians, to take an example - including some of the most widely used programs in the industry..
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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