Accessibility Features for a Leading Desktop App for Business Communication
Summary
A leading Mac and Windows app for business communication needed to meet accessibility policies and serve users with disabilities — in particular blind and visually impaired people. INNERLUXES speech-enabled the application through OS-specific assistive technologies, vocalizing every UI element and turning contacts and incoming messages into voice. The result extended the app's reach and improved engagement, making it usable for people who are blind or partially sighted, those with dyslexia, and anyone consuming information on the go.
About the Client
The Client is a global provider of cloud-based collaboration solutions for enterprises.
A Communication App That Had to Meet Accessibility Policies
One of the Client's offerings is a leading desktop app, for Mac and Windows, for business communication — with rich functionality for phone calls, text and voice messaging, video conferencing, and fax management. The problem was that the application didn't comply with accessibility policies. The Client needed to make it reachable for users with disabilities, particularly blind and visually impaired people.
Speech-Enabling the App Through OS Assistive Technologies
To meet the needs of people with vision disabilities, INNERLUXES's team was tasked with making the application's content fully understandable without any visual support. The approach: speech-enable the app using OS-specific assistive technologies — the VoiceOver (Mac) and Narrator (Windows) speech engines.
Using C++ and the Qt framework, the team let the communication application access the speech engines directly, so all UI elements — buttons, menus, dialog boxes — were vocalized, and lists of contacts and incoming text messages were converted into voice. To ensure compatibility and simplify future testing, the team had to work with a specific older version of Qt.
Accounting for the different verbosity levels on Mac and Windows, INNERLUXES's developers adapted the code to the specifics of each platform, delivering an equal experience for users of both operating systems.
A Wider Reach and Stronger Engagement
The Client received the application powered with the new accessibility functionality, which improved user engagement and extended its reach. The app can now serve the needs of blind and partially sighted people, help those with dyslexia, and offer a more convenient way to consume information for users on the go.
Technologies and Tools
C++, Qt.