In this chapter, you will finish your work on CriminalIntent by making it more accessible. An accessible app is usable by anyone, regardless of any impairments in vision, mobility, or hearing. These impairments may be permanent, but they could also be temporary or situational: Dilated eyes after an eye exam might make focusing difficult. Greasy hands while cooking may mean you do not want to touch the screen. And if you are at a loud concert, the music drowns out any sounds made by your device. The more accessible an app is, the more pleasant it is to use for everyone.

Making an app fully accessible is a tall order. But that is no excuse not to try. In this chapter you will take some steps toward making CriminalIntent more usable for people with a visual impairment. This is a good place to begin learning about accessibility issues and accessible app design.

For this chapter, we recommend that you work through the exercise with a physical device instead of the emulator. It is possible to work through this chapter with an emulator, but some of the user input required is awkward and difficult to execute on an emulator. It is much easier on a physical device. If you do not have access to a physical device, please read through the section called For the More Curious: Using TalkBack with an Emulator in this chapter before starting the exercise.

The changes you make in this chapter will not alter the appearance of the app. Instead, the changes will make your app easier to explore with TalkBack.