Google Play Store update redefines the way people with disabilities search for Android apps
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) sawApple announce a slew of accessibility featuresfor iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Some notable services highlighted in the press release are Live Captions, Door Detection, and Apple Watch mirroring. Google is working on a few features too, and one of them will make it easier to find Accessible Apps in the Play Store.
Google announcedon Thursday that it’d be adding accessibility (a11y) tags to relevant Play Store apps. The tags will qualify apps into several categories based on whether they are screen reader-friendly, help with learning disabilities, or provide visual, hearing, and motor assistance and accessible communication. The tags will appear as chips under an application’s “About this section.” They’re interactive, too — clicking on an a11y tag will bring up a list of other apps bearing it, allowing users with special needs to find more relevant software easily.
The new tag system serves two significant purposes. First, it helps to qualify valuable apps for a specific user group. For example, a transcription app will take the “hearing assistance” chip showing that it’s primarily built for deaf or hard of hearing people. Likewise, a text-to-speech or magnification app will be labeled “visual assistance,” meaning it’s for people who are blind or have reduced vision.
Perhaps, more importantly, it highlights other general apps (and even games) that are accessible. For example, a screen reader-friendly game could take the appropriate chip, so people can install it and know it’ll be helpful.
This seems to be a significant advancement for Play Store listings that could revolutionize the way people with disabilities search for applications on their phones. Google says only a few apps have been tagged currently (as shown in the screenshots above), but it’ll be increasing that number with time. The company’s also working on more accessibility features, including the ability to add alt-text to images sent through Gmail so that they can be read aloud by screen readers andnative support for braille readers in Android 13.
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