All smart phones typically have built in accessibility features and functions, which provide a platform on which applications (apps) can be built.

If you develop an app for the public, the content and interface options provided should follow the best practice guidelines developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These include:

  • Use cookies sparingly. Cookies are a common and effective means to store small amounts of information on the app user. These are typically used to personalise data and are commonly used to store a token representing a person’s identity in order to enable automatic sign in.
  • Ensure the person is informed about use of personal and device information.
  • Allow the person to control application behaviour that might not otherwise be apparent, such as access to the network and access to device data.
  • Enable automatic sign-in.
  • Minimise application and data size.
  • Make telephone numbers ‘click-to-call’.
  • Optimise the application’s start up time. Customer experience is strongly influenced by the initial start-up time of an application.

Learn more

For information on making iPhone applications accessible, see Accessibility Programming Guide for iOS.

For information on making Android applications accessible, see Make Apps More Accessible.

The TPG Mobile Accessibility Testing for Android and iOS (PDF, 2.6MB) is a free accessible PDF outlining how to test native apps and the web for accessibility on Android and iOS.