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Accessibility

The Mobile SDK offers basic accessibility support from version 8.4 onwards.

Available accessibility features:

  • Standard accessibility support for all UI elements
  • Voice over (iOS) / Talk Back (Android) support for wayfinding directions
  • Accessible mode for wayfinding

Standard accessibility support

Both iOS and Android offer some built-in accessibility features like:

  • Automatically set the content of UI elements that contain text like labels, text views, buttons, etc. readable for accessibility
  • Change the screen focus to the latest UI element that gets updated
  • Provide all necessary gestures and actions to explore a mobile app

For more information about accessibility, please check:

Voice over (iOS) / Talk Back (Android) support for navigation directions

When voice over is enabled on the phone’s settings and the route header view is enabled on the map widget configuration (isRouteHeaderViewEnabled is true by default), every direction displayed during a navigation session is automatically announced to the user.

Configure announcements frequency

Every direction change is automatically announced to the user, but if the same direction remains for some time, the SDK repeats the announcement after a certain period.

This annoucement period can be defined on the PTRUserInterfaceConfiguration, through accessibilityAnnouncePeriodInSec. The value of this configuration parameter can be set on Pointr Cloud dashboard. Default value is 10 seconds.

Example:

  1. Turn Left is displayed. SDK automatically announces Turn Left.
  2. After 3 sec Go straight for 40 meters is triggered by path session. SDK automatically announces Go straight for 40 meters.
  3. After 2 sec Go straight for 39 meters is triggered by path session. Since the direction is the same (Go straight), the SDK does not annouce it.
  4. After 10 sec of (2) being announced, Go straight for 35 meters is triggered by path session. Although the direction is the same, the SDK will announce it because 10 seconds have passed since last announcement.

Accessible mode

Accessible mode on PTRPathManager has been improved on v8.4 for better accessibility support. Before 8.4 when this mode was set, it would only guarantee a step-free route. From 8.4 onwards it also provides detailed directions during navigation.

Examples for walking straight direction for accessible mode VS non accessible mode.

Normal mode (Message is “Follow the line”) Accessible mode (Message is “Go straight”)
Accessible Mode Non Accessible Mode

Set accessible mode

Pointr.shared.pathManager?.setCurrentMode(.accessible)
Pointr.getPointr()?.pathManager?.setCurrentMode(PathFindingMode.ACCESSIBLE) 

Last update: April 25, 2023
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