1. Accessibility:
Moving Mobiles Forward
AEGIS International Conference
Sevilla, ES October 2010
Greg Fields
Senior Accessibility Product Manager
Research In Motion

2. Session Contents
• Trends in Mobile
• Accessibility Issues
• Mobile Accessibility
• Moving Mobile Accessibility Forward
• Questions

3. Trends in Mobile

4. Mobile Phone Adoption

5. Adoption by Gender

6. Mobile Top 10
Handsets Sold (August ’10) Manufacturers (August ’10)
• Apple iPhone • Apple
• Motorola Droid • Samsung
• BlackBerry Curve • Motorola
• Samsung Freeform • RIM
• Samsung Messenger • LG
• HTC Droid Incredible • HTC
• Sanyo Incognito • Nokia
• BlackBerry Bold • Sony
• HTC MyTouch Magic • Sanyo
• Motorola Clutch • Sony Ericsson

7. Mobile Phone Categories

8. Smartphone Platforms

9. Developer Platform Usage

10. Top 10 Usage Categories
1. Games
2. Social Networking
3. Music
4. Weather
5. News & Current Events
6. Sports
7. Entertainment
8. Shopping & Retail
9. Education & Employment

11. Mobile Internet Usage

12. Areas of Future Interest

13. Summary
• Everyone has a mobile
• No substantial gender inequity
• Mobile are used everyday
• Sales of smartphones outpaces other
mobiles
• 96% of smartphone platforms from 4
vendors
• There’s an app for everything

14. Accessibility Issues

15. General Access Issues
• Cost
• Availability
• Interoperability
• Complexity
• Awareness
• Sales & Support

16. Additional Access Issues
• Internet Accessibility
• Buying/Paying for Goods and Services
• Kiosk Accessibility
• Access to Content & Information
• Mainstream Awareness
• Physical Access

17. Summary
• Nothing new
• Obstacles, issues and “pain points” are
now applied to mobile

18. Mobile Accessibility

19. Required Infrastructure
• Embedded Platform Access
• Programmatic Platform Access
• Developer Tools
• 3rd Party Application Ecosystem
• 3rd Party Assistive Technology Ecosystem

20. Infrastructure in Mobile
Apple iPhone Motorola Droid BlackBerry Samsung Samsung HTC Droid Sanyo BlackBerry HTC MyTouch Motorola Cluth
Curve Freeform Messenger Incredible Incognito Bold
Embedded Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y N
Platform
Access
Programmatic Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y N
Access
Developer Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y N
Tools
Apps Y Y Y PARTIAL Y Y PARTIAL Y Y PARTIAL
Ecosystem
AT Ecosystem Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y N

21. Browser Access
• Desktop web access solutions coming to
mobile phone browsers
- WAI ARIA
- HTML 5
- Alignment with platform Accessibility API
- Accessible Web UI libraries
• Found on all 4 top smartphone platforms
• Not found on Feature Phones

22. Summary
• All 4 smartphone platform vendor solutions
can support mobile access
• Cost, availability of access solutions differ
by smartphone platform
• Web UI library access lacking
• Feature phone lacking access
infrastructure

23. Moving Mobile
Accessibility Forward

24. 1. Feature Phone Access
• Provide Embedded Platform Access (TTS,
Accessible UI libraries, ASR, etc.)
• Provide Programmatic Access
(Accessibility API, etc.)
• Provide Sample AT (Screen Reader, RTT)
• Provide Development Guide, sample app
source, etc to maximise learning

25. 2. Smartphone Access
• Provide Embedded Platform Access (TTS,
ASR)
• Provide Accessible Web UI libraries
(JQuery Mobile, JQuery Touch, etc.)
• Provide Sample AT (Screen Reader, RTT,
AAC, etc.)
• Provide sample app source

26. Relation to AEGIS
• J2ME Accessibility Efforts - TTS,
Accessible UI libraries, Accessibility API,
Screen Reader, RTT application
• Smartphone Accessibility Efforts - TTS,
Screen Reader, RTT & AAC applications

27. Thank You
Your time is very much appreciated. Are there
any questions?
Greg Fields
accessibility@rim.com

28. Bibliography/Resources
• AQKA & DotMobile - Mobile Internet Usage and Attitudes Study, May
2008
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers Italian Telecom Study 2006
• ITU Telecommunications Adoption, 2009
• Millenial Media, Mobile Mix Research Index, July, August 2010
• Telecoms, IP Networks and Digital Media, Research and Markets Adds
Value, Germany Report, 2009
• Cellular News, Vodafone Quarterly Sales Report, 2009
• Network World, Worldwide Mobile Phone Adoption Report, 2009