According to data from comScore, people spend approximately 50 percent of all their digital media time on the 4.2 million smartphone apps available today. While the number of mobile apps continues to increase, many are failing to engage and excite customers due to quality, functionality and usability issues.

To help organizations ensure that all users, including people with disabilities and the aging population, have the best possible experience when interacting with mobile apps and content, IBM has released a new solution for iOS and Android™ that helps developers save time, expense, and strengthen the accessibility of mobile apps.

The IBM AbilityLab™ Mobile Accessibility Checker is a cloud service built on IBM Bluemix that identifies and corrects accessibility and usability issues early in the development cycle to deliver an optimized mobile user experience. It automates the process of testing for accessibility violations directly within mobile hybrid and native application development, test or build environments.

Guiding users through the testing process, it provides a detailed report on all issues, such as lack of description, color contrast issues, or lack of keyboard focus, and then recommends the necessary corrections so the app meets conformance with industry standards. Watch a demo of the service.

Mobile Accessibility Checker also establishes a new set of mobile DevOps best practices by enabling on-device testing and integration directly into the agile development process. This helps eliminate roadblocks for developers less familiar with accessibility conformance requirements as the service can be woven into the mobile Integrated Development Environment (IDE) – Xcode or Android Studio – or from a command line.

When a developer or tester runs the app in a simulator or device, it will automatically retrieve the accessibility hierarchies for each app’s user interface for evaluation and then provide a report based on the IBM Accessibility Checklist 6.1 for Software and Web.

IBM recently updated its checklist in anticipation of the Section 508 refresh, which unifies its guidance by Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies published by the World Wide Web Consortium. Mobile applications are governed by the same accessibility standards that apply to desktop and web applications.

This gives Mobile Accessibility Checker the ability to perform an extensive testing and analysis of apps designed to deliver an optimized mobile experience, including the ability to check foreground and background color contrast, dynamic font type, and navigation. In addition, it extends the WCAG and 508 checklist to identify usability issues, such as button size, spacing and proper syntax. Developers now have better insights to create a mobile application so that it can benefit different customer segments.

Mobile apps are one of the most personal touch points available to brands. All users benefit when they are empowered to perform tasks and have access to timely information quickly and easily. Mobile Accessibility Checker helps remove design flaws that prevent people with disabilities and the aging population from using them effectively. By correcting usability issues early in the software development process, organizations can save on costs, meet standards conformance, and drive greater inclusivity through mobile technology.

For pricing and more information, please visit Mobile Accessibility Checker on the IBM Cloud Marketplace. IBM Mobile Accessibility Checker is also available as a software development kit.

More from Business transformation

Accelerating AI & Innovation: The future of banking depends on core modernization

4 min read - In the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services, embracing AI and digital innovation at scale has become imperative for banks to stay competitive. With the power of AI and machine learning, financial institutions can leverage predictive analytics, anomaly detection and shared learning models to enhance system stability, detect fraud and drive superior customer-centric experiences. As we step into 2023, the focus has shifted to digital financial services, encompassing embedded finance, generative AI and the migration of super apps from China…

4 min read

Keep it simple: How to succeed at business transformation using behavioral economics

3 min read - Business leaders often think it’s impossible to predict the outcome of a transformation effort—whether employees will embrace a new process, for example, or how customers will react to a new service. They’re missing out on a secret of change management, says IBM Global Managing Partner Jesus Mantas: “You really can predict, for the most part, why people do what they do.” The answers, he says, come from ​​behavioral economics. In his role overseeing Business Transformation Services for​​ IBM Consulting, Mantas…

3 min read

How Red Hat OpenShift on AWS (ROSA) accelerates enterprise modernization initiatives on cloud, delivering business application innovation

3 min read - When it comes to driving large technology transformation on Cloud, leveraging existing investments, and optimizing open innovation within the larger ecosystem with a hybrid cloud platform, IBM Consulting™ offers several learnings to help organizations address the architecture and technology challenge.  Consider large financial services organization going through core banking modernization. The core banking application landscape involves multiple applications (both legacy and custom off-the-shelf) that are integrated and surfaced across multiple customer experiences, including mobile. The goal of modernizing such a large…

3 min read

IBM Consulting unveils Center of Excellence for generative AI

4 min read - IBM Consulting has established a Center of Excellence for generative AI. It stands alongside IBM Consulting’s existing global AI and Automation practice, which includes 21,000 data and AI consultants who have conducted over 40,000 enterprise client engagements. The Center of Excellence (CoE) already has more than 1,000 consultants with specialized generative AI expertise that are engaging with a global set of clients to drive productivity in IT operations and core business processes like HR or marketing, elevate their customer experiences…

4 min read