[MUSIC PLAYING]
JYOTHI REDDY: Hi.
My name is Jyothi Reddy, a lead accessibility
analyst for Google Play.
And in this episode, we are going
to discuss content labels.
A good accessibility label lets your user
know exactly what a control does without having
to rely on implied context.
A screen reader announces labels when
the element receives focus.
Labels are important because they
create a logical connection between an element
and its function.
Elements have content labels for the screen reader users
who rely on them to read the information to perceive
the meaning of the element.
In these images, a label describes
the purpose of UI elements and images in a short phrase.
Let's look at some benefits of having descriptive labels.
Labels help users understand what information
is contained in the app or web pages
and how that information is organized.
When labels are clear and descriptive,
users can find the information they seek easy
and they can understand the relationships
between different parts of the content.
Form inputs with labels that clearly describe
the content that is expected to be entered
helps users know how to successfully complete the form.
For example, date of birth with a small instruction-- month,
date, year--
is the right way of describing the label
rather than just date of birth.
Descriptive labels help people who
use screen readers by ensuring that labels are meaningful when
read out of context--
for example, in an automatically-generated table
of contents.
In some cases, when information is conveyed graphically
within an element, content labels
can provide a text description that
describe the purpose or action associated with the element.
If the elements in a user interface
don't provide content labels, it can be difficult for some users
to understand the information presented to them
or to perform actions in the interface.
The goal is to make certain that enough information is
provided for the user to perform the task without any confusion.
Let's take a look at how we can improve an app's accessibility
for different users.
First, for non-sighted users, write descriptive labels
for buttons and links.
For example, a Learn More link can
be more descriptive as learn more about accessibility.
Write instructions that do not rely on just one
sensory characteristic, such as shape, size, visual location,
and sound.
For example, click the Cancel button to exit the survey
is more appropriate than click the button on the bottom right
to exit the survey.
Next, for users with hearing difficulties,
provide media alternatives of videos--
for example, captions.
And finally, for users with cognitive and learning
difficulties, provide a way to expand abbreviations
and provide a way to understand unusual words and phrases.
If you are not sure where to begin, don't worry.
The pre-launch report can help you identify issues.
The Accessibility tab in the pre-launch report details page
displays the number of unique accessibility
issues with screenshots into four categories.
One of them is content labeling.
Clicking on a screenshot cluster shows
more details on each issue with specifications of the device,
part of the element recommendation on how
to fix the issue, and the number of places
the issue is occurring.
These findings and recommendations
can be used to track down the accessibility issues
and fix them.
You can re-trigger a new round of pre-launch report
by uploading a fresh APK after fixing the issues
and confirming that the findings do not reappear.
However, please keep in mind that all automated
accessibility testing, this is meant to complement and not
replace manual testing with real users with a variety
of accessibility needs.
Thanks for watching, and hit Subscribe to get
notified when the next episode in this series is released.