1. Overview
Every Android phone comes with a set of accessibility features. You find most of them in Settings, under Accessibility. A blind person uses the screen reader, TalkBack. A person with limited hand movement may use Switch Access or Voice Access. A person with low vision may combine magnification, a larger font and outline text.
These features do the heavy lifting. Your app's job is to give them what they need. That means a name, a role and a state for every control. It means text that grows, colours that hold up and gestures with an alternative. It also means respecting the settings the person has chosen.
This lesson is the foundation for the rest of the module. Try each feature yourself as you read. Ten minutes with TalkBack teaches more than any checklist. The later lessons then show the code that makes each feature work.
Unlock the rest of this lesson
You have read the free preview of How people use Android accessibility features in Module 6: Android accessibility. The full lesson, its knowledge check and the module certificate come with a plan, bought here on the web.
Buy a plan here with a card and the rest of the course unlocks. You will sign in first, with Apple or Google, which is what the plan is attached to. No iPhone or Mac needed.
Free with no account: the first lesson, Why accessibility, and who it is for, the European Accessibility Act flashcards and the overview of every lesson.
Sources
- Google, Android Accessibility Help: Android accessibility overview, Use TalkBack gestures, Navigate your device with TalkBack and Use the TalkBack menu and reading controls.
- Google, Android Accessibility Help: Switch Access, Use Camera Switches, Voice Access, Voice Access commands, Magnification, Change text and display settings, Color correction and color inversion and Live Caption.
- Android Developers, Android 14 features: non-linear font scaling to 200% and Android 16 features: accessibility.
- ETSI, CEN and CENELEC, EN 301 549 V4.1.1 (2026-09), clauses 4, 5.2, 7.1, 11.5.2, 11.6.2 and 11.7, available from the ETSI standards server.
- W3C, WCAG 2.2 and the Group Note Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT).