CVS App Accessibility

Team: Project manager, product owner, development team, UX/UI designer
Role: Accessibility Subject Matter Expert
Timeline: 1-2 months, Winter 2020
Scale: Millions of users
Technology: iOS, Android, WCAG 2.1

Problem: The Extracare section of the iOS and Android apps, which one of my teams was focused on, underwent a major redesign over the course of a few quarters. New features as well as UI updates were being implemented in an Agile fashion, so accessibility issues needed to be captured across engineering, design, and business at the same time.

Process

  • Worked with design to create usable, delightful, and accessible-to-all heading structure, input design, graphic compliance, color compliance, data visualizations, and interactive features like camera based barcode scanner, feature-rich search interface, and extensive dynamic elements based on user loyalty and coupon configuations.
  • Crafted custom accessibility copy for screenreader users to guide them through the interface in an easy, delightful, and understandable way. Wrote accessibility copy for each platform seperately to account for nuances in iOS Voiceover and Android Talkback.
  • Had daily calls with engineers to go over accessibility challenges and workshop them together, and ran both smoke tests and full accessibility evaluations of the UX in development environments. Tracked accessibility bugs through the remediation process and closed them.

Outcome: The app was released in compliance with WCAG 2.0 accessibility requirements, and the rate of accessibility-related bugs went down sprint-over-sprint the more we worked together.

mockup of an app screen showing the correct reading order using boxes
In order to make the interface flow well to screenreader users, who are interacting with the UI entirely through visible and hidden copy, the Voiceover reading order occasionally needed to be customized. I determined this order and illustrated it to developers.
screenshot of the barcode scanner in the CVS app
Features like camera-based scanners present unique accessibility challenges for nonvisual users and users with disabilities that affect motion, like tremors.