eDrawings Accessibility Audit

About eDrawings

eDrawings a 2D and 3D design communication tool for internal and external design teams to share product designs and coordinate design reviews.

Research Goal

Identify the accessibility issues in the eDrawings Pro 2019 Android and iOS native applications across touch-based devices.

Duration: 3 months

Tasks Overview

The following tasks were assure to test the Accessibility of the application.

Open .easm file in the eDrawing app
View the model by using the rotate, pan, and zoom features
Use the section feature in the YZ plane and hide the caps of the sectioned area
Measure the distance between two edges
Use the navigation tree to show/hide parts and use solid/transparent mode
Access help to figure out how to use the markup feature
Insert a markup in any location

Timeframe: 3 months

Devices Tested

Samsung Galaxy S9
iPad Pro (12.9’)
HTC Nexus 9
iPhone 6 Plus

Assembly Model

Assembly file used for testing: Mobius kaleidocycle_measure.easm

The Mobius Kaleidocycle assembly model designed and imported from SolidWorks was used for Accessibility Testing on all the devices.

Process

The Accessibility Audit Checklist with instructions to perform PURE Analysis

I looked into the Accessibility Guidelines available:

WCAG 2.1 ( Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
UAAG ( User Agent Accessibility Guidelines)
ADA Section 508 ( Americans with Disability Act)

Recommendations from Apple and Google:

Google’s Material design accessibility guidelines
Apple’s Human interface accessibility guidelines

We researched the VPAT template and how to audit the conformance of the eDrawings application as per Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

However there are no guidelines defined specifically for native mobile applications. So we compiled an Accessibility Audit Checklist by referring to the above-mentioned guidelines as they apply to native mobile applications. Accessibility Audit Checklist.pdf

PURE Analysis ( Practical Usability Ratings by Expert)

Rubrics defined for PURE Method

After discussions with our Manager and the team, we decided that before we perform a standard VPAT Audit, it would be more effective and time saving to conduct a PURE analysis to identify critical areas where the Accessibility needs to be fixed immediately.

We redefined the rubrics of the PURE Method to make it suitable for the Accessibility study.

Pure Rating and Score

Pure Rating for Steps

Overview of Pure Score

The steps and substeps were carried out on each of the devices (iPad Pro, iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S9, HTC Nexus 9 with Accessibility Features enabled and rating as per the rubrics. A final PURE score was calculated for each step by taking the highest value of the substeps.

High-Level Findings

Overview Dashboard

1. Tap Targets and Contrast Ratio:

The tap targets on the Android apps (M,T) and iOS app (M) are below the recommended accessible size.
The contrast ratio of some dropdowns in the Android mobile app does not meet the minimum accessibility recommendations.

2. Major Accessibility Issues when accessibility features are switched on:

Models and drawings cannot be opened from the gallery screen of the iOS apps.
Users cannot rotate/pan/zoom in the iOS apps.
Users cannot measure distances in the iOS apps and Android mobile app.
Users cannot navigate and read the content in the help screens.

Recommendations - Immediate Action Items

The majority of the accessibility issues can be solved by adding alt text and labels.
Try leveraging multi-finger gestures to enable model interactions like rotating, panning and zooming while in Accessibility mode.
Increase the tap target size, especially on mobile devices.

Next Steps

Fix the critical Accessibility Issues identified
Conduct VPAT Accessibility Audit

eDrawings Pro Accessibility Audit