Develop for accessibility as much as possible

[aNullValue]

I'm not an expert (nor even a novice) on accessibility in apps, but I nonetheless feel it imperative for us to design with accessibility in mind. Despite implementing nearly no (AFAIK) accessibility considerations, HackerTracker is already used by a diverse collection of users:

• the legally blind
• the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• non-fluent English speakers
• individuals with muscular disabilities and/or tremors, or otherwise have difficulty with touch/pointing
• individuals on low-throughput internet connections (faster than dialup, but not by much?)
• individuals on cell phone plans with extortionate data-usage costs

We need to investigate how to improve in this space. Completely uninformed ideas:

• app-strings need to be localized into all plausible languages (at the very least, English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin)
• the apps could have a high-visibility setting that attempts to make content more visible?
• if an app supports in-app video playback, it should also support closed-captioning (if provided with the video)
• the apps could allow audio playback of localized string recordings (names, titles, talk abstracts, etc), for those who have vision difficulties? this could also help anyone who has difficulty understanding speakers with particular accents, discover whether a potentially interesting speaker has one of the difficult accents (if the speaker narrated the abstract)
• the apps could have a setting that prevents them from operating using cellular data?
• apps could implement keyboard functionality for navigation, to reduce the need for pointing/touching

[aNullValue]

Physical facility accessibility could be considered part of this also. Perhaps a tag or mechanism for indicating on each room/venue its degree of handicap accessibility in varying ways (wheelchair/ramp available, ASL interpreter always there, realtime automated captioning provided, etc).

Accessible pathfinding is also an aspect of this. In Las Vegas in particular, it's possible that two hotels might be ADA compliant, but there not be any reasonable/accessible path between them unless you summon a taxi.

[aNullValue]

Mental health related features might fall under this umbrella too? Perhaps we could have something that describes refuge for the overwhelmed/introverted/suicidal/etc. "Chill out" rooms, places of worship, emergency response phone numbers, LGBT+ counselors, specific on-prem hackers who are will to drop what they're doing to lend an ear, etc.