Accessibility

Much of what makes this app accessible is also what makes it work at all. Here's what was decided on purpose.

The typeface

Everything a child reads is set in Andika, designed by SIL specifically for literacy learners. Its letterforms keep easily-confused shapes apart — the b, d, p and q are not mirror images of each other, and the a and g are the single-storey forms children are taught to write. It's set large, with generous spacing, and never in all caps.

Motion

There is no fast motion anywhere in the app: no flashing, no shaking, no zooming. Inside a book nothing moves unless a child asks it to. The one exception is the small card on the welcome screen, which cycles slowly through the alphabet on its own before anyone has opened anything. If your device is set to Reduce Motion, that card holds still and the remaining transitions are dropped.

Sound

Nothing plays unless a child taps it. There is no background music, no sound effects, and no noise on success or failure — because there is no success or failure. The app is fully usable with the sound off; the letters carry their meaning visually.

Colour and contrast

Reading text is set in dark ink on a warm off-white page at the plain-ink stage, well above the WCAG AA contrast threshold. Earlier in the fade, some letters are deliberately paler than AA — the fade is the exercise, and we are working on raising the pale end without losing each letter's color. Every letter has its own color, but color is never the only signal: the shape of the picture inside each letter carries the meaning, so the app works for color-blind readers, and works in plain black ink by the last levels anyway.

The faint pictures behind the words on each page are pale on purpose. A child who can read the picture does not have to read the word.

Touch

A single tap, held as long as they like, is the only thing the app ever asks for. There is one optional gesture — sliding a finger across a word — and everything it does can be done by tapping instead. There are no double-taps, no long-presses and no timed interactions. Buttons and book covers are large; individual letters inside a book are letter-sized, and narrow ones are small targets — we are working on that.

Pace

There are no timers, no countdowns and no autoadvancing pages. You can sit on one page for as long as you like. Nothing is ever taken away for being slow.

Still to do

Full screen-reader labelling of the reader is not finished, and the app has not yet been tested with VoiceOver end to end. If you use assistive technology with a child and something blocks you, please tell us — that feedback goes to the top of the list.