Accessibility Requirements

Document Status: Proposed Specification

See Firebolt Requirements Governance for more info.

1. Overview

As the number of assistive technologies grow and become more feature-rich, Firebolt platforms and the services upon which they are built are expected to provide reasonable accommodations to users with visual or audible impairments. These accomodations exist to allow users to more easily understand and interact with content via these assistive technologies.

Accessibility is and will continue to be a core foundational principal of the Firebolt project, and as such, Firebolt shall expose any functionality required to configure and drive these assitive technologies, allowing Firebolt clients to build rich experiences that are curated to each user’s specific needs.

1.1. User Stories

As an app, I want to…

• Get the user’s audio description preferences
• Get the user’s closed captioning preferences
• Get the user’s high contrast UI preference
• Get the user’s preferred closed captioning style
• Get the user’s voice guidance preferences

2. Table of Contents

• 1. Overview
  • 1.1. User Stories
• 2. Table of Contents
• 3. Constants, Types, and Schemas
  • 3.1. Closed Captions Styles
• 4. Accessibility
  • 4.1. Audio Description Settings
  • 4.2. Closed Captions Settings
  • 4.3. High Contrast UI
  • 4.4. Voice Guidance Settings
• 5. Voice Guidance Settings
  • 4.1. Enabled
  • 4.2. Navigation Hints
  • 4.2. Speech Rate

3. Constants, Types, and Schemas

3.1. Closed Captions Styles

The Firebolt Accessibility module MUST have a ClosedCaptionsStyles object of the following schema:

4. Accessibility

Apps need to know what the user’s preferences are for the various assistive technologies that may be available on the platform.

To facilitate this, the Accessibility module will provide convenience methods that encapsulate various accessibility preferences of the user, such as their closed captioning or voice guidance preferences.

4.1. Audio Description Settings

The Accessibility module MUST include an audioDescriptionSettings method that returns an object describing the user’s audio description preferences.

This method’s response MUST support the following properties:

This method MUST have a corresponding onAudioDescriptionSettingsChanged event to notify listeners after a change to any properties have been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the use role of the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:audiodescriptions capability.

Accessibility.audioDescriptionSettings()
//> {
//>   "enabled": true
//> }

4.2. Closed Captions Settings

The Accessibility module MUST include an closedCaptionsSettings method that returns an object describing the user’s closed captions preferences.

This method’s response MUST support the following properties:

This method MUST have a corresponding onClosedCaptionsSettingsChanged event to notify listeners after a change to any properties have been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the use role of the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:closedcaptions capability.

Accessibility.closedCaptionsSettings()
//> {
//>   "enabled": true,
//>   "preferredLanguages": [
//>     "eng",
//>     "spa"
//>   ],
//>   "styles": {
//>     "backgroundColor": "#000000",
//>     "backgroundOpacity": 100,
//>     "fontColor": "#ffffff",
//>     "fontEdge": "none",
//>     "fontEdgeColor": "#7F7F7F",
//>     "fontFamily": "monospaced_serif",
//>     "fontOpacity": 100,
//>     "fontSize": 1,
//>     "textAlign": "center",
//>     "textAlignVertical": "middle",
//>     "windowColor": "white",
//>     "windowOpacity": 50
//>   }
//> }

4.3. High Contrast UI

The Accessibility module MUST include a highContrastUI method that returns a boolean denoting whether the user prefers the UI to be presented in a high contrast mode.

This method MUST have a corresponding onHighContrastUIChanged event to notify listeners after a change to the property has been made.

Access to these methods MUST require the use role of the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:highcontrastui capability.

Accessibility.highContrastUI()
//> true

4.4. Voice Guidance Settings

The Accessibility module MUST include a voiceGuidanceSettings method that returns an object describing the user’s voice guidance preferences.

This method’s response MUST support the following properties:

This method MUST have a corresponding onVoiceGuidanceSettingsChanged event to notify listeners after a change to any properties have been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the use role of the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:voiceguidance capability.

Accessibility.voiceGuidanceSettings()
//> {
//>   "enabled": true,
//>   "navigationHints": false,
//>   "rate": 1.5
//> }

5. Voice Guidance Settings

Apps want to be able to modify and persist the user’s voice guidance preferences.

To facilitate this, the VoiceGuidance module will provide management access to the user’s voice guidance preferences.

4.1. Enabled

The VoiceGuidance module MUST include an enabled method that returns a boolean value denoting whether or not the user has enabled voice guidance.

This method MUST have a corresponding setEnabled method that accepts a boolean value denoting the new intended value for this property.

This method MUST have a corresponding onEnabledChanged event to notify listeners after a change to the property has been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:voiceguidance capability.

VoiceGuidance.setEnabled(true)
//> true

4.2. Navigation Hints

The VoiceGuidance module MUST include a navigationHints method that returns a boolean value denoting whether or not the user prefers additional voice guidance navigation hints to be synthesized.

This method MUST have a corresponding setNavigationHints method that accepts a boolean value denoting the new intended value for this property.

This method MUST have a corresponding onNavigationHintsChanged event to notify listeners after a change to the property has been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:voiceguidance capability.

VoiceGuidance.setNavigationHints(false)
//> false

4.2. Speech Rate

The VoiceGuidance module MUST include a rate method that returns a numeric value denoting the user’s desired speech rate.

This method MUST have a corresponding setRate method that accepts a numeric value denoting the new intended value for this property.

This method MUST have a corresponding onRateChanged event to notify listeners after a change to the property has been made and that change has taken effect.

Access to these methods MUST require the xrn:firebolt:capability:accessibility:voiceguidance capability.

VoiceGuidance.setRate(0.5)
//> 0.5