United Airlines launched a redesigned version of its mobile app, with new enhancements intended to make travel easier for people with vision disabilities.
The UA airline app has increased color contrast, added more space between graphics, and reordered how information is displayed and announced to better integrate with the screen reader technologies like VoiceOver and TalkBack that are built into most handheld devices and read-aloud on-screen messages and notifications.
By restructuring how the information is organized on the app, screen readers can better convert text to audio in the proper, logical sequence, allowing customers to understand better and navigate the app. According to the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center, more than 25 million Americans have a self-reported travel-limiting disability.
The app’s improved accessibility is just one of the ways United is continuing its commitment to accessibility and inclusion of customers with disabilities.
“The parts of the travel experience that we all take for granted like checking luggage, getting your flight status and accessing a boarding pass can still be a challenge for someone with a visual disability,” said Linda Jojo, Executive Vice President for Technology and Chief Digital Officer, United. “These new accessibility enhancements are part of our continuing commitment to level the playing field, unlock all the customer benefits of our app, and give people with disabilities more independence while traveling.”
Visually impaired customers will notice that these changes make it easier to manage all aspects of day-of travel, including check-in, viewing reservation details and flight status, bag tracking, and more. Ray Campbell, a member of United’s digital team who’s visually impaired and sits on the board of the American Council of the Blind, played a key role in redesigning the app and walks through how these changes make flying easier for him in this video.
“Optimizing mobile apps for tools such as VoiceOver and TalkBack has been a game-changer, allowing people with visual disabilities to utilize smartphone technology in their daily lives fully,” said Campbell. “It’s just as important for someone with a visual disability to easily access day-of-travel information and features as for any other customer. By improving the accessibility of the United app, we are truly living out United’s mission of caring for all customers.”
