It’s the little touches, an extra attention to detail, that can transform a good user experience into a truly inclusive user experience that meets the needs of users around the globe.
The design and coding instructions in this section can make your UWP app more inclusive by adding accessibility features, enabling globalization and localization, enabling users to customize their experience, and providing help when users need it.
Accessiblity
Accessibility is about making your app usable by people who have limitations that prevent or impede the use of conventional user interfaces. For some situations, accessibility requirements are imposed by law. However, it's a good idea to address accessibility issues regardless of legal requirements so that your apps have the largest possible audience.
Accessibility overview
This article is an overview of the concepts and technologies related to accessibility scenarios for UWP apps.
Designing inclusive software
Learn about evolving inclusive design with Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps for Windows 10. Design and build inclusive software with accessibility in mind.
Developing inclusive Windows apps
This article is a roadmap for developing accessible UWP apps.
Accessibility testing
Testing procedures to follow to ensure that your UWP app is accessible.
Accessibility in the Store
Describes the requirements for declaring your UWP app as accessible in the Windows Store.
Accessibility checklist
Provides a checklist to help you ensure that your UWP app is accessible.
Expose basic accessibility information
Basic accessibility info is often categorized into name, role, and value. This topic describes code to help your app expose the basic information that assistive technologies need.
Keyboard accessibility
If your app does not provide good keyboard access, users who are blind or have mobility issues can have difficulty using your app or may not be able to use it at all.
High-contrast themes
Describes the steps needed to ensure your UWP app is usable when a high-contrast theme is active.
Accessible text requirements
This topic describes best practices for accessibility of text in an app, by assuring that colors and backgrounds satisfy the necessary contrast ratio. This topic also discusses the Microsoft UI Automation roles that text elements in a UWP app can have, and best practices for text in graphics.
Accessibility practices to avoid
Lists the practices to avoid if you want to create an accessible UWP app.
Custom automation peers
Describes the concept of automation peers for UI Automation, and how you can provide automation support for your own custom UI class.
Control patterns and interfaces
Lists the Microsoft UI Automation control patterns, the classes that clients use to access them, and the interfaces providers use to implement them.
Globalization and localization
Windows is used worldwide, by audiences that vary in culture, region, and language. A user may speak any language, or even multiple languages. A user may be located anywhere in the world, and may speak any language in any location. You can increase the potential market for your app by designing it to be readily adaptable using globalization and localization.
Do's and don'ts
Follow these best practices when globalizing your apps for a wider audience and when localizing your apps for a specific market.
Use global-ready formats
Develop a global-ready app by appropriately formatting dates, times, numbers, and currencies.
Manage language and region
Control how Windows selects UI resources and formats the UI elements of the app, by using the various language and region settings provided by Windows.
Use patterns to format dates and times
Use the DateTimeFormatting API with custom patterns to display dates and times in exactly the format you wish.
Adjust layout and fonts, and support RTL
Develop your app to support the layouts and fonts of multiple languages, including RTL (right-to-left) flow direction.
Prepare your app for localization
Prepare your app for localization to other markets, languages, or regions.
Put UI strings into resources
Put string resources for your UI into resource files. You can then reference those strings from your code or markup.
App settings
App settings let you the user customize your app, optimizing it for their individual needs and preferences. Providing the right settings and storing them properly can make a great user experience even better.
Guidelines
Best practices for creating and displaying app settings.
Store and retrieve app data
How to store and retrieve local, roaming, and temporary app data.
In-app help
No matter how well you’ve designed your app, some users will need a little extra help.
Guidelines for app help
Applications can be complex, and providing effective help for your users can greatly improve their experience.
Instructional UI
Sometimes it can be helpful to teach the user about functions in your app that might not be obvious to them, such as specific touch interactions. In these cases, you need to present instructions to the user through the UI so they can discover and use features they might have missed.
In-app help
Most of the time, it's best for help to be displayed within the app, and to be displayed when the user chooses to view it. Consider the following guidelines when creating in-app help.
External help
Most of the time, it's best for help to be displayed within the app, and to be displayed when the user chooses to view it. Consider the following guidelines when creating in-app help.