How accessible is Jami ?

We can all be faced with some form of disability, whether permanent or temporary, at different times in our lives. That's why accessibility must be a constant concern at every stage of development.

Accessibility is about ensuring that everyone can live the same experience as harmoniously as possible, whatever their abilities, background or identity. In Jami, this could mean features like screen reader support, keyboard navigation, customizable text sizes, or simplified user flows for users with cognitive differences. It aims to meet the challenges faced by people with disabilities, cultural minorities, and individuals from different social backgrounds and identities, as well as those at the intersection of these categories.

So, what’s the current state of Jami’s accessibility, and what comes next?

Accessibility on iOS

iOS is our most accessible platform so far. All core features are fully accessible with Apple’s VoiceOver. By relying heavily on native components, we ensured that Jami works well with most assistive technologies on the platform.

Accessibility on Android

We’re currently making great progress on the Android version of Jami. Its accessibility isn’t quite on par with the iOS version yet, but it’s already in solid shape.

Android's TalkBack is quite similar to iOS's VoiceOver, as both are screen readers designed to make smartphones accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Like iOS's VoiceOver, TalkBack reads aloud the content displayed on the screen, describes user interface elements and provides spoken feedback when users interact with their device using gestures.

In the context of Jami, integrating TalkBack support means ensuring that all interactive elements, such as call buttons, chat messages or contact lists, are correctly labeled and navigated using voice prompts. This enables users who rely on TalkBack to communicate securely and independently, with a user experience as seamless as on iOS. Fortunately, Android's accessibility documentation is very comprehensive, offering practical solutions for the design and development of mobile applications.

You can check out our roadmap of the key issues we’re planning to tackle on Android right here.

Accessibility on Desktop

Desktop accessibility is a bit trickier. The vast majority of resources on the topic focus exclusively on webview based applications. The most widely adopted accessibility guidelines, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), are an international standard that provide a framework for making web content more accessible to people with disabilities. They cover principles such as perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness. While these guidelines are extremely valuable, they apply specifically to web content and do not fully address the challenges of native desktop applications.

As a result, ensuring accessibility on desktop platforms often requires additional strategies beyond WCAG compliance.

Jami is built with the Qt framework, so many of those recommendations don’t directly apply to us. Qt includes its own accessibility system, but there’s a lack of complex, open-source implementations that fully support it. Even Qt’s own components often lack proper screen reader support.

So, what accessibility features have we already implemented?

• Whisper Transcript is a Jami plugin that provides real-time subtitles for your calls. It’s a key feature for many hearing-impaired users (affecting up to 18% of users, according to Microsoft) that helps them stay connected with loved ones, even at a distance. By running Whisper’s model locally on the user’s device, without ever sending information to external servers, we ensure that hearing-impaired users don’t have to sacrifice their privacy.

• For visually impaired users (affecting up to 17% of users, according to Microsoft) we offer scalable UI text and full keyboard shortcut support for most tasks.

• For users with dysorthographia, or anyone who struggles with spelling or grammar, our brand-new spellchecker helps make writing in Jami a more stress-free experience.

• When developing the spellchecker, we made it a priority to include as many regional dialects and languages as possible. It reflects our commitment to celebrating cultural diversity and nuance. Accessibility also means making sure that people who don’t speak English can use our software. That’s why, with your help, we’ve built a community-maintained translation system using Transifex.

We’d like to once again thank our incredible community of translators, who continue to help us make Jami more accessible, and more universal, every day.💚

What's next for Jami Desktop ?

We still have a long way to go when it comes to accessibility on Jami Desktop. The biggest issue right now is that it’s still not accessible for blind users.

We’re kicking off new development and testing cycles, working closely with accessibility experts and users with disabilities to guide the process.

• We’re working on making Jami fully navigable using only a keyboard, a crucial feature for users with motor or visual impairments. At the same time, we’re making sure screen readers can properly interpret all UI elements.
• We’re also working on customizable keyboard shortcuts to avoid conflicts with other assistive technologies.

• Additionally, we plan to support custom fonts (especially OpenDyslexic) to improve accessibility for dyslexic users.