Accessibility — Longy: Sauna & Cold Plunge Tracker

VoiceOver Support

Longy is designed to work with VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. Every screen in the app — including the Timer, History, Settings, and Session Log — has been built with screen reader users in mind.

• All interactive elements (buttons, toggles, sliders, pickers) include descriptive accessibility labels so screen readers can announce what each control does.
• Accessibility roles are assigned throughout the app: buttons, switches, headers, timers, adjustable controls, and summaries are all properly identified.
• Accessibility hints provide additional context for gesture-based interactions, such as swiping to delete a session.
• State announcements ensure that screen readers communicate whether a control is disabled, selected, or checked, so users always know the current state of the interface.

Live Announcements

Longy uses live regions to keep screen reader users informed of time-sensitive changes without requiring manual navigation:

• When the timer completes, a "Time's Up" announcement is delivered immediately (assertive) so users are notified right away.
• While the timer is running, elapsed time updates are announced politely, without interrupting whatever the screen reader is currently reading.

Dark Interface

Longy uses a dark color scheme across the entire app. The interface features two dark themes — a warm brown palette for sauna mode and a cool blue-gray palette for cold plunge mode — providing a comfortable viewing experience in low-light environments.

Semantic Structure

The app uses a clear semantic hierarchy to help screen reader users navigate efficiently:

• Headers mark the beginning of each section on every screen, enabling quick navigation between sections.
• Summary roles are used on data visualizations like the Weekly Bar Chart and Monthly Summary, providing a text-based description of the data rather than relying on visual presentation alone.
• Decorative elements (icons used purely for visual styling) are hidden from screen readers so they do not add unnecessary noise to the reading experience.

Adjustable Controls

Controls that involve selecting a value — such as the session intensity slider and duration picker — are marked as adjustable and provide their current value, minimum, and maximum to screen readers. This allows VoiceOver users to interact with these controls using swipe gestures.

Localization and Right-to-Left Support

Longy supports over 60 languages and automatically detects the user's device language. For right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu, the entire interface — including text direction and layout — mirrors automatically to match the expected reading direction.

Ongoing Improvements

We are continuously working to improve accessibility in Longy. Areas we are actively exploring include:

• Support for reduced motion preferences
• Dynamic Type and large text optimizations
• Enhanced color contrast verification

Feedback

If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions for how we can improve, please contact us at [email protected]. Your feedback helps us make Longy better for everyone.