Previous versions of Android required that a user who was blind or visually impaired get sighted assistance to turn on the screen reader.

For this article, we began our testing with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and continued testing with subsequent upgrades through version 4.02. The Nexus is a touchscreen phone the only physical buttons are the power/lock button on the right side panel and a volume rocker on the left side panel. We used the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for this evaluation. Though there are third-party screen readers and apps available that enhance the accessibility of Android phones, this article focuses on the built-in, out-of-the-box accessibility that Google has designed into their Android 4.0 operating system, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. At the time, we concluded that the platform had potential despite its shortcomings, and promises from Google staff left us optimistic about future improvements.

Our May 2010 AccessWorld evaluation of Android 2.0 and 2.1 found some positives to report, but a lack of e-mail and Web browser accessibility left a lot to be desired.