Building Accessible Applications in .NET MAUI
In this Microsoft Zero to Hero session, Shaun Lawrence starts from a purposely broken sample app — tiny touch targets, icon-only actions, poor contrast, placeholder-only inputs — and progressively fixes it live, proving that accessible .NET MAUI apps don’t require a rewrite or an expert on the team.
What you’ll learn
- Why accessibility is broader than you think — permanent, temporary, and situational impairments, and how accessible design ends up improving the app for everyone
- How the accessibility tree works — why screen readers navigate a separate tree from your XAML, and how .NET MAUI maps controls to native VoiceOver, TalkBack, and Narrator support out of the box
- SemanticProperties in practice — using
DescriptionandHintto convey what a control is and what it does, and when adding both is redundant - Headings, decorative images, and focus — structuring navigation, opting elements in and out of the accessibility tree, and keeping focus sensible
- Dynamic text and touch targets — letting layouts scale text without truncation and making controls easy to hit one-handed
- Testing your apps — VoiceOver, the Android Accessibility Scanner, and the iOS Accessibility Inspector for validating your work
Watch the full session for the live MauiMart fixes, audience Q&A on trade-offs, and Shaun’s challenge to try navigating your own app with a screen reader.