Android layout resources for Accessibility vision impairment

Issue

Android applications currently support different layout resources based on orientation, screen size, day and night etc.

However, I would like to provide layouts targeted at users with vision impairments, for instance use layouts with YELLOW background and BLACK text.

Have I missed something that Android already supports?

Can I implement custom res/layout-WAI or res/layout-DDA folders?

Solution

You can't create custom configuration qualifiers. The current supported qualifiers are listed here.

I will suggest the following workaround (Example):

1. Create a special layout for WAI for each existing layout, with the same name, but with the suffix "_wai"

   example_layout.xml
   example_layout_wai.xml
   

2. Create a method to resolve the appropriate layout based on system needs. Say we have a method isWAI(), resolve method will look something like:

   public int resolveLayoutResourceID(int layoutResID) {
       int newLayoutResID = layoutResID;
       if (isWAI()) {
           String layoutResName = getResources().getResourceEntryName(layoutResID);
           String newLayoutResName = layoutResName + "_wai";
           newLayoutResID = getResources().getIdentifier(newLayoutResName, "layout", getPackageName());
       }
       return newLayoutResID;
   }
   

3. Create a BaseActivity class for all your classes (or use a utility static function), that will override the setContentView method. There you will add a logic to select the layout.

   @Override
   public void setContentView(int layoutResID) {
       int newLayoutResID = resolveLayoutResourceID(layoutResID)
       super.setContentView(newLayoutResID);
   }
   

Answered By - Eyal Biran