Deha StudiosAccessibility
Backshift accessibility
Last updated: 20 September 2026
The short version
Backshift is built on the system's own accessibility features rather than around them. On iPhone and iPad it works with VoiceOver, follows your text size, keeps contrast above the readable threshold and never uses colour as the only signal. On Apple Watch most of that holds, with one exception we name below.
VoiceOver
Every control has a spoken name, and decorative icons stay silent so they do not interrupt. A calendar day is read as one item — its date, its shift type and its hours together — instead of four separate fragments. Rows that carry a value read the label, the value and the unit in one pass.
Text size
Text follows the size you set in Settings, including the accessibility sizes. Rows that hold a label and a value side by side move the value underneath when the text grows, rather than squeezing it. At the largest sizes the month grid cannot stay readable — seven columns leave too little room — so the calendar switches to the list view on its own and tells you why.
Colour is never the only signal
A shift's colour always comes with its short code, and the legend under the calendar spells out what each colour means. The same rule holds in the widgets and on the watch: where there is a colour, there is also a letter or a name.
Contrast
The colour pairs were measured rather than assumed: every shift colour and the text sitting on it clear the 4.5:1 ratio for normal text. When you turn on Increase Contrast, secondary text and dividers move to the stronger values the design defines for that setting.
Reduced motion
With Reduce Motion on, the app's own transitions shorten to a soft crossfade. There is no parallax, nothing that slides in from the edge of the screen and nothing that moves on its own.
Apple Watch
The watch app works with VoiceOver, carries the same colour-plus-code rule and uses the same measured contrast pairs. Its text sizes, however, are fixed to the watch layout and do not follow the watch's text size setting. If you rely on larger text on the watch, this is a real limitation, and it is the first thing on the list below.
What we are still working on
Text size on Apple Watch. Beyond that, we would rather hear where the app fails you than guess: if something does not work with the assistive technology you use, write to us and tell us which screen and which setting. We read every message.
Contact
Deha Studios — [email protected]