The Nokia Lumia 635 is an affordable mid-range 4G smartphone operated by Windows Phone 8.1. Although it includes several accessibility features, Amóvil can only recommend it to people with hearing disabilities.

General features and specifications

The handset features a very simple design with rounded edges, and a removable casing that is available in three different colors, sold separately. It measures 129.5 x 66.7 x 9.5 mm and weighs 134 grams. It also includes an IPS LCD 4.5 inches display with 480 x 854 pixels resolution protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The smartphone is run by a quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and comes with 8 GB storage capacity, expandable up to 128 GB with a micro SD card, and with 1 GB of RAM. However, it has no front-side camera, but only a standard one of 5 megapixels located on the back side that includes autofocus.

Regarding connectivity, it comes with Bluetooth, A-GPS, DLNA and Wi-Fi support, among others.

Accessibility review

Initial power up and configuration

Upon powering up the handset for the first time, users will be taken through a set up process that is pretty thorough but fails to provide information on the accessibility features available or a shortcut to the accessibility menu. In order to set up accessibility features, users must open the settings menu and then tap on Ease of Access.

Accessibility menu

The accessibility menu is not very extensive and offers brief descriptions of the features included. However, its layout might be problematic for some users. People with disabilities have a better experience when accessibility features are classified by type of disability. Having to go through each of the features in the list to find the most appropriated one can be a frustrating task, particularly for people with print disabilities or that rely on assistive devices, such as screen readers.

Vision

The Lumia 635 is shipped with a version of Narrator preinstalled, the screen reader for Windows Phone. However, it cannot be considered accessible to blind people as it doesn’t work as expected. Narrator has trouble reading most of the visual content on the display, which renders the device inaccessible to these users.

The handset is also inadequate for users with low vision. Changes made to the text size will only show up in the lock screen, contacts, email, messaging and some webpages. They will not work in the settings or the accessibility menu. This hinders access to users with low vision that need to customize the size of the text to be able to read the content in display.

Hearing

The Lumia 635 has a Hearing Aid Compatibility Rating of M3/T3, which means it is accessible to hard of hearing people who wear hearing prosthetics. The handset also supports instant messaging. However, because it includes no front-side camera, videocalls are not allowed.

Dexterity

People with dexterity disabilities will have difficulties using this smartphone. On one hand, it is not possible to control the Lumia with assistive devices such as mouth sticks or head wands, for example. Locking and unlocking the screen with these tools will not be possible.

Another barrier observed is that physical buttons are hard to press. This affects users with little strength in the upper limbs or that feel pain when making pressure with their fingers.

However, this smartphone includes Cortana, Window Phone’s new personal assistant which may improve the experience of people with dexterity disabilities. This is a very useful tool that lets users carry out different task using their voices.

Cortana is quick at understanding voice commands and shows them in writing before carrying them out. It also remembers appointments, reads the calendar aloud and provides weather information upon command. It also makes phone calls, writes and sends text messages and open menus such as settings and accessibility.

While Cortana conforms to the minimum requirements necessary to be considered accessible, users who require hands-free usage will not be able to use it. The version reviewed cannot be activated by voice commands. However, according to Microsoft this action will be available with the next Windows Phone OS update.

Comprehension skills

The icons included in the Nokia Lumia 635 are easy to recognize and comply with accessibility standards. Also, users can add a profile picture to each contact.

However, the settings menu is too large and cannot be customized which renders the device inaccessible to people with comprehension issues or with print disabilities. Moreover, Window’s Phone website does not conform to WCAG 2.0 accessibility requirements, so people needing assistive devices to browse the web will have a hard time getting access to the information offered by Microsoft.

Amóvil has made available a full accessibility report that offers more information about the Nokia Lumia 635.