Accessibility Evaluation of E-Government Mobile Applications in Brazil

AbstractThe provision of e-government services using mobile applications (known as m-government) has had a significant growth in recent years. However, it is very important that such applications be accessible to people with disabilities in order to ensure inclusive access. Using appropriate accessibility auditing methods is very important to help identify accessibility problems in interactive systems during their development. However, there has been little support in terms of formal standard accessibility guidelines to help develop and evaluate mobile applications. In this paper, we present a case study with the evaluation of four e-government mobile applications in Brazil using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The paper discusses the methodological adaptations of WCAG 2.0 for the context of mobile applications and its current limitations. The results of the evaluations performed in the four applications in the case study showed that many elementary accessibility problems widely known by HCI researchers were encountered extensively in the applications evaluated. This highlights the importance of furthering research in accessibility design and evaluation of mobile applications, in order to provide more inclusive access to essential applications used by all citizens, such as e-government services

Accessibility in health mobile applications

Abstract. Nowadays, there is a vast number of mobile devices capable of storing an individual’s entire life. There are applications for everything, from banking to ordering food and clothes, but also different health applications targeted towards different impairments and self-health care management. Self-health care management applications can have a significant impact on individuals with various diseases and impairments. However, it is essential that these applications are accessible to users with different impairments such as motor and vision impairments. The purpose of this study was to examine accessibility concerns in mobile health applications for individuals with multiple sclerosis and evaluate how these concerns were addressed. Multiple sclerosis was chosen as the focus of this study because its symptoms encompass a range of impairments, including vision, motion, hearing, and cognitive limitations. The study was conducted with benchmarking multiple sclerosis applications obtained in Google Play store. Benchmarking focused on accessibility, and measurements and metrics were gathered testing applications with Google Accessibility Scanner and TalkBack screen reader. Measurements were based on web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2 and accessibility guidelines for mobile applications. None of the tested applications followed accessibility guideline requirements based on benchmarking metrics. When examining the metrics from the perspective of impairments, it was found that applications had accessibility concerns related to motor and vision impairments. The applications addressed requirements for hearing impairments in applicable features, while testing cognitive impairment requirements proved challenging with the selected testing tools. In the future, it is recommended to conduct additional accessibility testing for cognitive impairments using methods such as manual accessibility testing and user testing

THE ACCESSIBLE USER INTERACTION FRAMEWORK FOR ANDROID APPLICATIONS

As mobile technologies advance, accessibility features of smartphones are continu- ously improving and becoming more prevalent. It is essential that the user interaction design of mobile applications provides equal access and equal service to all our com- munity, especially for people with disabilities. However, there are no general mobile accessibility design guidelines publicly available. This paper reviews the web acces- sibility development guidelines as a reference, and the current accessibility features provided by modern mobile operating systems. It is proposed in this paper to use interactive spoken dialogues as the user interac- tion framework for accessible mobile applications. The idea is realized by the design and implementation of an Android application, AccessibleToolKit. AccessibleToolKit is developed to help visually impaired users to dial a phone number, manage alarms and the calendar. A usability study of AccessibleToolKit is conducted to evaluate the user experi- ence. Based on the feedback from the study, the design of AccessibleToolKit is refined to provide a more user-friendly experience. The performance of AccessibleToolKit is measured and compared with the performance of native apps. The comparison shows that AccessibleToolKit allow a user to perform commonly used tasks more efficiently. This study shows that using interactive spoken dialogues as the user interaction frame- work is a promising approach to develop accessible mobile applications

Portuguese and spanish DMOs’ accessibility Apps and websites

“Tourism for all” is based on three main aspects: accessible tourism, sustainable tourism and social tourism. Accessibility is an essential part of responsible and sustainable tourism. A sizable segment of the population comprises people who have a type of disability or people who are older and, as a result of age, experience diminished physical and/or mental abilities. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the mobile applications and websites of Portuguese and Spanish Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are accessible. For this purpose, accessible destinations listed by the Tur4all project were taken as a sample for a quantitative exploratory study. Several tools related to accessibility were used to determine their level of compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. The results reveal that the percentage of non-compliance with accessibility criteria is very high in DMOs in Portugal and especially in Spain. In conclusion, tourism for all is important, including its digital tools. The practical implications include guidance on accessibility for institutions and companies, as well as a need to raise awareness of its importance in the tourism sector. This is the only study that analyzes the accessibility of both apps and websites of the same institution according to the requirements in WCAG 2.1.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Access to Occupational Therapy Practice: A Review of Current Licensing Processes in the United States

Purpose This study was conducted to gain insight on the 50 United States and Washington D.C. occupational therapy (OT) licensure application process. This study sought to examine the accessibility of the OT licensure websites as well as the compliance each OT state licensure application has with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The researchers predicted that, while the profession of OT seeks inclusion for all individuals, there is discrimination prominent in the OT state licensure process for individuals living with disabilities. Methodology A two-fold process was used to collect information regarding accessibility and accommodation within licensing processes for OT licensure applications. First, 51 United States/territories were examined using the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines, published in 2018, focus on allowing greater accessibility for individuals with disabilities through use of Level AAA, items of highest rigor, and the three of the four corresponding principles: Perceivable, Operable, and Understandable (Bradbard & Peters, 2010). Using these guidelines as a checklist, each principle was assessed for each corresponding website and data was recorded. After examined using these guidelines, each website URL was placed into the WAVE© accessibility tool from www.webaim.org to in order to triangulate the data and increase the rigor of this study (WebAIM, 2018). Secondly, 41 of the 51 United States/territories OT applications were examined for compliance with the ADA with use of two articles, one published by Schroeder et al. (2009) and the other published by Jones et al. (2018). Ten of the 51 applications were removed from use in this study as those applications were not directly available via download on the state website and the state regulatory board either did not respond to requests for the application in an alternative format or the application was not available in an alternative format. The Schroeder et al. (2009) article defined four categories of questions in regard to licensure applications and the ADA: permissible, likely permissible, likely impermissible, and impermissible. Using this information, along with information from Jones et al. (2018), the categories for this research project were created, and 41 of the 51 OT United States/territories licensure applications were reviewed and data was recorded. Results Use of WCAG 2.1 guidelines indicates that many states appear to meet Level AAA standards of accessibility. The lowest score obtained was 6 out of 11 checkpoints, held by just two states. Seven states scored 100% with the guidelines. It was found that the majority of states met Principle 1 and 3 guidelines: Perceivable and Understandable. Many states were observed to have difficulties meeting Principle 2: Operable; this was often evidenced by websites that were inaccessible for use with a variety of devices such as a mouse and keyboard, touchscreen, desktop, mobile device, or tablet. Under the third Principle: Understandable, many states failed to provide context-sensitive help, or technological assistance within the webpage. Through use of the WAVE© checker, results were only categorized in terms of Level A or AA. The most common issues resulted in difficulties with use of screen readers and alternative mechanisms. Nineteen states, or approximately 46% of the applications reviewed, asked questions that are impermissible or likely impermissible, indicating noncompliance or potential noncompliance with the ADA. Additionally, 17 applications contained questions that were permissible, 10 of those applications (24%) asked solely permissible questions in regard with the ADA. An additional 12 applications (29%) were unable to be placed into the categorizes created by the two guides used in this study, indicating that roughly 54% of the applications are compliant with the ADA. Therefore, results show that 22 of 41 applications reviewed (54%) were compliant with the ADA and 19 of 41 applications reviewed (46%) were either likely noncompliant or noncompliant with the ADA in regard to the questions asked on the application. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that the majority of OT licensure websites are minimally accessible to individuals with disabilities. However, the national guidelines for website accessibility remain at WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and few states currently do not communicate these standards or offer increased assistance for those who may need it. Therefore, increased compliance with this standard, WCAG 2.1 Level AAA would allow greater accessibility to websites for those living with disabilities. The applications for licensure, however, have a vast discriminatory basis to individuals living with disabilities and are not compliant with the ADA. Nineteen of the 41 states reviewed asked questions that were impermissible or likely impermissible with the ADA. Removing all questions that are not permissible with the ADA would provide equal opportunity to all applicants as well as eliminate discrimination in the OT licensure application. Additionally, in eliminating discriminatory questions within the application, occupational therapist practitioners may be more open in articulating their needs and seeking services if needed, as fear to lose licensure will no longer exist. In turn, this would also communicate the value of inclusion that the profession of occupational therapy holds to all applicants applying for OT licensure

Process Model for Continuous Testing of Web Accessibility

The lack of accessibility on websites can result in people with disabilities not accessing information online. Therefore, this research aims to create a process model for continuous web accessibility testing by adapting and customizing three methodologies: Deming cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM), and Total Quality Management. The process model is composed of four phases. The first phase (Plan) allows defining the accessibility problem, its importance, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) against which it will be evaluated. In addition, determine the current situation of the websites, the potential causes of accessibility problems, classify the success criteria by principles, guidelines, and levels of conformity, to elaborate the solution plan and the action plan. The second phase (Do) allows the execution of the action plan to correct the accessibility problems. In this phase, we should perform continuous testing with automatic evaluation tools, end-users, and experts to corroborate that the changes have had an effect. The third phase (Check) allows measuring compliance and non-compliance with the defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This phase also explains the reasons for non-compliance. The fourth and last phase (Act) documents the solutions learned for inclusion in future developments. It was tested using a case study to determine the viability of the process model, which allowed corroborating its functionality and applicability. In future work, we plan to adapt the process model to different workgroups, develop accessible mobile applications, and comply with web accessibility in electronic documents.This work was supported by the Catholic University of Cuenca; the EduTech project (609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and the project “Development of IoT systems for people with disabilities” (PID2019-111196RB-I00) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

Investigating the appropriateness and relevance of mobile web accessibility guidelines

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develop and maintain guidelines for making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 and the MWBP 1.0 are internationally regarded as the industry standard guidelines for web accessibility. Mobile testing sessions conducted by AbilityNet document issues raised by users in a report format, relating issues to guidelines wherever possible. This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation that examines how effectively and easily these issues can be related by experts to the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.0 and MWBP 1.0. Copyright 2014 ACM

Challenges in Developing Applications for Aging Populations

Elderly individuals can greatly benefit from the use of computer applications, which can assist in monitoring health conditions, staying in contact with friends and family, and even learning new things. However, developing accessible applications for an elderly user can be a daunting task for developers. Since the advent of the personal computer, the benefits and challenges of developing applications for older adults have been a hot topic of discussion. In this chapter, the authors discuss the various challenges developers who wish to create applications for the elderly computer user face, including age-related impairments, generational differences in computer use, and the hardware constraints mobile devices pose for application developers. Although these challenges are concerning, each can be overcome after being properly identified

Mobile recommender apps with privacy management for accessible and usable technologies

The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing survey of the use of computers and mobile devices, interest in recommender apps and knowledge and concerns about privacy issues amongst English and Italian speaking disabled people. Participants were found to be regular users of computers and mobile devices for a range of applications. They were interested in recommender apps for household items, computer software and apps that met their accessibility and other requirements. They showed greater concerns about controlling access to personal data of different types than this data being retained by the computer or mobile device. They were also willing to make tradeoffs to improve device performance

UAUDG-VI : diretrizes para o design da acessibilidade, usabilidade e experiência do usuário em aplicações móveis para pessoas com deficiência visual

Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Natasha Malveira Costa ValentimDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Exatas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática. Defesa : Curitiba, 10/02/2022Inclui referênciasÁrea de concentração: Ciência da ComputaçãoResumo: Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e User eXperience (UX) são conceitos de qualidade de software que impactam diretamente na utilização de aplicações móveis por usuários que possuem alguma deficiência, como a deficiência visual. Esses três conceitos em conjunto abrangem aspectos relacionados a inclusão, à qualidade do uso das aplicações móveis e as emoções que os usuários têm quando interagem com essa aplicação. Sendo assim, a utilização destes aspectos em conjunto se torna importante para garantir a aceitação deste tipo de aplicação por Pessoas que possuem um determinado nível de Deficiência Visual. O uso de tecnologias como diretrizes, abordagens, heurísticas que integram a Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e UX durante as fases iniciais do desenvolvimento tornam-se um importante aliado para melhorar o design de aplicações móveis para as Pessoas com Deficiência Visual. Através de um Mapeamento Sistemático da Literatura (MSL) realizado nesta pesquisa, apenas uma tecnologia de design apresentou de forma unificada os conceitos de Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e UX em conjunto, de forma a auxiliar os designers. No entanto, esta tecnologia identificada possui como foco o design apenas de dispositivos híbridos (como Smart TV). Além disso, um estudo exploratório com Pessoas com Deficiência Visual utilizando diferentes aplicações foi realizado com o intuito de identificar quais problemas de Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e UX as Pessoas com Deficiência Visual enfrentam ao longo de sua interação com a aplicação móvel. A partir dos resultados do MSL e do estudo exploratório, foi proposta uma técnica chamada Usability, Accessibility and User eXperience Design Guidelines about Visual Impairment (UAUDG-VI), contendo diretrizes para auxiliar o design de aplicações móveis para Pessoas com Deficiência Visual com os conceitos de Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e UX de forma unificada. Foram realizados estudos experimentais com o propósito de analisar e avaliar a viabilidade de uso da técnica proposta, investigando se a mesma permite ou não projetar estes três conceitos de qualidade de forma conjunta durante a fase de design de aplicações móveis para Pessoas com Deficiência Visual. Os resultados indicaram que a técnica auxiliou os participantes a criarem protótipos de aplicações móveis, considerando a Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e UX para Pessoas com Deficiência Visual. Os resultados também sugerem oportunidades para aprimoramento, e avanços da técnica e próximas etapas para a integração da Acessibilidade, Usabilidade e no contexto de design de aplicações móveis.Abstract: Accessibility, Usability and User eXperience (UX) are software quality concepts that directly impact the use of mobile applications by users who have a disability, such as visual impairment. These three concepts together cover aspects related to inclusion, the quality of use of mobile applications and the emotions that users have when interacting with this application. Therefore, the use of these aspects together becomes important to guarantee the acceptance of this type of application by Visually Impaired People (VIP). The use of technologies such as guidelines, approaches, heuristics that integrate Accessibility, Usability and UX during the early stages of development becomes an important ally to improve the design of mobile applications for VIPs. Through a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) carried out in this research, only one design technology presented in a unified way the concepts of Accessibility, Usability and UX together, in order to help designers. However, this identified technology is focused on the design of only hybrid devices (such as Smart TV). In addition, an exploratory study with VIPs using different applications was carried out in order to identify which Accessibility, Usability and UX problems the VIPs face during their interaction with the mobile application. Based on the results of the SMS and the exploratory study, a technique called Usability, Accessibility and User eXperience Design Guidelines on Visual Impairment (UAUDG-VI) was proposed, containing guidelines to help design mobile applications for VIPs with the aspects of Accessibility, Usability and UX in a unified way. Experimental studies were carried out with the purpose of analyzing and evaluating the feasibility of using the proposed technique, investigating whether or not it allows designing these three quality aspects together during the design phase of mobile applications for VIPs. The results indicated that the technique helped the participants to create prototypes of mobile applications, considering Accessibility, Usability and UX for VIPs. The results also suggest opportunities for improvement, and technical advances and next steps for the integration of Accessibility, Usability and in the context of mobile application design