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Accessibility Assessment in Mobile Applications for Android

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Book cover Advances in Human Factors and Systems Interaction (AHFE 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 959))

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Abstract

At present, the lack of adequate methods to test whether a mobile application is accessible has become a major challenge for accessibility experts. This study was applied to ten mobile applications, the most popular according to PCMAG. We propose to use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 through manual review and automatic review with the Google Play Store Accessibility Scanner validator for the Android. The evaluation results of the mobile applications indicate that the applications are not accessible because they do not comply with the minimum required level proposed by WCAG 2.1. The research proposes suggestions to improve and raise awareness among the designers of mobile applications, in such a way that more inclusive mobile applications accessible to all types of users are built.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.pcmag.com/article/362295/the-100-best-android-apps.

  2. 2.

    https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6376570?hl=en-GB.

  3. 3.

    https://www.pcmag.com/article/362295/the-100-best-android-apps.

  4. 4.

    https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/m39bfzbzgc/3.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank UDLA for funding this study through the project “FGE.PAV.18.10”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent and Interactive Systems Lab, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, Ecuador

    Patricia Acosta-Vargas & Ana Medina

  2. Centro de Educación Continua, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador

    Luis Salvador-Ullauri

  3. MIST, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato, Ecuador

    Janio Jadán-Guerrero, César Guevara & Patricio Lara-Alvarez

  4. Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador

    Sandra Sanchez-Gordon & Tania Calle-Jimenez

  5. CTS/UNINOVA, DEE, Nova University of Lisbon, Monte de Caparica, Portugal

    Isabel L. Nunes

Authors
  1. Patricia Acosta-Vargas
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  2. Luis Salvador-Ullauri
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  3. Janio Jadán-Guerrero
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  4. César Guevara
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  5. Sandra Sanchez-Gordon
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  6. Tania Calle-Jimenez
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  7. Patricio Lara-Alvarez
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  8. Ana Medina
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  9. Isabel L. Nunes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Acosta-Vargas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal

    Isabel L. Nunes

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Acosta-Vargas, P. et al. (2020). Accessibility Assessment in Mobile Applications for Android. In: Nunes, I. (eds) Advances in Human Factors and Systems Interaction. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 959. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20040-4_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20040-4_25

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20039-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20040-4

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