Techniques for developing more accessible web applications: a survey towards a process classification

The Web has become one of the most important communication media, since it is spread all over the world. In order to enable everyone to access this medium, Web accessibility has become an emerging topic, and many techniques have been evolved to support the development of accessible Web content. This paper presents a survey on techniques for Web accessibility and proposes a classification into the processes of ISO/IEC 12207 standard. The survey was carried out applying systematic review principles during the literature review. The results include analysis obtained from the synthesis of 53 studies, selected from an initial set of 844. Although the survey results indicate a growth in research on techniques for design and evaluation of Web applications, they also indicate that several development activities have been poorly addressed by scientific research efforts.

[1]  Brian Sierkowski Achieving web accessibility , 2002, SIGUCCS '02.

[2]  Paul Bohman,et al.  Constructing Accessible Web Sites , 2002, Apress.

[3]  Sean Bechhofer,et al.  Taming the inaccessible web , 2006, SIGDOC '06.

[4]  Phillip Burrell,et al.  Justification of the need for an ontology for accessibility requirements (Theoretic framework) , 2004, Interact. Comput..

[5]  David Sloan,et al.  Contextual web accessibility - maximizing the benefit of accessibility guidelines , 2006, W4A '06.

[6]  Daniela Rosu,et al.  Improving the accessibility of aurally rendered HTML tables , 2002, Assets '02.

[7]  Barbara Kitchenham,et al.  Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews , 2004 .

[8]  M. J. Morgan,et al.  Evaluation of Long Descriptions of Statistical Graphics for Blind and Low Vision Web Users , 2002, ICCHP.

[9]  Mary Zajicek,et al.  Successful and available: interface design exemplars for older users , 2004, Interact. Comput..

[10]  Gustavo Rossi,et al.  Specifying Quality Characteristics and Attributes for Websites , 2001, Web Engineering.

[11]  Paolo Paolini,et al.  A Conceptual Model and a Tool Environment for Developing More Scalable, Dynamic, and Customizable Web Applications , 1998, EDBT.

[12]  Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes,et al.  Using screen readers to reinforce web accessibility education , 2007, ITiCSE '07.

[13]  Judy Brewer,et al.  Web accessibility highlights and trends , 2003, W4A '04.

[14]  Jonathan Lazar,et al.  Improving web accessibility: a study of webmaster perceptions , 2004, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[15]  Zhang Li,et al.  Measuring Navigational Burden , 2006, Fourth International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA'06).

[16]  Jeffrey C. Carver,et al.  Knowledge-Sharing Issues in Experimental Software Engineering , 2004, Empirical Software Engineering.

[17]  Marti A. Hearst,et al.  The state of the art in automating usability evaluation of user interfaces , 2001, CSUR.