Being able to access software in daily life is vital for everyone, and thus accessibility is a fundamental challenge for software development. However, given the number of accessibility issues reported by many users, e.g., in app reviews, it is not clear if accessibility is widely integrated into current software projects and how software projects address accessibility issues. In this paper, we report a study of the critical challenges and benefits of incorporating accessibility into software development and design. We applied a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach for gathering data from 15 interviews and 365 survey respondents from 26 countries across five continents to understand how practitioners perceive accessibility development and design in practice. We got 44 statements grouped into eight topics on accessibility from practitioners' viewpoints and different software development stages. Our statistical analysis reveals substantial gaps between groups, e.g., practitioners have Direct v.s. Indirect accessibility relevant work experience when they reviewed the summarized statements. These gaps might hinder the quality of accessibility development and design, and we use our findings to establish a set of guidelines to help practitioners be aware of accessibility challenges and benefit factors. We also propose some remedies to resolve the gaps and to highlight key future research directions.
翻译:然而,鉴于许多用户(例如,在应用审查中)报告的无障碍问题数量众多,尚不清楚无障碍是否被广泛纳入目前的软件项目,以及软件项目如何解决无障碍问题。在本文件中,我们报告了一项关于将无障碍纳入软件开发和设计的关键挑战与惠益的研究。我们采用了从来自五大洲26个国家的15次访谈和365名调查答卷人收集数据的质量与数量混合的方法,以了解从业人员如何看待无障碍开发和设计的实际做法。我们从从业人员的观点和不同的软件开发阶段将44份声明分为8个关于无障碍问题的专题。我们统计分析显示,各群体之间存在巨大差距,例如,从业人员拥有直接与直接的与软件开发阶段。当他们审查摘要陈述时,间接的无障碍相关工作经验。这些差距可能妨碍无障碍开发和设计的质量,我们利用我们的调查结果制定一套准则,帮助从业人员了解无障碍挑战和惠益因素。我们还提出一些补救措施,以解决差距,突出今后的关键研究方向。