Accessibility and software engineering processes: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Guidelines, techniques, and methods have been presented in the literature in recent years to contribute to the development of accessible software and to promote digital inclusion. Considering that software product quality depends on the quality of the development process, researchers have investigated how to include accessibility during the software development process in order to obtain accessible software. Two Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) have been conducted in the past to identify such research initiatives. This paper presents a new SLR, considering the period from 2011 to 2019. The review of 94 primary studies showed the distribution of publications on different phases of the software life cycle, mainly the design and testing phases. The study also identified, for the first time, papers about accessibility and software process establishment. This result reinforces that, in fact, accessibility is not characterized as a property of the final software only. Instead, it evolves over the software life cycle. Besides, this study aims to provide designers and developers with an updated view of methods, tools, and other assets that contribute to process enrichment, valuing accessibility, as well as shows the gaps and challenges which deserve to be investigated.