Accessibility in the mobile development industry in Brazil: Awareness, knowledge, adoption, motivations and barriers

Abstract

Accessibility is a quality sub-characteristic intended to make software products accessible to a broad range of users, regardless of their physical, motor, intellectual or cognitive skills. Mobile accessibility has been on the spotlight recently due to the increasing shift towards mobile platforms. Thus, many advances have been made in this field when it comes to the development of assistive technologies, conception of well-documented accessibility guidelines and supporting tools. However, a general lack of accessibility in mobile applications has been observed in several studies. Researchers have conducted investigations to understand the same phenomenon in web development from the perspective of those involved in the development process, but studies concerning accessibility in the context of mobile applications are still scarce. This paper presents a survey conducted with 872 people involved in mobile application development in the Brazilian industry to gather information on their awareness, adoption, motivations and barriers to ensure digital accessibility. Results show that most participants have moderate accessibility awareness, but low levels of knowledge or adoption in practice. In addition, accessibility is usually not considered in their projects due to lack of requirements, time, training and focus on users with disabilities.