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Accessibility challenges and tool features: an IBM Web developer perspective

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John RichardsAuthors Info & Claims

W4A '10: Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

Article No.: 32, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/1805986.1806029

Published: 26 April 2010 Publication History

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Abstract

Using evidence from a survey of 49 IBM Web developers we explore two concerns: barriers to the developers' designing accessible Web-based products, and what value they felt specific features in an "accessibility" tool might have. They found designing for accessibility difficult, but more surprisingly, they found using the test tools and finding technology work-arounds equally hard. Testing and finding work-arounds were also the most time consuming aspects of accessibility, while design was not. When asked about tool features, all agreed that a checklist of automatically detected problems and an explanation of each problem were the most important. There were fifteen features in all, and the more experienced the developer, the more they valued the other features, particularly being able to experience a site as someone with a particular disability would, and being able to pinpoint a problem on the rendered view of a page. The survey results suggest existing tools are often unclear, cumbersome, and incomplete with respect to the standards that must be met.

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Naikar VSubramanian STigwell G(2024)Accessibility Feature Implementation Within Free VR ExperiencesExtended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650935(1-9)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650935
AlMeraj ZAlhuwail DQadri RShama SCrabb M(2024)Understanding mindsets, skills, current practices, and barriers of adoption of digital accessibility in Kuwait’s software development landscapeUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-00980-523:3(1427-1446)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-023-00980-5
Edwards EGilbert MBlank EBranham S(2023)How the Alt Text Gets Made: What Roles and Processes of Alt Text Creation Can Teach Us About Inclusive ImageryACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/358746916:2(1-28)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2023
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Index Terms

Accessibility challenges and tool features: an IBM Web developer perspective
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing profession
      1. Assistive technologies
  2. User characteristics
    1. People with disabilities

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

W4A '10: Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

April 2010

223 pages

ISBN:9781450300452

DOI:10.1145/1805986

General Chairs:
Chieko Asakawa
IBM Research, Japan
,
Hironobu Takagi
IBM Research, Japan
,
Program Chairs:
Leo Ferres
Universidad de Concepcion, Chile
,
Cynthia Shelly
Microsoft

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 April 2010

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W4A '10

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W4A '10: International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility

April 26 - 27, 2010

North Carolina, Raleigh

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W4A '10 Paper Acceptance Rate 10 of 32 submissions, 31%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 171 of 371 submissions, 46%

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Cited By

View all

Naikar VSubramanian STigwell G(2024)Accessibility Feature Implementation Within Free VR ExperiencesExtended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650935(1-9)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650935
AlMeraj ZAlhuwail DQadri RShama SCrabb M(2024)Understanding mindsets, skills, current practices, and barriers of adoption of digital accessibility in Kuwait’s software development landscapeUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-00980-523:3(1427-1446)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-023-00980-5
Edwards EGilbert MBlank EBranham S(2023)How the Alt Text Gets Made: What Roles and Processes of Alt Text Creation Can Teach Us About Inclusive ImageryACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/358746916:2(1-28)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3587469
Putnam CRose EMacDonald C(2023) “It could be better. It could be much worse”: Understanding Accessibility in User Experience Practice with Implications for Industry and EducationACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/357566216:1(1-25)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3575662
Huq SAlshayban AHe ZMalek S(2023)#A11yDev: Understanding Contemporary Software Accessibility Practices from Twitter ConversationsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581455(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Hambley AYesilada YVigo MHarper S(2023)Web Structure Derived Clustering for Optimised Web Accessibility EvaluationProceedings of the ACM Web Conference 202310.1145/3543507.3583508(1345-1354)Online publication date: 30-Apr-2023
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Baker CElglaly YRoss AShinohara K(2022)Including Accessibility in Computer Science EducationProceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3517428.3550404(1-5)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2022
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Chen SChen CFan LFan MZhan XLiu Y(2022)Accessible or Not? An Empirical Investigation of Android App AccessibilityIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2021.310816248:10(3954-3968)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2022
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Moreno LMartínez P(2021)Accessibility Compliance for E-Government WebsitesResearch Anthology on Digital Transformation, Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote Work10.4018/978-1-7998-7297-9.ch019(354-373)Online publication date: 2021
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