TY - JOUR
KW - Accessibility
KW - Web applications
AU - Alejandra Garrido
AU - Gustavo Rossi
AU - Nuria Medina Medina
AU - Julian Grigera
AU - Sergio Firmenich
AB -  Universal access should be a target for all public Web sites. However, it is very hard to achieve, and even Web applications that comply with accessibility standards may still lack usability for disabled users. This paper proposes refactoring as an essencial technique to incrementally improve the accessibility and usability of a Web interface. Some accessibility refactorings are described and classified by the problems that each refactoring addresses. The way mainstream Web sites struggle with accessibility is illustrated, and two evaluations of email clients are presented as empirical evidence of the significance of accessibility refactorings at a low implementation cost. 
BT - Universal Access in the Information Society
DO - 10.1007/s10209-013-0323-2
LA - eng
N1 - This article proposed to improve web accessibility through web interface refactoring based on accessibility refactoring and usability refactoring. Specific measures include: 1) Replace non-accessible menus; 2) Postpone selection and/or operation; 3) Remove unnecessary content; 4) Split page; 5) Merge pages; 6) Add content summaries. Case studies provided solid evidence, thus this article argued for the benefits of refactoring in real practices to improve universal web accessibility.
N2 -  Universal access should be a target for all public Web sites. However, it is very hard to achieve, and even Web applications that comply with accessibility standards may still lack usability for disabled users. This paper proposes refactoring as an essencial technique to incrementally improve the accessibility and usability of a Web interface. Some accessibility refactorings are described and classified by the problems that each refactoring addresses. The way mainstream Web sites struggle with accessibility is illustrated, and two evaluations of email clients are presented as empirical evidence of the significance of accessibility refactorings at a low implementation cost. 
PY - 2013
SP - 1
EP - 13
T2 - Universal Access in the Information Society
TI - Improving accessibility of Web interfaces: refactoring to the rescue
SN - 16155289
ER -