Improving accessibility of Web interfaces: refactoring to the rescue

Submitted by mlb78 on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 17:22
TitleImproving accessibility of Web interfaces: refactoring to the rescue
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsGarrido, Alejandra, Rossi, Gustavo, Medina, Nuria Medina, Grigera, Julian, and Firmenich, Sergio
JournalUniversal Access in the Information Society
Pagination1-13
ISSN Number16155289
KeywordsAccessibility, Web applications
Abstract 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.
NotesThis 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.
DOI10.1007/s10209-013-0323-2