Exploring Mobile Device Accessibility: Challenges, Insights, and Recommendations for Evaluation Methodologies

Abstract

With the ubiquitous use of mobile applications, it is paramount that they are accessible, so they can empower all users, including those with different needs. Determining if an app is accessible implies conducting an accessibility evaluation. While accessibility evaluations have been thoroughly studied in the web domain, there are still many open questions when evaluating mobile applications. This paper investigates mobile accessibility evaluation methodologies. We conducted four studies, including an examination of accessibility reports from European Member-states, interviews with accessibility experts, manual evaluations, and usability tests involving users. Our investigations have uncovered significant limitations in current evaluation methods, suggesting that the absence of authoritative guidelines and standards, similar to what exists for the web, but tailored specifically to mobile devices, hampers the effectiveness of accessibility evaluation and monitoring activities. Based on our findings, we present a set of recommendations aimed at improving the evaluation methodologies for assessing mobile applications' accessibility.