Accessibility in E-commerce tools: An analysis of the optical inclusion of the deaf

Abstract

The deaf communities are members of a unique culture and language, the Sign Language. Worldwide, the spoken/oral language is predominant, however, Deaf may encounter several hindrances to establish social relationships using spoken/oral language. E-commerce systems are significantly important not only to the listeners, but also to the Deaf, as E-commerce systems are the main vehicle for online shopping. Currently, the majority of the population shops online; nevertheless, the conditions in which information is disclosed in such systems may not appropriately respect the particularities of the Deaf. In this context, this paper supports the hypothesis that, identifying the accessibility requirements for the Deaf, the development of inclusive E-commerce systems is feasible and, thus, ensuring that the benefits and utilities provided by E-commerce systems are also accessible by deaf people. Therefore, in order to prove our hypothesis, the implications that the Sign Language (first language of the Deaf infers to the communication, to improve the accessibility of such environments, must be identified. This paper investigates the necessities of the deaf community when accessing Web systems, and based on evaluation mechanisms, analyses the environments developed using E-commerce tools concerning accessibility aspects.