Validation of Toolkits for developing third-generation Android accessible mobile applications

Abstract

This manuscript presents the results of the trials that have been realized with student developers in the context of the AEGIS Integrated Project of the 7th European Framework. The aim was to evaluate the added value and the expected impact of two open-source toolkits that have been developed within AEGIS, aiming to support developers in the creation of accessible mobile applications, namely the Android Accessibility Designer Toolkit and the Accessibility Advisor tool. Furthermore, this evaluation process allowed collecting comments for further optimization of the tools before their final release. Evaluation concerned the assessment of the tools themselves by student developers participating in the trials, but also of the accessible applications that student developers were requested to develop with these tools, which were then provided to expert low-vision users for further assessment of their accessibility. Developers were equally distributed into two groups: one Control Group and one Experimental Group. Developers from both groups were given the same exercise and had to meet the same requirements. The Experimental Group tried the AEGIS toolkits for their developments, whereas the Control Group developers freely chose other, non-AEGIS tools. Results showed that 18 % total development time was saved when AEGIS tools were used, and that these developer tools have a big potential to help developers create easily accessible applications.