Where is the description?: investigating accessibility issues in portuguese versions of smart home apps
Resumo
Smart Home devices (e.g. Alexa Echo dot, Smart TVs) are unique technologies to improve everyday lives, especially for people with disabilities. However, despite the advances provided by these technologies, people who are blind reported accessibility issues in the use of mobile applications that mediate interaction with smart devices. Our study aims to understand these applications’ current state of accessibility by analysing their Portuguese versions. First, we surveyed 20 Brazilians who are blind to map the uses and main accessibility challenges of Smart Home devices. Next, we evaluated the accessibility of five mobile applications used in this context: LG ThinQ, Amazon Alexa, openHAB, Google Home, and RSmart. We found a total of 1148 accessibility issues in their Portuguese versions. The most frequent issues were missing or incorrect labels and incorrect context (e.g., content descriptions in English). The tasks that presented the most accessibility problems were the devices’ search and configuration. These issues could limit the initial use of intelligent devices by users with disabilities and compel them to rely on someone else to perform essential tasks in these apps, even those created by tech giants.
Palavras-chave:
accessibility, smart home, mobile apps
Referências
Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber, and Stacy M Branham. 2018. "Siri Talks at You" An Empirical Investigation of Voice-Activated Personal Assistant (VAPA) Usage by Individuals Who Are Blind. In Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. 249--258.
Abdulaziz Alshayban, Iftekhar Ahmed, and Sam Malek. 2020. Accessibility Issues in Android Apps: State of Affairs, Sentiments, and Ways Forward. In 2020 IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). 1323--1334.
Mars Ballantyne, Archit Jha, Anna Jacobsen, J Scott Hawker, and Yasmine N El-Glaly. 2018. Study of accessibility guidelines of mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 17th international conference on mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. 305--315.
Laurence Bardin. 2011. Content analysis. São Paulo: Edições 70, 279 (2011), 978--8562938047.
Sen Chen, Chunyang Chen, Lingling Fan, Mingming Fan, Xian Zhan, and Yang Liu. 2021. Accessible or Not An Empirical Investigation of Android App Accessibility. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2021), 1--1.
Gabriela AA de Oliveira, Otávio de Faria Oliveira, Stenio de Abreu, Raphael W de Bettio, and André P Freire. 2022. Opportunities and accessibility challenges for open-source general-purpose home automation mobile applications for visually disabled users. Multimedia Tools and Applications (2022), 1--28.
Gabriela Amaral Araújo de Oliveira, Raphael Winckler de Bettio, and André Pimenta Freire. 2016. Accessibility of the smart home for users with visual disabilities: an evaluation of open source mobile applications for home automation. In Proceedings of the 15th Brazilian symposium on human factors in computing systems. 1--10.
Mari Carmen Domingo. 2012. An overview of the Internet of Things for people with disabilities. journal of Network and Computer Applications 35, 2 (2012), 584--596.
Paulo AS Duarte, Felipe M Barreto, Paulo AC Aguilar, Jérôme Boudy, Rossana MC Andrade, and Windson Viana. 2018. AAL platforms challenges in IOT era: a tertiary study. In 2018 13th Annual Conference on System of Systems Engineering (SoSE). IEEE, 106--113.
Otávio de Faria Oliveira, Mateus Carvalho Gonçalves, Raphael Winckler de Bettio, and André Pimenta Freire. 2022. A qualitative study on the needs of visually impaired users in Brazil for smart home interactive technologies. Behaviour & Information Technology (2022), 1--29.
Abraham T Glasser, Kesavan R Kushalnagar, and Raja S Kushalnagar. 2017. Feasibility of using automatic speech recognition with voices of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. In Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. 373--374.
Barbara Leporini and Marina Buzzi. 2018. Home Automation for an Independent Living: Investigating the Needs of Visually Impaired People. In Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (Lyon, France) (W4A '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 15, 9 pages.
Barbara Leporini, Michele Rosellini, and Nicola Forgione. 2019. Is the light on or off? a simple auditory-based tool to help visually-impaired people check the light device status. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments. 152--155.
Davit Marikyan, Savvas Papagiannidis, and Eleftherios Alamanos. 2019. A systematic review of the smart home literature: A user perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 138 (2019), 139--154.
Fabio Masina, Valeria Orso, Patrik Pluchino, Giulia Dainese, Stefania Volpato, Cristian Nelini, Daniela Mapelli, Anna Spagnolli, and Luciano Gamberini. 2020. Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study. J Med Internet Res 22, 9 (25 Sep 2020), e18431.
Delvani Antônio Mateus, Carlos Alberto Silva, Arthur FBA de Oliveira, Heitor Costa, and André Pimenta Freire. 2021. A Systematic Mapping of Accessibility Problems Encountered on Websites and Mobile Apps: A Comparison Between Automated Tests, Manual Inspections and User Evaluations. Journal on Interactive Systems 12, 1 (2021), 145--171.
Delvani Antônio Mateus, Carlos Alberto Silva, Marcelo Medeiros Eler, and André Pimenta Freire. 2020. Accessibility of mobile applications: evaluation by users with visual impairment and by automated tools. In Proceedings of the 19th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--10.
Thomas P Novak and Donna L Hoffman. 2019. Relationship journeys in the internet of things: a new framework for understanding interactions between consumers and smart objects. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 47, 2 (2019), 216--237.
François Portet, Michel Vacher, Caroline Golanski, Camille Roux, and Brigitte Meillon. 2013. Design and evaluation of a smart home voice interface for the elderly: acceptability and objection aspects. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17, 1 (2013), 127--144.
Alisha Pradhan, Kanika Mehta, and Leah Findlater. 2018. "Accessibility Came by Accident" Use of Voice-Controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants by People with Disabilities. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on human factors in computing systems. 1--13.
Clauirton A Siebra, Tatiana B Gouveia, Anderson Filho, Walter Correia, Marcelo Penha, Marcelo Anjos, Fabiana Florentin, Fabio QB Silva, and Andre LM Santos. 2015. Usability for accessibility: A consolidation of requirements for mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility. 321--322.
Kevin M Storer, Tejinder K Judge, and Stacy M Branham. 2020. "All in the Same Boat": Tradeoffs of Voice Assistant Ownership for Mixed-Visual-Ability Families. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--14.
Christopher Vendome, Diana Solano, Santiago Liñán, and Mario Linares-Vásquez. 2019. Can everyone use my app? an empirical study on accessibility in android apps. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME). IEEE, 41--52.
Alexandra Vtyurina, Adam Fourney, Meredith Ringel Morris, Leah Findlater, and Ryen W White. 2019. Bridging screen readers and voice assistants for enhanced eyes-free web search. In The world wide web conference. 3590--3594.
Linda Wulf, Markus Garschall, Julia Himmelsbach, and Manfred Tscheligi. 2014. Hands free-care free: elderly people taking advantage of speech-only interaction. In Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational. 203--206.
Randall Ziman and Greg Walsh. 2018. Factors affecting seniors' perceptions of voice-enabled user interfaces. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--6.
Abdulaziz Alshayban, Iftekhar Ahmed, and Sam Malek. 2020. Accessibility Issues in Android Apps: State of Affairs, Sentiments, and Ways Forward. In 2020 IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). 1323--1334.
Mars Ballantyne, Archit Jha, Anna Jacobsen, J Scott Hawker, and Yasmine N El-Glaly. 2018. Study of accessibility guidelines of mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 17th international conference on mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. 305--315.
Laurence Bardin. 2011. Content analysis. São Paulo: Edições 70, 279 (2011), 978--8562938047.
Sen Chen, Chunyang Chen, Lingling Fan, Mingming Fan, Xian Zhan, and Yang Liu. 2021. Accessible or Not An Empirical Investigation of Android App Accessibility. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2021), 1--1.
Gabriela AA de Oliveira, Otávio de Faria Oliveira, Stenio de Abreu, Raphael W de Bettio, and André P Freire. 2022. Opportunities and accessibility challenges for open-source general-purpose home automation mobile applications for visually disabled users. Multimedia Tools and Applications (2022), 1--28.
Gabriela Amaral Araújo de Oliveira, Raphael Winckler de Bettio, and André Pimenta Freire. 2016. Accessibility of the smart home for users with visual disabilities: an evaluation of open source mobile applications for home automation. In Proceedings of the 15th Brazilian symposium on human factors in computing systems. 1--10.
Mari Carmen Domingo. 2012. An overview of the Internet of Things for people with disabilities. journal of Network and Computer Applications 35, 2 (2012), 584--596.
Paulo AS Duarte, Felipe M Barreto, Paulo AC Aguilar, Jérôme Boudy, Rossana MC Andrade, and Windson Viana. 2018. AAL platforms challenges in IOT era: a tertiary study. In 2018 13th Annual Conference on System of Systems Engineering (SoSE). IEEE, 106--113.
Otávio de Faria Oliveira, Mateus Carvalho Gonçalves, Raphael Winckler de Bettio, and André Pimenta Freire. 2022. A qualitative study on the needs of visually impaired users in Brazil for smart home interactive technologies. Behaviour & Information Technology (2022), 1--29.
Abraham T Glasser, Kesavan R Kushalnagar, and Raja S Kushalnagar. 2017. Feasibility of using automatic speech recognition with voices of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. In Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. 373--374.
Barbara Leporini and Marina Buzzi. 2018. Home Automation for an Independent Living: Investigating the Needs of Visually Impaired People. In Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (Lyon, France) (W4A '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 15, 9 pages.
Barbara Leporini, Michele Rosellini, and Nicola Forgione. 2019. Is the light on or off? a simple auditory-based tool to help visually-impaired people check the light device status. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments. 152--155.
Davit Marikyan, Savvas Papagiannidis, and Eleftherios Alamanos. 2019. A systematic review of the smart home literature: A user perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 138 (2019), 139--154.
Fabio Masina, Valeria Orso, Patrik Pluchino, Giulia Dainese, Stefania Volpato, Cristian Nelini, Daniela Mapelli, Anna Spagnolli, and Luciano Gamberini. 2020. Investigating the Accessibility of Voice Assistants With Impaired Users: Mixed Methods Study. J Med Internet Res 22, 9 (25 Sep 2020), e18431.
Delvani Antônio Mateus, Carlos Alberto Silva, Arthur FBA de Oliveira, Heitor Costa, and André Pimenta Freire. 2021. A Systematic Mapping of Accessibility Problems Encountered on Websites and Mobile Apps: A Comparison Between Automated Tests, Manual Inspections and User Evaluations. Journal on Interactive Systems 12, 1 (2021), 145--171.
Delvani Antônio Mateus, Carlos Alberto Silva, Marcelo Medeiros Eler, and André Pimenta Freire. 2020. Accessibility of mobile applications: evaluation by users with visual impairment and by automated tools. In Proceedings of the 19th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--10.
Thomas P Novak and Donna L Hoffman. 2019. Relationship journeys in the internet of things: a new framework for understanding interactions between consumers and smart objects. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 47, 2 (2019), 216--237.
François Portet, Michel Vacher, Caroline Golanski, Camille Roux, and Brigitte Meillon. 2013. Design and evaluation of a smart home voice interface for the elderly: acceptability and objection aspects. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17, 1 (2013), 127--144.
Alisha Pradhan, Kanika Mehta, and Leah Findlater. 2018. "Accessibility Came by Accident" Use of Voice-Controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants by People with Disabilities. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on human factors in computing systems. 1--13.
Clauirton A Siebra, Tatiana B Gouveia, Anderson Filho, Walter Correia, Marcelo Penha, Marcelo Anjos, Fabiana Florentin, Fabio QB Silva, and Andre LM Santos. 2015. Usability for accessibility: A consolidation of requirements for mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility. 321--322.
Kevin M Storer, Tejinder K Judge, and Stacy M Branham. 2020. "All in the Same Boat": Tradeoffs of Voice Assistant Ownership for Mixed-Visual-Ability Families. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--14.
Christopher Vendome, Diana Solano, Santiago Liñán, and Mario Linares-Vásquez. 2019. Can everyone use my app? an empirical study on accessibility in android apps. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME). IEEE, 41--52.
Alexandra Vtyurina, Adam Fourney, Meredith Ringel Morris, Leah Findlater, and Ryen W White. 2019. Bridging screen readers and voice assistants for enhanced eyes-free web search. In The world wide web conference. 3590--3594.
Linda Wulf, Markus Garschall, Julia Himmelsbach, and Manfred Tscheligi. 2014. Hands free-care free: elderly people taking advantage of speech-only interaction. In Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational. 203--206.
Randall Ziman and Greg Walsh. 2018. Factors affecting seniors' perceptions of voice-enabled user interfaces. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1--6.
Publicado
17/10/2022
Como Citar
MARTINS, Ribamar Souza; RABELO, Daniel Mesquita; ARAÚJO, Maria da Conceição Carneiro; DE CARVALHO, Windson Viana.
Where is the description?: investigating accessibility issues in portuguese versions of smart home apps. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO SOBRE FATORES HUMANOS EM SISTEMAS COMPUTACIONAIS (IHC), 21. , 2022, Diamantina.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2022
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