Towards Enabling Inclusive Conversations: Bridging Accessibility Gaps for the Visually Impaired in a Chatbot Web Chat
Abstract
Context: Web chats are widely used in corporate and social settings, making inclusivity in web-based communication platforms crucial. However, visually impaired individuals often encounter obstacles in digital conversations due to the dynamic nature of web chat elements, which poses challenges for screen reader compatibility. This paper addresses these challenges by adapting an open-source web chat designed for chatbot interactions to be fully compatible with screen readers. Our solution involves modifying the web chat’s code to enhance the user experience for visually impaired individuals. Key modifications include integrating semantic HTML tags, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) landmarks, and other accessibility-focused techniques. We employed a combination of Proof of Concept and Experimentation, starting with an examination of the existing web chat, followed by the code modifications. Validation was conducted through execution and analysis of two use case scenarios. Results show significant improvements in user experience, as evidenced by screen reader transcriptions. Notable enhancements include improved navigation and the overall announcement of chat updates. This research contributes to Human Factors in Computing Systems by addressing web chat accessibility gaps. The adapted open-source web chat demonstrates the positive impact of minor code modifications on usability for users with visual impairments, exemplifying inclusive design in digital communication platforms.
Keywords:
Chatbot, Accessibility, Inclusive Software, web chat
References
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Cecília Torres, Walter Franklin, and Laura Martins. 2019. Accessibility in Chatbots: The State of the Art in Favor of Users with Visual Impairment. In Advances in Usability, User Experience and Assistive Technology, Tareq Z. Ahram and Christianne Falcão (Eds.). Springer International Publishing, Cham, 623–635.
Elisabeth Fátima Torres, Alberto Angel Mazzoni, and João Bosco Da Mota Alves. 2002. A acessibilidade à informação no espaço digital. Ciência da Informação 31, 3 (Sept. 2002), 83–91. DOI: 10.1590/S0100-1965200200030000
Roel J. Wieringa. 2014. Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-43839-8.
Anonymous Anonymous. 2023. Rasa webchat tests for screen reader accessibility project. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10234060
Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Glenn Dausch, and I. V. Ramakrishnan. 2010. More than meets the eye: a survey of screen-reader browsing strategies. In Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A) (Raleigh, North Carolina) (W4A ’10). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 13, 10 pages. DOI: 10.1145/1805986.1806005
Petter Bae Brandtzæg and Asbjørn Følstad. 2017. Why People Use Chatbots. In Internet Science 4th International Conference, INSCI 2017, Thessaloniki, Greece, November 22-24, 2017, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 10673), Ioannis Kompatsiaris, Jonathan Cave, Anna Satsiou, Georg Carle, Antonella Passani, Efstratios Kontopoulos, Sotiris Diplaris, and Donald McMillan (Eds.). Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-70284-1_30, 377–392.
Ben Caldwell, Michael Cooper, Loretta Guarino Reid, Gregg Vanderheiden, Wendy Chisholm, John Slatin, and Jason White. 2008. Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. WWW Consortium (W3C) 290 (2008), 1–34.
Rocío Calvo, Ana Iglesias, and Lourdes Moreno. 2013. An Accessible Chat Prototype for Screen Reader Users in Mobile Devices. In HCI International 2013 Posters’ Extended Abstracts International Conference, HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 21-26, 2013, Proceedings, Part I (Communications in Computer and Information Science, Vol. 373), Constantine Stephanidis (Ed.). Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-39473-7_44, 216–220.
Débora Conforto and Lucila Maria Costi Santarosa. 2002. Acessibilidade à Web: Internet para todos. Informática na educação: teoria & prática. Porto Alegre. Vol. 5, n. 2 (nov. 2002) 2 (2002), 87–102.
Ruyther Parente da Costa, Edna Dias Canedo, Rafael Timóteo de Sousa Júnior, Robson de Oliveira Albuquerque, and Luis Javier García-Villalba. 2019. Set of Usability Heuristics for Quality Assessment of Mobile Applications on Smartphones. IEEE Access 7 (2019), 116145–116161. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2910778
BRASIL. Ministério da Gestão e da Inovação em Serviços Públicos. 2014. EMAG: modelo de acessibilidade em governo eletrônico. Versão 3.1. Brasília-DF. [link]
Rashmi Dharwadkar and Neeta A Deshpande. 2018. A medical chatbot. International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) 60, 1 (2018), 41–45.
Simone Bacellar Leal Ferreira. 2015. E-acessibilidade: tornando visível o invisível. Revista Morpheus Estudos Interdisciplinares em Memória Social 6, 10 (march 2015), 1–19. [link]
Asbjørn Følstad, Cecilie Bertinussen Nordheim, and Cato Alexander Bjørkli. 2018. What Makes Users Trust a Chatbot for Customer Service? An Exploratory Interview Study. In Internet Science 5th International Conference, INSCI 2018, St. Petersburg, Russia, October 24-26, 2018, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 11193), Svetlana S. Bodrunova (Ed.). Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3030-01437-7_16, 194–208.
Guruswami Hiremath, Aishwarya Hajare, Priyanka Bhosale, Rasika Nanaware, and KS Wagh. 2018. Chatbot for education system. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 4, 3 (2018), 37–43.
Jonathan Lazar, Aaron Allen, Jason Kleinman, and Chris Malarkey. 2007. What Frustrates Screen Reader Users on the Web: A Study of 100 Blind Users. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 22, 3 (2007), 247–269. DOI: 10.1080/10447310709336964 arXiv: [link]
Kate Lister, Tim Coughlan, Francisco Iniesto, Nick Freear, and Peter Devine. 2020. Accessible conversational user interfaces: considerations for design. In W4A ’20: 17th Web for All Conference, Taipei, Taiwan, April 20-21, 2020, Carlos Duarte, Ted Drake, Faustina Hwang, and Clayton Lewis (Eds.). ACM, DOI: 10.1145/3371300.3383343, 5:1–5:11.
Bei Luo, Raymond YK Lau, Chunping Li, and Yain-Whar Si. 2022. A critical review of state-of-the-art chatbot designs and applications. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery 12, 1 (2022), e1434.
Valentyn Melnyk. 2014. Accessible Web Chat Interface. , 2 pages. DOI: 10.1145/2661334.2661415
Anthony Robert Joseph Nicholl. 2001. O ambiente que promove a inclusão: conceitos de acessibilidade e usabilidade. Revista Assentamentos Humanos 2, 3 (2001), 1–20.
Rhoda Olkin. 2002. Could you hold the door for me? Including disability in diversity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 8, 2 (2002), 130.
Ken Peffers, Tuure Tuunanen, Charles E Gengler, Matti Rossi, Wendy Hui, Ville Virtanen, and Johanna Bragge. 2020. Design Science Research Process: A Model for Producing and Presenting Information Systems Research. arXiv:2006.02763 [cs.SE]
Dagfinn Rømen and Dag Svanæs. 2012. Validating WCAG versions 1.0 and 2.0 through usability testing with disabled users. Universal Access in the Information Society 11 (2012), 375–385.
Richard Rutter, Patrick H Lauke, Cynthia Waddell, Jim Thatcher, Shawn Lawton Henry, Bruce Lawson, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Christian Heilmann, Michael R Burks, Bob Regan, et al. 2007. Web accessibility: Web standards and regulatory compliance. Springer, [link].
Tom Shakespeare et al . 2006. The social model of disability. The disability studies reader 2 (2006), 197–204.
Geovana Ramos Sousa Silva and Edna Dias Canedo. 2024. Towards User-Centric Guidelines for Chatbot Conversational Design. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 40, 2 (2024), 98–120. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2022.2118244
Sandeep A Thorat and Vishakha Jadhav. 2020. A review on implementation issues of rule-based chatbot systems. In Proceedings of the international conference on innovative computing & communications (ICICC). SSRN, [link], 1–6.
Cecília Torres, Walter Franklin, and Laura Martins. 2019. Accessibility in Chatbots: The State of the Art in Favor of Users with Visual Impairment. In Advances in Usability, User Experience and Assistive Technology, Tareq Z. Ahram and Christianne Falcão (Eds.). Springer International Publishing, Cham, 623–635.
Elisabeth Fátima Torres, Alberto Angel Mazzoni, and João Bosco Da Mota Alves. 2002. A acessibilidade à informação no espaço digital. Ciência da Informação 31, 3 (Sept. 2002), 83–91. DOI: 10.1590/S0100-1965200200030000
Roel J. Wieringa. 2014. Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-43839-8.
Published
2024-11-07
How to Cite
DE MORAES, João Antônio Desidério; SILVA, Geovana Ramos Sousa; CANEDO, Edna Dias.
Towards Enabling Inclusive Conversations: Bridging Accessibility Gaps for the Visually Impaired in a Chatbot Web Chat. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN FACTORS IN COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEMS (IHC), 23. , 2024, Brasília/DF.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2024
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p. 859-869.
