Accessibility of Mobile Applications

Abstract

The increasing affordability of devices, advantages associated with a device always being handy while not being dependent on its location, and being able to tap into a wealth of information/ services has brought a new paradigm to mobile users. Indeed, the mobile Web promises the vision of universality: access (virtually) anywhere, at any time, on any device, and to anybody. However, with these vistas comes the realization that the users of the mobile applications and their context vary in many different ways: personal preferences, cognitive/neurological and physiological ability, age, cultural background, and variations in computing environment (device, platform, user agent) deployed. These pose a challenge to the ubiquity of mobile applications and could present obstacles to their proliferation. This chapter is organized as follows. We first provide the motivation and background necessary for later discussion. This is followed by introduction of a framework within which accessibility of mobile applications can be systematically addressed and thereby improved. This framework is based on the notions from semiotics and quality engineering, and aims to be practical. Next, challenges and directions for future research are outlined. Finally, concluding remarks are given.