During the last week our master students, Nima Hakimi and Joakim Danielsen Petersen delivered their master’s thesis. Both have written about web accessibility, Joakim through a systematic literature review of empirical evidence and Nima through a case study at NAV.
When the evaluation process is finished you can download the theses by clicking on the downloads menu and master’s theses.
Here are the titles and abstracts of the two theses:
Nima Hakimi
Title: Striving for Web Accessibility When Using Agile Methods: An Exploratory Case Study in a Public Organization
Abstract:
In contemporary society, digital access is no longer a privilege but a necessity.
Despite this, inaccessible digital services continue to be developed, excluding users
with disabilities. This study aims to examine one of the root causes of this issue by
investigating how web accessibility, as a Quality Requirement (QR), is addressed
within the widely adopted software development framework, namely Agile Software
Development (ASD). To achieve this, a qualitative case study was conducted
within a large-scale Agile organization, specifically the Norwegian Labour and
Welfare Administration IT Department (NAV-IT). This investigation involved interviews
with autonomous product development teams and on-site observations.
The findings indicate that a combination of low accessibility knowledge among
practitioners, broad web accessibility standards, and a lack of a unified definition of
web accessibility, lead teams to employ insufficient ad hoc approaches to web accessibility
in continuous development. Teams heavily rely on automated accessibility
testing tools, with complete manual WCAG evaluations performed either before
a product is publicly released or in preparation for the mandated accessibility
statement. This investigation underscores the necessity for Agile organizations
to foster a systematic, coordinated, and structured approach to empower development
teams in creating accessible services for all users. To address this need,
a framework is proposed for NAV-IT and similar large-scale Agile organizations.
This framework includes clearly defining web accessibility, developing detailed
accessibility standards, creating an Accessibility Catalog, and engaging stakeholders
to ensure sustainable accessibility practices. Moreover, the findings provide a
foundation for future research to validate these results in different contexts and
enhance the understanding of integrating the QR of accessibility in ASD.
Joakim Danielsen Petersen
Title: Looking for Validated Approaches to Accessibility in Software Engineering- An Updated Analysis of Research Literature.
Abstract:
Software accessibility, particularly as it relates to websites, is a growing concern in
many parts of the world, with legislation mandating minimum levels of accessibility for
digital services appearing in recent years. Despite significant demands, software is still
largely inaccessible for many, particularly disabled users. Lack of good approaches to
developing accessible software has been identified as a contributing factor. This study
examines research literature in search of such approaches which have been shown to
positively impact the development of accessible software. The approaches are identified
by looking at how they are evaluated in research literature, with an emphasis on
evaluating findings with real users and comparison against established approaches.
The main findings include the importance of involving disabled users in the development
process and specific sets of software requirements, design practices, implementation
supports, and full development processes to implement.