Sustainable Accessibility: A Mobile App for Helping People with Disabilities to Search Accessible Shops

Abstract

People with motor disabilities must face many barriers and obstacles in their daily lives, making it difficult to perform everyday tasks. The purpose of this work is to improve their living conditions by providing an app with accessibility information in an updated, reliable and friendly form. The development of the system integrates national and regional accessibility regulations, architectural aspects, with an extensive field work, and a sustainable software process. The levels of accessibility and the requirements of the application are defined in the first phases of the project. The field work included the evaluation of 357 commercial establishments in the city of Murcia, Spain, showing that only 25% have a good accessibility, 40% are practicable with help, and 35% are inaccessible shops. The proposed system achieves its objectives of being sustainable and helping in the accessibility. Besides, the system can be a great incentive for businesses to improve their accessibility conditions. In conclusion, new technologies must have a much more active role in the promotion of universal accessibility. These tools must also consider the necessary requirements of sustainable development.

A Mobile App to Optimize Social Participation for Individuals with Physical Disabilities: Content Validation and Usability Testing

“…Participants highlighted that there should be a balance between the amount and relevance of information present on the app. Indeed, participants in the present study and in past studies appreciated when a task was easy and quick to complete [ 25 , 50 ]. By including too much information on the app, browsing and completing actions efficiently may be compromised.…”

“…Traits of the apps were evaluated using users’ perspectives, similar to the present study, as well an input from an accessibility expert. Similarly, Mayordomo-Martínez et al [ 50 ] examined the usability of ACCEDE Murcia app, which offers information about the accessibility of shops in the city of Murcia, Spain. Their usability audit was performed by an expert.…”

“…Similar findings have previously been reported. For example, in Mayordomo-Martínez et al’s [ 50 ] usability audit, “ease of use”, the ability to navigate the app with ease, was included as an important contributor to usability. Moreover, Auger et al [ 25 ] reported that apps were easy to use when there were a limited number of steps to obtain the desired information.…”

Design and Development of a Mobile App for Accessible Beach Tourism Information for People with Disabilities

“…Over the last decade, the number of smartphones users has been increasing because of the advantages that these devices offer as compared to PCs and laptops, such as ubiquity, efficiency, portability, price, and rapidity in the execution of common tasks [7,8]. Therefore, mobile applications are, nowadays, an effective way to divulge any kind of information, especially when it is related to the location of places of public interest [9], as the case of accessible beaches for people with motor disabilities.…”

“…It is also worth mentioning the proposal of Potter et al [18], which exposes the interest of virtual reality to nature-based tourism and its use by people with disabilities. Another example can be found in the app ACCEDE Murcia [9]. In this tool, detailed information about shop entrances for people with disabilities is depicted.…”