Towards Accessibility and Inclusion of Native Mobile Applications Available for Ecuador in Google Play Store

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate the level of compliance with the accessibility requirements of the most popular native Android mobile applications, for which a sample of 50 Google Play Store applications available in Ecuador was taken. A five-phase method using the Accessibility Scanner tool was used to evaluate the apps. The results revealed that 47.5% are related to problems with tactile orientation, followed by the labeling of elements with 28.2%, and text contrast with 9.2%. The highest number of barriers found in the evaluation of mobile applications corresponds to the principle of operability with 53.9%. This study reveals that, although social networks are widely used, they have 28.7% of accessibility problems. Basing accessibility analysis exclusively on an automatic tool is very limited since it neither detects all errors nor are the errors they detect accurate. However, we suggest complementing the automatic review evaluations with a manual method based on heuristics to ensure an adequate level of accessibility in mobile apps. In addition, we recommend using this study as a starting point to create a software tool using WCAG 2.1 based on artificial intelligence algorithms to help developers evaluate accessibility in mobile apps.

Financial inclusion for people with disability: a scoping review

“… Reference Document Type Study design Location Type of impairment* No. participants Gender representation considered Poverty considered 1 Acosta-Vargas et al 31 JA RQN Ecuador PWD Not stated N N 2 Alwi et al 33 JA R Global NS 200 Y N 3 Anderson et al 34 JA RQL Malawi PWD 1,232 Y Y 4 Asongu et al 53 JA RQN Africa (42 countries) PWD n/a Y Y 5 Barcellos et al 36 JA RQN United States of America PWD 1,576 Y Y 6 Bidarra and Seiji Oyamada 16 JA RQN South Africa …”

“…In contrast, certain facilitators to inclusive banking have been identified and hold promise for enhancing digital financial inclusion. The implementation of accessibility features such as audio assistance, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and mobile applications (apps) that assist in identifying money has shown significant potential for people with a visual impairment [ 31 ]. Mobile money services, exemplified by platforms like M-Pesa, a simple mobile money platform developed in Kenya in 2007, have notably increased the number of women who can access formal financial services [ 32 ], and these have since expanded to other countries and regions.…”

“…Additionally, the lack of inclusion of people with disability (or voices from OPDs) in policies results in an absence of accommodations for their specific needs [ 30 ]. Various obstacles such as low financial literacy, the absence of AT, communication barriers, and high unemployment rates further contribute to commercial banks’ hesitancy to ensure financial inclusion for people with disability [ 30 , 31 ].…”