Accessibility in smartphone applications: what do we learn from reviews?

Abstract

We explored the efficacy of smartphone App reviews to understand the user experience reports that may facilitate ranking and provide insight about accessibility gaps. The main goal was to analyze the contents of the reviews to infer the presence and polarity of accessibility information. In particular, we focused on applications that are used by the users who are blind or visually impaired. In this pilot study, the contents of 173 reviews from 25 applications were analyzed. The proposed system automatically detects accessibility information in the reviews and also tests their polarity. Such a system would be useful in application ranking based on accessibility features and improve the users' interaction experiences.