Computer Science > Software Engineering
arXiv:2501.16601 (cs)
[Submitted on 28 Jan 2025]
Title:Non-Western Perspectives on Web Inclusivity: A Study of Accessibility Practices in the Global South
View a PDF of the paper titled Non-Western Perspectives on Web Inclusivity: A Study of Accessibility Practices in the Global South, by Masudul Hasan Masud Bhuiyan and 3 other authors
View PDFHTML (experimental)Abstract:The Global South faces unique challenges in achieving digital inclusion due to a heavy reliance on mobile devices for internet access and the prevalence of slow or unreliable networks. While numerous studies have investigated web accessibility within specific sectors such as education, healthcare, and government services, these efforts have been largely constrained to individual countries or narrow contexts, leaving a critical gap in cross-regional, large-scale analysis. This paper addresses this gap by conducting the first large-scale comparative study of mobile web accessibility across the Global South. In this work, we evaluate 100,000 websites from 10 countries in the Global South to provide a comprehensive understanding of accessibility practices in these regions. Our findings reveal that websites from countries with strict accessibility regulations and enforcement tend to adhere better to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines. However, accessibility violations impact different disability groups in varying ways. Blind and low-vision individuals in the Global South are disproportionately affected, as only 40% of the evaluated websites meet critical accessibility guidelines. This significant shortfall is largely due to developers frequently neglecting to implement valid alt text for images and ARIA descriptions, which are essential specification mechanisms in the HTML standard for the effective operation of screen readers.
| Comments: | This work has been accepted for publication at the Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS), co-located with the 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025) |
| Subjects: | Software Engineering (cs.SE); Computers and Society (cs.CY); Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2501.16601 [cs.SE] |
| (orarXiv:2501.16601v1 [cs.SE] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.16601 arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite |
Submission history
From: Masudul Hasan Masud Bhuiyan [view email][v1] Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:30:03 UTC (172 KB)
Full-text links:
Access Paper:
- View PDF
- HTML (experimental)
- TeX Source
- Other Formats
View a PDF of the paper titled Non-Western Perspectives on Web Inclusivity: A Study of Accessibility Practices in the Global South, by Masudul Hasan Masud Bhuiyan and 3 other authors
References & Citations
Bookmark
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer(What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers(What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps(What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations(What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv(What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers(What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub(What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub(What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face(What is Huggingface?)
Papers with Code(What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast(What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Recommenders and Search Tools
Influence Flower(What are Influence Flowers?)
CORE Recommender(What is CORE?)
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community?Learn more about arXivLabs.