Accessibility issues in establishing awareness on remote collaborative software development

Giselle Lorrane Nobre Melo; Nicoly da Silva Menezes; Ana Clara dos Santos Maciel; Luciano Arruda Teran; Thayssa Águila da Rocha; Cleidson Ronald Botelho de Souza; Marcelle Pereira Mota

doi:10.5753/jis.2024.3802

Authors

Giselle Lorrane Nobre Melo Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5285-1697
Nicoly da Silva Menezes Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0384-8749
Ana Clara dos Santos Maciel Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1318-342X
Luciano Arruda Teran Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0023-4179
Thayssa Águila da Rocha Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8026-4003
Cleidson Ronald Botelho de Souza Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3240-3122
Marcelle Pereira Mota Universidade Federal do Pará https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9226-9020

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5753/jis.2024.3802

Keywords:

Accessibility, inclusion, awareness, remote work, inspection, collaboration

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the work dynamics of software development teams with the sudden adoption and subsequent continuation of remote work. New practices were adopted to maintain relationships between team members, mediated by computational tools. However, this presents an additional challenge for people with visual or hearing impairments. This study identifies different experiences of professionals with and without these disabilities in maintaining awareness when working remotely. To achieve this objective, 93 responses were collected through an online form from professionals, with and without visual or hearing impairments, and the supervision of a collaboration tool, among the most mentioned due to the lack of accessibility for people with visual impairments, using the Semiotic Inspection Method with Screen Reader (MIS-LT). The results point to different groups’ experiences with the use of collaborative tools on the social aspects of remote collaboration and an assessment of the communicability and accessibility of the inspected tool.

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