Exploring user reviews to identify accessibility problems in applications for autistic users

Abstract

The Google Play Store provides various user reviews that can provide information about user experience, usability, and accessibility. Despite multiple studies addressing these reviews’ importance and contributions to improving interactive systems, accessibility for users with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is still little discussed in this context. Considering the potential of user reviews, this article presents a textual analysis of reviews extracted from eight educational applications available in Portuguese with a focus on autistic children, namely: “ABC Autismo”, “Aprendendo com Biel e seus amigos”, “AutApp Autismo”, “Autismo projeto integrar”, “Jade Autismo”, “Matraquinha”, “OTO (Olhar Tocar Ouvir)” and “Teacch.me”. We conducted an analysis based on the Guidelines for Accessible Interfaces for People with Autism (GAIA) and the BBC Mobile Accessibility Guidelines to classify user reviews.

Keywords

• user review
• accessibility
• mobile educational apps
• Autism Spectrum Disorder