Understanding Accessibility and Collaboration in Programming for People with Visual Impairments

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Human-Computer Interaction to understand the experiences of programmers in the workplace. However, the large majority of these studies has focused on sighted programmers and, as a result, the experiences of programmers with visual impairments in professional contexts remain understudied. We address this gap by reporting on findings from semi-structured interviews with 22 programmers with visual impairments. We found that programmers with visual impairments interact with a complex ecosystem of tools and a significant part of their job entails performing work to overcome the accessibility challenges inherent in this ecosystem. Furthermore, we find that the visual nature of various programming activities impedes collaboration, which necessitates the co-creation of new work practices through a series of sociotechnical interactions. These sociotechnical interactions often require invisible work and articulation work on the part of the programmers with visual impairments.

Accessibility of UI Frameworks and Libraries for Programmers with Visual Impairments

“…These challenges are amplified by IDE documentation that rely on screenshots and do not list relevant keyboard shortcuts [16], [17]. For programmers with visual impairments, a common workaround is switching to plaintext editors [9], [10], [12] in conjunction with command-line interfaces (CLIs) for installation, debugging, and version control [18]. However, the latter present text in unstructured form without any markup, which poses navigation challenges for screen reader users [18].…”

“…Besides programming tools, empirical studies have also investigated collaborative programming activities. In prior work, we reported on how the practices associated with activities like pair-programming and code reviews have evolved to support sighted programmers [9]. Thus, programmers with visual impairments often have to drive the collaboration session when working with sighted teammates [9].…”

“…In prior work, we reported on how the practices associated with activities like pair-programming and code reviews have evolved to support sighted programmers [9]. Thus, programmers with visual impairments often have to drive the collaboration session when working with sighted teammates [9]. These accessibility challenges are further complicated by the programmers' social environment such as project management practices [9], [26], (un)availability of accommodations [17], and interpersonal relations with sighted colleagues [9], [27].…”

“…Prior research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and software engineering has studied the accessibility challenges This work is supported by a gift from Google. in UI development [9], [10]. However, their focus was mainly on understanding the accessibility issues with IDEs and the need for sighted assistance in development.…”

Programando às cegas: investigando a acessibilidade de ambientes de desenvolvimento de software

“…Ou ainda, as ferramentas Web que não seguem padrões de acessibilidade recomendados pelo W3C por meio do guia do WCAG 1 . Os desenvolvedores cegos têm à sua disposic ¸ão apenas a sonorizac ¸ão dos textos que um programa leitor de tela pode apresentar nessas interfaces [Pandey et al 2021] [Potlurt et al 2018. Esses problemas de acessibilidade, em especial, das IDEs já foram apontados em estudos anteriores [Albusays and Ludi 2016] [Petrausch andLoitsh 2017][Potlurt et al 2018].…”