Engineering Accessible Software

This paper discusses a research agenda at the intersection of Machine Learning, Software Engineering, and Human-Computer Interaction aimed at creating intelligent tools that enable developers to build more accessible software. First, we discuss the creation of MOTOREASE, a novel approach that utilizes computer vision and text processing techniques to identify accessibility issues in mobile app UIs for motor-impaired users. The tool detects four motor-impaired user-focused UI design guidelines: touch target size, expanding sections, persisting elements, and adjacent icon distance, with an average accuracy of around 90%. This represents a significant step towards improving software accessibility for all users. Finally, we discuss our future work for better-supporting developers with tools to engineer accessible software.