Accessibility in the Software Engineering (SE) Process and in Integrated Development Environments (IDEs): A Systematic Literature Review

Software accessibility, once relatively unknown, has been recognized as both a socio-technical necessity and a legal requirement, drawing considerable research attention in the field of Computer Science over the years. A wide range of guidelines, methods, techniques, and tools has been developed, accompanied by numerous training and support opportunities. However, practical implementation of accessibility still faces challenges, evident in persistent barriers in many software products. While acknowledging the necessity of including accessibility throughout the engineering process, research on comprehensive approaches has been sparse, primarily focusing on requirements engineering and evaluation, neglecting implementation phase. We see integrating accessibility support into the core of design and development as a crucial step for improvements, revealing a need for integrating accessibility evaluation support into integrated development environments (IDEs). This paper aims to present a collection of approaches, methods and tools that support accessibility involvement within different stages of the engineering process, and additionally to provide a theoretical foundation for research and development of incorporating accessibility evaluation support within IDEs. Thereafter, we analyzed existing related Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) and complemented the findings with a new SLR. The study provides a solid base for advanced approaches in integrating accessibility into SE.