A serious game to improve engagement with web accessibility guidelines

Abstract

Designers are often faced with the challenge of following web accessibility guidelines that are complex and ambiguous, and therefore hard to use. This is evidenced by the low percentage of public websites that comply fully with web accessibility standards worldwide. Lack of engagement among designers to follow established web accessibility guidelines is often accounted for this issue. In this paper, we address designers’ lack of engagement through a serious game called GATE which is based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). We followed a User-Centred approach by identifying user types of designers through an online survey. We then mapped these user types and the WCAG to relevant game mechanics. The resulting game was evaluated with designers for its perceived effectiveness, user engagement, and user satisfaction using a mixed methods approach. Our results demonstrate the potential of GATE which offers designers an innovative and engaging solution towards the wider adoption of web accessibility guidelines.