Identification of Challenges and Best Practices for Including Users with Disabilities in User-Based Testing

Editorial information: MDPI. April 26, 2023. ISSN 2076-3417.

Despite efforts to promote digital inclusion for all, individuals with disabilities continue to experience a significant digital divide. Developing usable and accessible solutions also demands conducting user-based testing with real end users, particularly for users with disabilities, to detect and address real problems and barriers they experience and improve usability and accessibility based on their feedback through a user-centered approach.

When including users with disabilities in user testing, additional attention must be paid to ensure that the testing is planned and carried out in such a way as to enable the successful and efficient integration of users with disabilities. In doing so, it is necessary to consider various restrictions related to users’ disabilities.

By conducting a systematic literature review, we collected and analyzed the challenges of including users with disabilities in user-based testing and best practices that researchers can apply in future user-based testing with users with disabilities. In the existing literature, a positive trend toward publishing articles describing testing with users with disabilities is noticeable.

There is also an apparent need for more reporting on some phases of the testing studies. The main result of this study is a list of challenges and best practices that are important in the different phases of user-based testing with users with disabilities.

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