Exploring the Need of Accessibility Education in the Software Industry: Insights from a Survey of Software Professionals in India

According to a UserWay study in 2021, e-commerce businesses suffer a revenue loss of approximately USD 16 billion annually due to inaccessible websites and software applications. WebAIM's 2023 report claims that only 3.7% of the world's top one million website homepages are fully accessible. Clearly, many software developers do not use software development and testing practices according to accessibility guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Our paper reports on software professionals' views about addressing accessibility. We seek to understand (a) the characteristics of people within the software industry who use or have used accessibility guidelines, (b) when and how professionals consider accessibility needs in the software development lifecycle, (c) the various challenges encountered in building accessible software, and (d) the resources required by software professionals to enhance product accessibility. Our survey of 269 software professionals from India underscores the need for accessibility education within the software industry. Over two-thirds of respondents express the need for training materials, workshops, and boot camps to enhance their accessibility skills. We present some recommendations for promoting accessibility awareness and skills among software professionals that emerged from the study.