Events Calendar

PhD Thesis Proposal - Ali Alotaibi

PhD Candidate: Ali Alotaibi

Title: Automated Repair of Layout Accessibility Issues in Mobile Applications

Time: Tuesday, November 15, 8:00 AM-10:00 AM PST

Committee: William GJ Halfond (chair), Murali Annavaram, Nenad Medvidovic, Mukund Raghothaman, and Chao Wang.

Abstract:
An increasing number of people are now dependent on mobile devices to access data and complete essential tasks. For people with disabilities, mobile apps that violate accessibility guidelines can prevent them from carrying out these activities. Layout accessibility issues are among the top accessibility issues in mobile applications. These issues impact the accessibility of mobile apps and make them difficult to use, especially for older people and people with disabilities. Unfortunately, existing techniques are limited in helping developers debug these issues. These techniques are only capable of detecting the issues. Therefore, the repair of layout accessibility issues remains a manual process.

Automated repair of layout accessibility issues is complicated by several challenges. First, a repair must account for multiple issues holistically in order to preserve the relative consistency of the original app design. Second, due to the complex relationship between UI components, there is no clear way of identifying the set of elements and properties that needs to be modified for a given issue. Third, assuming the relevant views and properties can be identified, the number of possible changes that need to be considered grows exponentially as more elements and properties need to be considered. Finally,
a change in one element can create cascading changes that lead to further problems in other areas of the UI. Together, these challenges make a seemingly simple repair difficult to achieve. In this thesis proposal, I propose an automated framework for repairing layout accessibility issues in mobile applications.

Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98863735277?pwd=MTVITkNqY2dQdmhKWWRkRElWeVppUT09

WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98863735277?pwd=MTVITkNqY2dQdmhKWWRkRElWeVppUT09

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Lizsl De Leon