Automated Code Fix Suggestions for Accessibility Issues in Mobile Apps

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mehralian, Forough, Barik, Titus, Nichols, Jeff, Swearngin, Amanda
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Mehralian, Forough
Barik, Titus
Nichols, Jeff
Swearngin, Amanda
author_facet Mehralian, Forough
Barik, Titus
Nichols, Jeff
Swearngin, Amanda
contents Accessibility is crucial for inclusive app usability, yet developers often struggle to identify and fix app accessibility issues due to a lack of awareness, expertise, and inadequate tools. Current accessibility testing tools can identify accessibility issues but may not always provide guidance on how to address them. We introduce FixAlly, an automated tool designed to suggest source code fixes for accessibility issues detected by automated accessibility scanners. FixAlly employs a multi-agent LLM architecture to generate fix strategies, localize issues within the source code, and propose code modification suggestions to fix the accessibility issue. Our empirical study demonstrates FixAlly's capability in suggesting fixes that resolve issues found by accessibility scanners -- with an effectiveness of 77% in generating plausible fix suggestions -- and our survey of 12 iOS developers finds they would be willing to accept 69.4% of evaluated fix suggestions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_03827
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automated Code Fix Suggestions for Accessibility Issues in Mobile Apps
Mehralian, Forough
Barik, Titus
Nichols, Jeff
Swearngin, Amanda
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
D.2.5; I.2
Accessibility is crucial for inclusive app usability, yet developers often struggle to identify and fix app accessibility issues due to a lack of awareness, expertise, and inadequate tools. Current accessibility testing tools can identify accessibility issues but may not always provide guidance on how to address them. We introduce FixAlly, an automated tool designed to suggest source code fixes for accessibility issues detected by automated accessibility scanners. FixAlly employs a multi-agent LLM architecture to generate fix strategies, localize issues within the source code, and propose code modification suggestions to fix the accessibility issue. Our empirical study demonstrates FixAlly's capability in suggesting fixes that resolve issues found by accessibility scanners -- with an effectiveness of 77% in generating plausible fix suggestions -- and our survey of 12 iOS developers finds they would be willing to accept 69.4% of evaluated fix suggestions.
title Automated Code Fix Suggestions for Accessibility Issues in Mobile Apps
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
D.2.5; I.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03827