Accessibility in Human Computer Interaction and Human Robot Interaction: A brief review on definitions, developers guidelines, laws and regulations

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory study of accessibility in both Human Computer Interaction and Human Robot Interaction focusing on its intersection with interrelated concepts such as usability and inclusive design. It underscores the overreaching goal of these concepts in improving the user experience and provide equal access to all user interfaces, albeit with different targeted user groups. Furthermore, the study presents a short review on main accessibility laws and developers guidelines for both Human Computer Interaction and Human Robot Interaction. The review reveals a remarkable gap in accessibility laws and guidelines for Human Robot Interaction, hence, there is an urgent need to broader initiatives and efforts from authorities, researchers community, and industry stakeholders to formulate and create accessibility laws and developers guidelines pertaining to Human Robot Interaction products, where no such laws or guidelines were found in this study, except an individual initiative by the author, which includes a proposal dedicated to help developer in creating accessible interfaces for Socially Assistive Robots. This paper also discusses some practical challenges in implementing accessibility guidelines in HCI and HRI interfaces.