Are Saudi Arabian banks’ mobile applications accessible for blind or partially sighted users?: a customers’ perspective and evaluation

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the accessibility problems and barriers faced by visually impaired Arabic speakers when using banking mobile applications. The sample included mobile applications for the top three banks in Saudi Arabia in terms of their customer base, including applications for AlRajhi, SNB, and Riyad bank. The focus was on the three most popular e-services provided by those applications. Using a mixed method approach, accessibility was inspected manually according to current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). In addition, in-depth usability testing for those applications was conducted with 12 blind Arabic-speaking users. The results revealed that the accessibility level for all sample applications did not conform to WCAG 2.1, which reflected the low accessibility level provided by these applications. However, AlRajhi’s application was the best among the tested applications. In manual inspection, it had the lowest number of violations of success criteria compared to SNB’s and Riyad’s applications. It also achieved the best results in usability testing in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction compared to the other two applications. The overall results showed that the current situation of accessibility of Saudi banking applications is not very satisfactory in terms of number of violations to WCAG 2.1 success criteria. The most violated principle by all the applications was operable, with around 37% of total violations, followed by perceivable, then robust and understandable.

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