A software acceptance testing approach with accessibility for the deaf

Purpose:Acceptance testing is a testing phase in which actual usage of the software is evaluated to ensure that it satisfies customer demands. Traditionally, the acceptance test does not consider the demands of the deaf user, who communicates in Sign Language. This article aims to identify and evaluate solutions for including deaf people demands in the software acceptance testing process, respecting accessibility requirements, and exploring automation opportunities.Methods:This work is exploratory research based on the following steps: (1) Identify accessibility requirements for deaf people and associate them with functional requirements of the software by using user stories; (2) Identify and evaluate solutions for acceptance test automation with accessibility requirements for the deaf; (3) Carry out a case study on acceptance tests in an application originally developed to interact with deaf users in sign language.Results:The case study showed that accessibility requirements for deaf people can be specified and automated in the acceptance testing process. Tests with accessibility requirements achieved greater graphical user interface code coverage than testing without accessibility requirements.Conclusions:The work showed that it is possible to use accessibility requirements for deaf people in automated acceptance testing scenarios, exploring software engineering techniques and tools already used in the industry.