Accessibility metrics for visually impaired users: an undergraduate thesis distills audit practice
Ricardo de Castro Loureiro defended at FCTE/UnB an undergraduate thesis proposing metrics to evaluate the accessibility of web pages for people with visual impairment — a direct step toward more objective audit practices.
Brasília, December 21, 2023
Accessibility remains, for many development teams, an uncomfortable conversation — because concept and verification do not always travel together. This discomfort is what the undergraduate thesis defended in December 2023 by Ricardo de Castro Loureiro tries to untie, proposing concrete metrics to evaluate the accessibility of web pages for people with visual impairment, advised by Prof. Cristiane Soares Ramos and co-advised by Prof. Ricardo Ajax Dias Kosloski .
The work begins with the observation that WCAG and good practices are widely known — yet frequently applied with uneven outcomes, because the distance between “we are following the guide” and “the user completes the task” is wide. The author proposes a set of measurable metrics that capture that gap, allowing pages to be compared, regressions to be identified, and improvements to be demanded on numeric grounds rather than impression.
By tying software quality to concrete accessibility concerns, the thesis produces practical input for audits — an activity in clear expansion as legislation and civil society press the sector for better responses.
The full text — written in Portuguese — is available at the UnB Undergraduate Theses Digital Library.
About CEDIS: The Center for Studies, Development, and Innovation in Software (CEDIS), linked to the University of Brasília, researches and develops innovative software solutions with strong presence in software quality .