Acessibilidade e educação em recursos educacionais digitais móveis: um estudo sobre as necessidades e as ofertas de aplicativos de linguagens e suas tecnologias para alunos com autismo no ensino médio

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate whether the principles defined by Rusakova (2021) are sufficient to assist UX designers in designing mobile Digital Educational Resources (RED) for high school Language and Technology courses for Brazilian students aged 15 to 18 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A methodology based on the systematic review model proposed by Wright et al (2007) was used, adapted to use mobile app stores as a source and named app review. The research was divided into five stages: critical analysis of Rusakova’s work (2021), extraction of parameters for app evaluation, definition of criteria for app selection, evaluation of selected apps, and interpretation of data obtained to understand the accessibility of Language and Technology apps. The results showed that the principles defined by Rusakova (2021) cover relevant aspects to ensure the accessibility and usability of the apps. However, some possibilities for improvement were also identified, such as: adapting parameters to cultures and regional differences within the same country; considering the platform or operating system in which the app is present to verify the real level of accessibility; considering different navigation possibilities in a RED, since the evaluated apps allowed navigation between different pages that contained only the content to be taught or the lesson to be learned, as well as other unrelated pages. In addition, limitations were found in the research and improvements were suggested for future research, such as evaluator bias, small sample size of apps, parameters originating from research conducted in the United Kingdom, and the scale used in the work may be outdated.