Barrierelos

In December 2023, a revision of regulations was announced by the Swiss Federal Council, also mandating private companies to enhance the accessibility of their digital services. Therefore, a far greater number of actors will now have to adhere to these rules. Despite existing regulations, accessibility issues persist, particularly in government services at the cantonal and municipal levels.

The project aims to address this gap by recording and scoring accessibility issues on websites, categorizing them by region and other factors, and making the data publicly available. The project also aids website maintainers in resolving these issues by providing a list of issues found in an easy-to-use format.

This thesis presents a software system, incorporating crowdsourcing, scanning for accessibility issues using the axe-core engine, and a scoring algorithm named Barrierelos-Score. The system comprises a React-based web application frontend, a Spring Boot-based backend with a RESTful web API, and a scanner implemented in TypeScript running on Node.js.
Containerization and temporal decoupling ensure scalability, while a modularized architecture facilitates easy implementation of new requirements.

The project embraces an agile workflow, with automated testing and deployment, enabling continuous integration and continuous deployment. The documentation is made available online through GitLab Pages. The result is a comprehensive approach to enhance web accessibility awareness and facilitate issue resolution in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.