ICSE 2025
Sat 26 April - Sun 4 May 2025 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Sat 3 May 2025 14:18 - 14:36 at 201 - SEIGS Session 3 Chair(s): Michel Chaudron

The Global South faces unique challenges in achieving digital inclusion due to a heavy reliance on mobile devices for internet access and the prevalence of slow or unreliable networks. While numerous studies have investigated web accessibility within specific sectors such as education, healthcare, and government services, these efforts have been largely constrained to individual countries or narrow contexts, leaving a critical gap in cross-regional, large-scale analysis. This paper addresses this gap by conducting the first large-scale comparative study of mobile web accessibility across the Global South. In this work, we evaluate 100,000 websites from 10 countries in the Global South to provide a comprehensive understanding of accessibility practices in these regions. Our findings reveal that websites from countries with strict accessibility regulations and enforcement tend to adhere better to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines. However, accessibility violations impact different disability groups in varying ways. Blind and low-vision individuals in the Global South are disproportionately affected, as only 40% of the evaluated websites meet critical accessibility guidelines. This significant shortfall is largely due to developers frequently neglecting to implement valid alt text for images and ARIA descriptions, which are essential specification mechanisms in the HTML standard for the effective operation of screen readers.

Sat 3 May

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

14:00 - 15:30
SEIGS Session 3Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS) at 201
Chair(s): Michel Chaudron Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
14:00
18m
Talk
MoMTSimDP: A Differentially Private Simulator for Mobile Money Transactions
Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS)
Denish Azamuke Department of Computer Science, Makerere University, Marriette Katarahweire Department of Computer Science, Makerere University, Engineer Bainomugisha Makerere University
14:18
18m
Talk
Non-Western Perspectives on Web Inclusivity: A Study of Accessibility Practices in the Global South
Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS)
Masudul Hasan Masud Bhuiyan CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Matteo Varvello Nokia, Cristian-Alexandru Staicu CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Yasir Zaki New York University Abu Dhabi
14:36
18m
Talk
Participatory design of a community AI intervention for scaling up adolescent access to SRHR education: Case of the TeenApp
Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS)
Rahman Sanya School of Computing and Informatics Technology, Makerere University, Ben Wycliff Mugalu Makerere University, Gedi Night Biira Straight Talk Foundation, Stella Achen Makerere University
14:54
18m
Talk
Software Engineering Strategies and Innovations to Address Agricultural Challenges in the Global South: A Case Study of Indonesia
Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS)
Wikan Danar Sunindyo Institut Teknologi Bandung, Robertus Theodore Agrari
15:12
18m
Talk
Towards a Federated AI Compute for Low-resource Settings: A Case for National Research and Education Networks in Africa.
Symposium on Software Engineering in the Global South (SEiGS)
Alex Mwotil Makerere University, Innocent Ndubuisi-Obi Jr University of Washington, Kurtis Heimerl Univ of Washington, Benjamin Kanagwa Makerere University, Engineer Bainomugisha Makerere University