Protocols for Evaluation of Site Accessibility with the Participation of Blind Users

User interfaces, through which users interact with the systems, should be designed according to the accessibility guidelines, with focus on usability. To this end, the designers of these interfaces should analyze whether their requirements meet the quality requirements, including their "user-friendliness" and "accessibility" features. The design of interfaces that are able to meet the needs of users with different characteristics is not a trivial task. It is paramount to involve the users and analyze how they interact with the system. Interface evaluation methods are absolutely necessary when gauging the system's quality, since they allow the identification of many usability problems where the focus in on their accessibility. The present work aims to analyze two methods of observation involving people with totally impaired vision in order to develop a protocol with recommendations that can assist professionals in the identification of characteristics and problems, which can be solved or minimized during the interfaces' evaluations, thus facilitating the process of system access focusing on users with totally impaired vision. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Programme Committee of the 4th International Conference on Software Development for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAI 2012)