Patent Issued for Systems and methods for automatically assessing and conforming software development modules to accessibility guidelines in real-time (USPTO 11055208)

2021 JUL 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Lekkala, Pramod (Whitefield, IN), Pandurangarao, Anil Kumar (Buffalo Grove, IL, US), Pulley, Andrew (Palatine, IL, US), Ravichander, Sudharshun (Des Plaines, IL, US), filed on January 7, 2020, was published online on July 6, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11055208, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Software developers are increasingly trying to make applications accessible to populations that have visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities. These populations are typically unable to reap the benefits of many software applications. For example, these populations living with disabilities may be unable to discern various graphics presented by a software application, hear sounds caused by software application, or respond by moving the mouse, keyboard, or other input modules. Software applications may be tested for how well they are made accessible to people with disabilities through web accessibility standards. For example, versions of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAGs) (e.g., WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0, etc.) are a set of standard guidelines put together by a consortium that outlines how software applications can be compliant. Software developers may use testing applications based on these accessibility standards to redevelop older, non-compliant software applications into newer software applications that comply with the accessibility standards. Yet, the process of redeveloping old software applications is often laborious and inefficient. There is a desire for a system, method, and platform for developing new software efficiently and seamlessly, where each component of the software during its development can be readily tested for compliance to and redeveloped to conform to accessibility standards in real-time. Various embodiments described herein may address one or more of the shortcomings described above.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the features described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of all of the features described herein. The following summary merely presents some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Systems and methods are described for automatically assessing and conforming software development modules to accessibility guidelines in real-time. One example method comprises: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor, a request to test a plurality of modules of a software application for accessibility compliance in real-time, wherein each of the plurality of modules comprises a plurality of base codes; for each of the plurality of modules of the software application: identifying the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules; and for each of the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules of the software application development: determining one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to a given base code of the plurality of base codes; determining, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; and determining a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools; aggregating, for each of the plurality of modules of the software application, the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools for each of the plurality of base codes; generating a plurality of module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules; and identifying, based on the plurality of module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules, one or more modules needing improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving, the aggregating, the generating, and the identifying of the one or more modules needing improvement occur in real-time.

“In accordance with some arrangements of the present disclosure, another example method comprises: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor, a base code to be tested for accessibility compliance, wherein the base code is one of a plurality of components of a software module; determining a program executed by the base code; assigning, based on the generated program, one or more program category tags; determining one or more accessibility compliance provisions corresponding to the one or more program tags; determining, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; determining a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools; aggregating the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools to generate a base code-specific accessibility compliance score for the base code; and determining, based on the base code-specific accessibility compliance score failing to satisfy a threshold, that the base code needs improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving the base code to be tested for accessibility compliance and the determining that the base code needs improvement in accessibility compliance occur in real-time.

“In accordance with some arrangements of the present disclosure, an example system comprises: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive a request to test one or more modules of a software application for accessibility compliance in real-time, wherein each of the one or more modules comprises a plurality of base codes; for each of the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules: determine one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to a given base code of the plurality of base codes; determine, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; and determine a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance testing tools; aggregate, for each of the one or more modules of the software application, the test tool-specific accessibility compliance scores to generate one or more module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the one or more modules; and identify, based on the one or more module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules, a module needing improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving, the aggregating, and the identifying occur in real-time.

“In accordance with some examples of the present disclosure, one or more non-transitory computer readable media store computer-executable instructions. When these computer-executable instructions are executed by a computing device, the computing device may perform one or more of the methods described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor, a request to test a plurality of modules of a software application for accessibility compliance in real-time, wherein each of the plurality of modules comprises a plurality of base codes; for each of the plurality of modules of the software application: identifying the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules; and for each of the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules of the software application: determining one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to a given base code of the plurality of base codes; determining, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; and determining a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools; aggregating, for each of the plurality of modules of the software application, the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools for each of the plurality of base codes; generating a plurality of module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules; and identifying, based on the plurality of module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules, one or more modules needing improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving, the aggregating, the generating, and the identifying of the one or more modules needing improvement occur in real-time.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, based on the identified one or more modules needing improvement in accessibility compliance, one or more accessibility-compliant modules to replace the one or more modules needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, prior to the generating the one or more accessibility-compliant modules: receiving a user input indicating a preference for the one or more accessibility-compliant modules.

“4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, by the first computing device having the at least one processor, an additional request to test an additional module of the software application for accessibility compliance, wherein the plurality of modules includes the additional module.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregating the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools for each of the plurality of base codes further comprises: assigning a weight to each of an individual accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools, based on a degree of relevance of the one or more accessibility compliance provisions to the base code.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after determining the test tool-specific compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance testing tools: generating, for each of the plurality of base codes, a base code-specific accessibility compliance score; and identifying, based on the plurality of base code-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of base codes, one or more base codes needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, substituting one or more accessibility compliant base codes for the one or more base codes needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to determining the one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to the given base code of the plurality of base codes: generating a program executed by the given base code, wherein the determining the one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to the given base code is based on the program executed by the given base code.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, after generating the program executed by the given base code: assigning, based on the generated program, one or more program category tags; and determining the one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to the given base code based on the one or more program category tags.

“10. A method comprising: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor, a base code to be tested for accessibility compliance, wherein the base code is one of a plurality of components of a software module; determining a program executed by the base code; assigning, based on the generated program, one or more program category tags; determining one or more accessibility compliance provisions corresponding to the one or more program tags; determining, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; determining a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools; aggregating the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance test tools to generate a base code-specific accessibility compliance score for the base code; and determining, based on the base code-specific accessibility compliance score failing to satisfy a threshold, that the base code needs improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving the base code to be tested for accessibility compliance and the determining that the base code needs improvement in accessibility compliance occur in real-time.

“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: identifying, based on the test tool-specific accessibility compliance score of each of the one or more accessibility compliance testing tools, an aspect of the base code needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“12. The method of claim 10, further comprising, modifying the base code to generate an accessibility compliant base code.

“13. The method of claim 10, wherein the aggregating the test tool-specific accessibility compliance scores to generate the base code-specific accessibility compliance score further comprises: assigning a weight to each of the test tool-specific accessibility compliance scores based on a degree of relevance of the one or more accessibility compliance provisions.

“14. The method of claim 10, further comprising, receiving, by the first computing device having the at least one processor, additional base codes to be tested for accessibility compliance, wherein the additional base codes are also components of the software module; generating additional base code-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the additional base codes; and aggregating the base code-specific accessibility compliance score of the base code and the additional base code-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the additional base codes to generate a module-specific accessibility compliance score for the software module.

“15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: determining, based on the module-specific accessibility compliance score failing to satisfy a threshold, that the software module needs improvement in accessibility compliance.

“16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: identifying, based on one or more of base code-specific accessibility compliance score of the base code and the additional base code-specific compliance scores corresponding to the additional base codes, a defective base code needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“17. The method of claim 16, substituting an accessibility compliant base code for the defective base code needing improvement in accessibility compliance.

“18. A system comprising: one or more processors; memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive a request to test one or more modules of a software application for accessibility compliance in real-time, wherein each of the one or more modules comprises a plurality of base codes; for each of the plurality of base codes of each of the plurality of modules: determine one or more accessibility compliance provisions that are relevant to a given base code of the plurality of base codes; determine, based on the determined one or more accessibility compliance provisions, one or more accessibility compliance test tools corresponding to the one or more accessibility compliance provisions; and determine a test tool-specific accessibility compliance score for each of the one or more accessibility compliance testing tools; aggregate, for each of the one or more modules of the software application, the test tool-specific accessibility compliance scores to generate one or more module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the one or more modules; and identify, based on the one or more module-specific accessibility compliance scores corresponding to the plurality of modules, a module needing improvement in accessibility compliance, wherein the receiving, the aggregating, and the identifying occur in real-time.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Lekkala, Pramod. Systems and methods for automatically assessing and conforming software development modules to accessibility guidelines in real-time. U.S. Patent Number 11055208, filed January 7, 2020, and published online on July 6, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11055208.PN.&OS=PN/11055208RS=PN/11055208

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