Chatbot Accessibility Playbook

Copyright (c) 2021 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. Public release case numbers 21-3801 and 21-3922. Funded by the MITRE Innovation Program.

We need feedback from end-users, development teams, and others to make this playbook a success. Please share comments and suggestions on GitHub or email Jeff Stanley at jstanley@mitre.org.

If you’re not sure how to get started, we recommend the three checklists in the appendix. You can follow the links in the checklists for more details on any topic. Consider reading Play 4.1 Selecting a Chatbot Platform in full, since this is one of the first and most important decisions you’ll have to make when developing a chatbot. If you’re new to accessibility, check out Chapter 2 Background for an overview.

Table of Contents

• Front matter (links to chapters within front_matter.pdf)
  • Chapter 1 Introduction
  • Chapter 2 Background
  • Chapter 3 How to Use this Playbook
• Chapter 4 Plays
  • Play 4.1 Selecting a Chatbot Platform
  • Play 4.2 Designing a Chatbot - Content
  • Play 4.3 Designing a Chatbot - Interface
  • Play 4.4 Integrating the Chatbot into the Website
  • Play 4.5 Testing the Chatbot
• References
• Appendices
  • Appendix A.1 User Research Checklist
  • Appendix A.2 Self Assessment Checklist
  • Appendix A.3 User Questionnaire Items

Creators

• Jeff Stanley
• Ronna ten Brink
• Alexandra Valiton
• Amna Abbas
• Benjamin Bilbro
• Trevor Bostic
• Gina Lofaro
• Rebecca Scollan
• Jenna Wittich

Reviewers and Consultants

• Justin Brunelle (MITRE)
• Deborah Ercolini (MITRE)
• Marietta Jelks (GSA)
• John Kruse (MITRE)
• Laura Leets (MITRE)
• David Stenger (GSA)
• Jennifer Strickland (MITRE)
• Sanith Wijesinghe (MITRE)

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following people and organizations for advice, feedback, and other forms of support:

• Bruce Bailey (U.S. Access Board)
• Ryan Benson (CDC)
• Jasmine Faubert (MITRE)
• Antonia Harward (GSA)
• Michael Horton (GSA)
• Qian Hu (MITRE)
• Jeff Kline (State of Texas)
• Jim Lockett (MITRE)
• Andrew Nielson (GSA)
• John Sullivan (GSA)
• Mark Urban (CDC)
• Gregg Vanderheiden (University of Maryland)
• Visually Impaired and Blind User Group (VIBUG)

Publications

The following publications describe the literature review and user study supporting the playbook. Conference presentation materials are available upon request.

• Stanley, J., ten Brink, R., Valiton, A., Bostic, T., & Scollan, B. (2022). Chatbot Accessibility Guidance: A Review and Way Forward. In Proceedings of Sixth International Congress on Information and Communication Technology. Springer, Singapore.
• Stanley, J., ten Brink, R., Abbas, A., & Valiton, A. (2021). Preliminary Insights from a Chatbot Accessibility Playbook and Wizard-of-Oz Study. Shape the Future: Research and Development Questions in Digital Accessibility. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Online Research Symposium