A UserWay study in 2021 indicates that an annual global e-commerce revenue loss of approximately $16 billion can be attributed to inaccessible websites and applications. According to the 2023 WebAIM study, only 3.7% of the world's top one million website homepages are fully accessible. This shows that many software developers use poor coding practices that don't adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This research centers on software professionals and their role in addressing accessibility. This work seeks to understand (a) who within the software development community actively practices accessibility, (b) when and how accessibility is considered in the software development lifecycle, (c) the various challenges encountered in building accessible software, and (d) the resources required by software professionals to enhance product accessibility. Our survey of 269 software professionals from India sheds light on the pressing need for accessibility education within the software industry. A substantial majority (69.9%, N=269) of respondents express the need for training materials, workshops, and bootcamps to enhance their accessibility skills. We present a list of actionable recommendations that can be implemented within the industry to promote accessibility awareness and skills. We also open source our raw data for further research, encouraging continued exploration in this domain.

翻译：根据 UserWay 2021 年的一项研究，全球每年因无障碍性不足的网站和应用程序导致的电子商务收入损失约为 160 亿美元。2023 年 WebAIM 的研究表明，全球排名前一百万的网站主页中，仅有 3.7% 完全符合无障碍标准。这表明许多软件开发人员采用不符合《Web 内容无障碍指南》（WCAG）的不良编码实践。本研究聚焦于软件从业者及其在解决无障碍问题中的作用。本文旨在了解：（a）软件开发社区中哪些人积极践行无障碍实践；（b）在软件开发生命周期中，无障碍性何时以及如何被考虑；（c）构建无障碍软件时遇到的各种挑战；以及（d）软件从业者提升产品无障碍性所需的资源。我们对 269 名印度软件从业者的调查揭示了软件行业对无障碍教育的迫切需求。绝大多数受访者（69.9%，N=269）表示需要培训材料、研讨会和训练营来提升其无障碍技能。我们提出了一系列可在行业内实施的可行性建议，以促进无障碍意识和技能。此外，我们开源了原始数据以供进一步研究，鼓励该领域的持续探索。