{"id":233170,"date":"2026-04-28T12:37:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=233170"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:47:34","slug":"making-apps-safer-more-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/making-apps-safer-more-accessible\/","title":{"rendered":"Making apps safer, more accessible: 糖心视频<\/abbr> Mānoa research goes global"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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ICS<\/abbr> Assistant Professor Anthony Peruma presenting the paper “Practitioner Views on Mobile App Accessibility: Practices and Challenges” in the ICSE<\/abbr> 2026 Research Track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Faculty from the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa<\/span> Department of Information and Computer Sciences<\/a> (ICS<\/abbr>) presented two peer-reviewed papers at the 48th IEEE<\/abbr> (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)\/ACM<\/abbr> (Association for Computing Machinery) International Conference on Software Engineering<\/a> (ICSE<\/abbr> 2026) and related events, April 12–18, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<\/p>\n

Mobile app accessibility<\/h2>\n

ICS<\/abbr> Assistant Professor Anthony Peruma presented “Practitioner Views on Mobile App Accessibility: Practices and Challenges<\/a>” in the ICSE<\/abbr> 2026 Research Track, co-authored with ICS<\/abbr> master\u2019s alumnus Amila Indika and Professor Rick Kazman from the Department of Information Technology Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The study examines how mobile app developers approach accessibility across platforms such as iOS and Android. Drawing on a mixed-methods survey of 110 mobile app developers across 43 countries, the research identifies how platform ecosystems, developer experience, organizational constraints and technical limitations shape accessibility practices.<\/p>\n

The findings show that while developers recognize the importance of accessibility, accessibility-related testing is often performed late in the development process. The study also revealed meaningful differences in accessibility practices between iOS and Android platforms and across developer experience levels, offering actionable guidance for more inclusive app development.<\/p>\n

Improving security for shared software packages<\/h2>\n
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ICS<\/abbr> Assistant Professor Italo Santos presenting the paper “Understanding npm<\/abbr> Developers\u2019 Practices, Challenges, and Recommendations for Secure Package Development.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering conference, which was co-located with ICSE<\/abbr>, ICS<\/abbr> Assistant Professor Italo Santos presented the paper “Understanding npm Developers\u2019 Practices, Challenges, and Recommendations for Secure Package Development<\/a>.” The paper was co-authored by Peruma, ICS<\/abbr> master\u2019s student Truman Choy and ICS<\/abbr> master\u2019s alumnus Gerald Lee.<\/p>\n

This research investigates how developers who maintain packages in the Node Package Manager (npm<\/abbr>) ecosystem—a platform for sharing and managing JavaScript software packages—perceive and address security. Through a survey of 75 npm<\/abbr> package developers, the study examines their security practices, the tools they use, barriers to implementing stronger security measures and recommendations for enhancing the security of the npm<\/abbr> ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The findings highlight concerns such as supply chain attacks, dependency vulnerabilities, malicious code, alert fatigue and false positives, while also identifying opportunities for better detection tools, clearer documentation, stronger account protections and expanded security education.<\/p>\n

“Together, these two papers reflect 糖心视频<\/abbr> Mānoa<\/span>\u2019s growing contributions to software engineering research, particularly in areas where technical systems intersect with people, organizations and society,” Peruma said. “Our work aims to understand the real-world challenges developers face and provide practical guidance for building software that is more accessible, secure and beneficial to the broader community.”<\/p>\n

ICSE<\/abbr> is widely recognized as the leading international venue for software engineering research, bringing together researchers, practitioners and educators from around the world to discuss advances, challenges and emerging trends in the field. Acceptance into the ICSE<\/abbr> main research track is highly competitive, making the showing a notable achievement for 糖心视频<\/abbr> Mānoa<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conference is widely recognized as the leading international venue for software engineering research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":233172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[308,541,484,1467,1363,568,9],"class_list":["post-233170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-computer-science","tag-information-and-computer-science","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-natural-science","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t