Usability evaluation of active anti-phishing browser extensions for persons with visual impairments

Accessibility is an integral element of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) domain which deals with building the tools in the digital ecosystem that shall be used universally by all categories of users irrespective of their disabilities. For persons with disabilities the security in the digital environments acquires increased significance as they are one among the leading soft targets. Phishing is an active cyber security issue which is based on both technical and social engineering components. A wide variety of Anti-Phishing tool have been developed to detect phishing sites. In Phishing the attackers target internet users for providing important credentials by sending fraudulent emails with links to a site which is visually similar to its legitimate counterpart. Anti-phishing tools help users for combating these frauds but from the accessibility perspective there are still barriers for persons with visual impairments. The major objective of this paper is to provide an insight into these accessibility barriers in the interface of Anti-Phishing browser extensions for persons with visual impairments. The scope of this study is in the accessibility dimension and hence the core anti-phishing methodology adopted by these tools are not elaborated in detail. With the outcome of this accessibility analysis study of these anti-phishing tools, potential suggestions are also listed out in this paper to reduce the barriers faced by persons with visual impairments.