Handling Arabic-English Bidirectional Text in Modern Web Applications: A Systematic Literature Review

The increasing prevalence of Arabic-English bilingual content on the web has exposed significant challenges in bidirectional (bidi) text rendering and layout within modern web applications. While the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA) provides a foundational standard for displaying mixed left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) text, its practical implementation in web browsers, frontend frameworks, and content management systems remains inconsistent and poorly documented in the academic literature. This systematic literature review, conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, examines the existing body of research on bidi text handling in web development from 2010 to 2026. A comprehensive search across IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Springer, Scopus, and Google Scholar identified 42 primary studies that were analyzed and synthesized. The review categorizes identified challenges into five thematic areas: (1) Unicode Bidi Algorithm limitations and edge cases, (2) CSS-based layout and logical properties for RTL support, (3) Arabic script-specific rendering complexities, (4) bidirectional user interface design and usability, and (5) web accessibility for Arabic-English content. The findings reveal that while modern CSS specifications (Writing Modes Level 3 and Logical Properties) have significantly improved RTL support, substantial gaps persist in framework-level implementations, automated testing tools, and developer documentation. The review identifies a critical research gap: the absence of comprehensive, up-to-date systematic studies examining bidi text handling across the full stack of modern web technologies. This work contributes a structured taxonomy of bidi challenges, a mapping of current solutions, and a research agenda for advancing Arabic-English web text rendering. Index Terms—Bidirectional text, Arabic web development, RTL layout, Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, CSS logical properties, web accessibility, systematic literature review, PRISMA