Literature Reviews

Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.

• Before the Technological Fix: Scoping AI and AAC for Social Futures

  Seray B Ibrahim, Tom Griffiths, Michael Clarke, Simon Judge, Petr Slovak, Graham Pullin, Jeff Higginbotham (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26)

  Ibrahim and colleagues - a multi-institution team of researchers working at the intersection of AAC, HCI, and disability studies - argue that the recent surge of HCI work applying AI to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is drifting awa…

  • AAC
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • artificial intelligence
  • scoping review
  • social interaction
  • accessibility theory
  • critical disability studies

• Steering Generative Models for Accessibility: EasyRead Image Generation

  Nicolas Dickenmann, Yanis Merzouki, Sonia Laguna, Thy Nowak-Tran, Emanuele Palumbo, Julia E. Vogt, Gerda Binder (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26)

  Dickenmann and colleagues (ETH Zurich and UNICEF Digital Impact Division) present the first open-source pipeline for generating Easy Read-style pictograms using a fine-tuned diffusion model. Easy Read pairs short sentences with simple, high-contrast …

  • diffusion models
  • stable diffusion
  • LoRA
  • generative AI
  • cognitive accessibility
  • intellectual disability
  • pictograms
  • Easy Read
  • AAC
  • symbol communication
  • image generation

• Giving Meaning to Movements: Challenges and Opportunities in Expanding Communication by Pairing Unaided AAC with Speech Generated Messages

  Imran Kabir, Sharon Ann Redmon, Lynn R. Elko, Kevin Williams, Mitchell A. Case, Dawn J. Sowers, Krista Wilkinson, Syed Masum Billah (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Kabir and colleagues tackle a long-standing split in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): aided AAC — speech-generating devices, symbol boards, tablet apps — produces standardised, intelligible output but is slow, visually demanding, and…

  • AAC
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • motor impairment
  • speech impairment
  • wearable technology
  • IMU
  • gesture recognition
  • machine learning
  • personalization
  • participatory design
  • datasets

• CLARIS: Clear and Intelligible Speech from Whispered and Dysarthric Voices

  Neil Shah, Yash Sonkar, Shirish Subhash Karande, Vineet Gandhi (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper introduces CLARIS (Clear and Accessible Restoration of Impaired Speech), a compact end-to-end neural speech-to-speech restoration system designed to convert whispered speech and dysarthric speech into clear, natural, intelligible …

  • speech accessibility
  • dysarthria
  • voice conversion
  • whispered speech
  • silent speech
  • speech disorders
  • transfer learning
  • voice user interface
  • machine learning
  • AAC

• A Personalized and Adaptable User Interface for a Speech and Cursor Brain-Computer Interface

  Hamza Peracha, Carrina Iacobacci, Tyler Singer-Clark, Leigh R Hochberg, Sergey D. Stavisky, David M. Brandman, Nicholas S Card (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This paper reports on the user interface design for an intracortical brain-computer interface (BCI) deployed for everyday at-home use by people with severe paralysis. The work centers on a 22-month longitudinal co-design study with one BrainGate2 tri…

  • brain-computer interface
  • AAC
  • ALS
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • paralysis
  • speech neuroprosthesis
  • co-design
  • personalization
  • ability-based design
  • longitudinal deployment

• I, Robot? Exploring Ultra-Personalized AI-Powered AAC; an Autoethnographic Account

  Tobias M Weinberg, Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Stephanie Valencia, Thijs Roumen (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This paper is a multi-month autoethnographic study by an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) user-researcher who fine-tuned a personalized large language model on his own communication data and then used it as the suggestion engine in hi…

  • AAC
  • autoethnography
  • large language models
  • personalization
  • agency
  • identity
  • privacy
  • fine-tuning
  • speech impairment
  • AI-mediated communication

• Do-It-Yourself AAC: Co-Designing User-Programmable AI Communication Tools with People with Aphasia

  Jong Ho Lee, Stephanie Valencia (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Lee and Valencia explore how people with aphasia (PWA) can become designers of their own AI-powered augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools rather than users of rigid, pre-built systems. The authors note that aphasia, a language disord…

  • aphasia
  • AAC
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • end-user programming
  • generative AI
  • large language models
  • participatory design
  • co-design
  • visual programming
  • tangible interaction
  • cognitive accessibility
  • speech and language
  • stroke
  • assistive technology
  • personalization

• Belonging in the Making: Investigating Inclusive Makerspace Design for Youth with Autism

  Krystal Yangmengzi Zhang, Marie Sakowicz, Emily Wingeart, Foad Hamidi (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Zhang, Sakowicz, Wingeart, and Hamidi investigate how makerspaces — the hands-on, technology-rich learning environments that have become common in libraries, schools, and community centres — can be designed to genuinely include youth with autism, rat…

  • technology-rich learning
  • accessibility
  • makerspaces
  • belonging
  • disability
  • autism
  • neurodiversity
  • assistive technology
  • AAC
  • participatory design
  • special education
  • architecture
  • STEM education
  • DIY-AT

• Adaptive and Storytelling Practices of Panamanian Autism Families: Towards Culturally-Situated Digital Storytelling

  Elizabeth del Carmen Castillo, Debbie Alvarado Latino, Cecilia Aracelly Fonseca Sánchez, Annuska Zolyomi (2026) — Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (GROUP)

  This PACM HCI (GROUP) paper presents a formative, culturally-situated design study with eight Panamanian mothers of autistic individuals (ages 3–27) to understand the resource barriers autism families face in Panamá and the role storytelling plays in…

  • autism
  • neurodiversity
  • culture
  • Global South
  • storytelling
  • social stories
  • boundary objects
  • participatory design
  • AAC
  • qualitative research
  • HCI

• SIBYLLE: a system for alternative communication adapting to the context and its user

  Tonio Wandmacher, Jean-Yves Antoine, Franck Poirier (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This paper describes the latest version of SIBYLLE, an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system developed at the Université François Rabelais and the Université Européenne de Bretagne for users with severe motor and speech impairments …

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • AAC
  • word prediction
  • virtual keyboard
  • single switch
  • scanning
  • latent semantic analysis
  • language model
  • keystroke saving rate
  • text-to-speech
  • locked-in syndrome
  • cerebral palsy
  • rehabilitation
  • multilingual accessibility
  • natural language processing