Literature Reviews
Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.
13 results found tagged accessibility theory.
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Before the Technological Fix: Scoping AI and AAC for Social Futures
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…
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Access Is Not Enough: Toward Developmental Flourishing
Teng and Gergle (Northwestern University) present an opinion paper arguing that the dominant 'access' framing in accessibility research - measuring success through task completion and outcome equivalence within visual-first activities - is fundamenta…
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"We need a vision first": Speculating Deaf-Centered Immersive Classrooms
Huffman and colleagues at Gallaudet University present an all-Deaf-authored speculative design study that asks not how extended-reality (XR) classrooms can be retrofitted for Deaf students, but what XR classrooms should look like when Deaf teachers l…
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Let's Make a Community [of Practice]: Using Community-Based Participatory Design to Support Interdependence
Accessibility and HCI research on dementia has moved away from the medical-model framing of 'recipients of care' toward dementia-friendly communities, interdependence, and person-centred support. But Czech and colleagues note a gap: most of this work…
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Interdependence as a Frame for Assistive Technology Research and Design
This influential paper introduces interdependence as a complementary frame to the traditional focus on independence in assistive technology research and design. The authors argue that "independence" — long the unquestioned gold standard of AT design …
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Accessibility 2.0: People, Policies and Processes
This influential paper by a multi-institutional UK team argues that the WAI's predominantly technology-focused approach to web accessibility is counter-productive, and proposes "Accessibility 2.0" — a user-focused, contextual, pluralistic alternative…
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The False Dichotomy between Accessibility and Usability
This keynote paper by Ed H. Chi of Google argues that the traditional separation between accessibility research and usability/HCI research is a false dichotomy built on two myths. The first myth is the "average user" — HCI research inherited this con…
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Understanding Web Accessibility and Its Drivers
This highly cited study surveyed over 300 people with an interest in web accessibility to investigate how the community defines accessibility, what motivates people to work on it, and which definitions are most widely accepted. The authors note that …
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A Challenge to Web Accessibility Metrics and Guidelines: Putting People and Processes First
This influential paper argues that web accessibility is not an intrinsic property of a digital resource but a relational quality determined by the interaction between users, resources, and contexts — shaped by political, social, cultural, and technic…
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Understanding Accessibility as a Process through the Analysis of Feedback from Disabled Students
This paper from The Open University UK analyzes over 6,000 open comment feedback responses from disabled students (out of 93,148 total responses) to argue that accessibility must be understood as an ongoing process rather than a state achieved throug…