Literature Reviews

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

• Toward Enhancing Subtitle Features in Mobile Apps: Analyzing User Reviews for Accessibility and Usability Insights

  Wajdi M Aljedaani, Matheus Souza, Marcelo Medeiros Eler (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This large-scale study analyses user reviews from the Google Play Store to understand how people experience subtitle and caption features in mobile applications. The authors extracted roughly 180 million reviews from the top 340 Android apps across d…

  • subtitles
  • captioning
  • mobile applications
  • user reviews
  • app store analysis
  • sentiment analysis
  • hearing impairments
  • customization
  • multilingual accessibility

• 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

• Sparsha: A Comprehensive Indian Language Toolset for the Blind

  Anirban Lahiri, Satya Jyoti Chattopadhyay, Anupam Basu (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents Sparsha ("feeling of touch" in Hindi), the first comprehensive toolset enabling over 13 million visually impaired people in the Indian subcontinent to read and write in their native languages using a computer. Existing Braille tra…

  • braille
  • visual impairment
  • Indian languages
  • multilingual accessibility
  • screen reader
  • text-to-speech
  • tactile graphics
  • internationalization
  • digital inclusion
  • Global South accessibility

• Assessing Virtual Assistant Capabilities with Italian Dysarthric Speech

  Fabio Ballati, Fulvio Corno, Luigi De Russis (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper evaluates how well three major smartphone virtual assistants — Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft's Cortana — can understand and respond to Italian dysarthric speech. Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder characterized by slurre…

  • speech recognition
  • dysarthria
  • virtual assistant
  • voice interface
  • ALS
  • speech accessibility
  • multilingual accessibility

• The Status of Using "Big Eye" Chinese Screen Reader on "Wretch" Blog in Taiwan

  Yui-Liang Chen, Yung-Yu Ho (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper examines the accessibility of Wretch Blog (wretch.cc), one of the most popular blogging platforms in Taiwan, when used with "Big Eye," a Chinese-language screen reader. The authors find that most core functionality of the blog works …

  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • blogging
  • multilingual accessibility
  • navigation
  • alternative text
  • CAPTCHA
  • Global Accessibility
  • Chinese language

• AxsJAX: A Talking Translation Bot Using Google IM: Bringing Web-2.0 Applications to Life

  Charles L. Chen, T. V. Raman (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Google describes how the AxsJAX framework uses WAI-ARIA live regions to make Google Talk — an instant messaging client integrated into GMail — fully accessible to screen reader and self-voicing browser users, and demonstrates a compel…

  • ARIA
  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • live regions
  • Web 2.0
  • AJAX
  • dynamic content
  • multilingual accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • instant messaging
  • open source

• Towards One World Web with HearSay3

  Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Amanda Stent, I. V. Ramakrishnan (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper presents HearSay 3, a self-voicing non-visual web browser developed at Stony Brook University and the University of Washington, designed to address accessibility challenges introduced by Web 2.0. Building on two previous versions — t…

  • screen readers
  • non-visual web browser
  • blind users
  • collaborative accessibility
  • multilingual accessibility
  • dynamic content
  • Web 2.0
  • crowdsourcing
  • text-to-speech

• Towards a Universal Accessibility for Textual Information

  Vasile Topac (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This student award paper from Politehnica University Timisoara proposes a universal framework for understanding and addressing textual information accessibility across all media formats and contexts — not just web accessibility, but also document acc…

  • content adaptation
  • cloud computing
  • text-to-speech
  • speech recognition
  • multilingual accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • plain language
  • accessibility frameworks

• Alipi: Tools for a Re-Narration Web

  T. B. Dinesh, Venkatesh Choppella (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This companion demo paper to the full Alipi framework paper presents the concrete open-source toolset that implements the re-narration web concept. The authors frame the accessibility challenge around the "next billion" internet users — people who ma…

  • social accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • localization
  • multilingual accessibility
  • collaborative accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • digital inclusion

• Alipi: A Framework for Re-Narrating Web Pages

  T. B. Dinesh, S. Uskudarli, Subramanya Sastry, Deepti Aggarwal, Venkatesh Choppella (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper introduces Alipi, a distributed and participatory framework for re-narrating web pages to make them more accessible to diverse audiences. The name "alipi" means "print illiterate" in Kannada and other Indian subcontinent languages, reflect…

  • social accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • crowdsourcing
  • localization
  • multilingual accessibility
  • collaborative accessibility
  • DOM manipulation