Literature Reviews

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

• Web Accessibility Evaluation with the Crowd: Using Glance to Rapidly Code User Testing Video

  Mitchell Gordon (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper proposes using Glance, a crowd-powered video coding tool, to accelerate the analysis of user accessibility testing videos. User testing with people with disabilities is a recommended component of web accessibility evaluation (as outlined i…

  • crowdsourcing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • usability testing
  • video coding
  • web accessibility
  • WCAG
  • user testing

• Capti-Speak: A Speech-Enabled Accessible Web Interface

  Vikas Ashok (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Capti-Speak, a speech-augmented screen reader interface for the web that allows blind users to issue voice commands alongside traditional keyboard shortcuts. Built on top of the Capti web browsing application (which provides a JAW…

  • screen readers
  • speech recognition
  • voice interface
  • web accessibility
  • blindness
  • web browsing
  • multimodal interaction

• Text Entry Using a Compact Keypad with OSDS

  Torsten Felzer, Stephan Rinderknecht (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demo paper presents OSDS (OnScreenDualScribe), a Windows software tool that enables people with neuromuscular diseases to replace a standard full-size keyboard with a compact 19-key numeric keypad called the DualPad. For people with conditions t…

  • text entry
  • alternative input
  • keyboard replacement
  • neuromuscular disease
  • motor disability
  • word prediction
  • assistive technology

• How Companies Engage Customers around Accessibility on Social Media

  Erin Brady, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper examines how major technology companies use Twitter to communicate with people with disabilities about accessibility, and how users attempt to engage with these companies in return. The researchers studied six corporate accessibility Twitt…

  • social media
  • corporate accessibility
  • disability advocacy
  • organizational accessibility
  • user engagement
  • Twitter

• Verification of Daily Activities of Older Adults: A Simple, Non-Intrusive, Low-Cost Approach

  Loïc Caroux, Charles Consel, Lucile Dupuy, Hélène Sauzéon (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents a sensor-based approach to verifying whether older adults perform their daily activities at home, with the goal of supporting aging in place and informing caregiver decisions. The key conceptual distinction is between activity ver…

  • aging
  • activities of daily living
  • activity recognition
  • smart home
  • sensors
  • independent living
  • pervasive computing
  • older adults

• Evaluating the Accessibility of Line Graphs through Textual Summaries for Visually Impaired Users

  Priscilla Moraes, Gabriel Sina, Kathleen McCoy, Sandra Carberry (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents the SIGHT (Summarizing Information GrapHics Textually) system, which automatically generates natural language summaries of line graphs found in online popular media articles such as newspapers and magazines. The system addresses a…

  • data visualization
  • natural language generation
  • information graphics
  • blindness
  • screen readers
  • alternative text
  • reading level
  • graph accessibility

• Evaluating the Accessibility of Crowdsourcing Tasks on Amazon's Mechanical Turk

  Rocío Calvo, Shaun K. Kane, Amy Hurst (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents a heuristic accessibility evaluation of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourcing platform where workers complete short tasks (Human Intelligence Tasks, or HITs) for small payments. The authors argue that crowd work platform…

  • crowdsourcing
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • employment
  • WCAG
  • heuristic evaluation
  • disability employment

• Introducing Web Accessibility to Localization Students: Implications for a Universal Web

  Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper explores the intersection of web accessibility and web localization, arguing that localization professionals — the people who adapt digital content for different languages and cultural contexts — should be trained in web accessibility as p…

  • web accessibility
  • localization
  • internationalization
  • multilingual web
  • accessibility education
  • translation studies
  • training

• AccessBraille: Tablet-based Braille Entry

  Stephanie Ludi, Michael Timbrook, Piper Chester (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents AccessBraille, an iOS framework that provides a virtual Braille keyboard for iPad applications. The system is designed as a reusable framework that any iOS developer can integrate into their apps, rather than being a standalone ap…

  • braille
  • tablet
  • iOS accessibility
  • text entry
  • blindness
  • assistive technology
  • mobile accessibility
  • education

• OS-Level Surface Haptics for Touch-Screen Accessibility

  Suhong Jin, Joe Mullenbach, Craig Shultz, J. Edward Colgate, Anne Marie Piper (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper introduces an operating system-level implementation of surface haptic feedback for Android tablets, built on the TPad Tablet platform developed at Northwestern University. The TPad combines a standard 7-inch Android tablet wi…

  • haptic feedback
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • surface haptics
  • variable friction
  • assistive technology
  • Android accessibility
  • blindness