Literature Reviews

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

• A Task Assignment Strategy for Crowdsourcing-Based Web Accessibility Evaluation System

  Liangcheng Li, Can Wang, Shuyi Song, Zhi Yu, Fenqin Zhou, Jiajun Bu (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper addresses a practical challenge in scaling web accessibility evaluation: how to effectively assign manual evaluation tasks to volunteer crowdsource workers with varying levels of expertise. While automated tools can check many accessibilit…

  • web accessibility evaluation
  • crowdsourcing
  • machine learning
  • automated testing
  • conformance testing
  • task assignment

• Making Real-World Interfaces Accessible Through Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Fabrication

  Anhong Guo, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents two complementary systems designed to make inaccessible physical interfaces usable by blind people: VizLens and Facade. The research addresses a fundamental and long-standing accessibility problem — the vast majority…

  • physical accessibility
  • computer vision
  • crowdsourcing
  • 3D printing
  • assistive technology
  • blindness
  • tactile interfaces
  • screen readers

• Reliability Aware Web Accessibility Experience Metric

  Shuyi Song, Jiajun Bu, Chengchao Shen, Andreas Artmeier, Zhi Yu, Qin Zhou (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper introduces RA-WAEM (Reliability Aware Web Accessibility Experience Metric), a novel approach to measuring website accessibility that incorporates actual user experience from people with disabilities while accounting for the varying reliabi…

  • accessibility metrics
  • user experience
  • accessibility evaluation
  • machine learning
  • web accessibility
  • WCAG compliance
  • automated testing
  • crowdsourcing
  • reliability
  • optimization algorithm
  • China
  • disability inclusion
  • visual impairment
  • motor disability
  • hearing disability

• Web Accessibility Evaluation in a Crowdsourcing-Based System with Expertise-Based Decision Strategy

  Shuyi Song, Jiajun Bu, Ye Wang, Zhi Yu, Andreas Artmeier, Lianjun Dai, Can Wang (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper presents a crowdsourcing-based web accessibility evaluation system that addresses the scalability bottleneck in manual accessibility evaluation: expert evaluators are scarce (training takes years) and expensive, yet many WCAG checkpo…

  • web accessibility
  • crowdsourcing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • WCAG
  • automated testing
  • manual evaluation
  • expertise
  • quality assurance
  • China

• Collaborative Accessibility Assessments by Senior Citizens Using Smartphone Application ReAcTS (Real-world Accessibility Transaction System)

  Takahiro Miura, Ken-ichiro Yabu, Ryogo Ogino, Atsushi Hiyama, Michitaka Hirose, Tohru Ifukube (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper presents ReAcTS (Real-world Accessibility Transaction System), a smartphone application designed to enable senior citizen volunteers to collaboratively assess and share real-world physical accessibility conditions in their local communitie…

  • crowdsourcing
  • older adults
  • urban accessibility
  • accessibility mapping
  • volunteering
  • smartphone
  • intergenerational collaboration
  • physical accessibility
  • Japan
  • citizen science

• Automatic Generation and Evaluation of Usable and Secure Audio reCAPTCHA

  Mohit Jain, Rohun Tripathi, Ishita Bhansali, Pratyush Kumar (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents reCAPGen, a system that automatically generates usable and secure audio CAPTCHAs by leveraging the gap between human and machine speech recognition abilities. Visual CAPTCHAs — the dominant form of online human verification — are …

  • CAPTCHA
  • audio accessibility
  • blind
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • speech recognition
  • security
  • crowdsourcing
  • screen readers

• Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery

  Galen Weld, Esther Jang, Anthony Li, Aileen Zeng, Kurtis Heimerl, Jon E. Froehlich (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents the first application of deep learning to automatically assess sidewalk accessibility from Google Street View (GSV) panoramas, addressing four types of accessibility problems: curb ramps, missing curb ramps, sidewalk obstructions,…

  • computer vision
  • deep learning
  • sidewalk accessibility
  • curb ramps
  • crowdsourcing
  • urban accessibility
  • mobility disability
  • machine learning
  • Google Street View
  • pedestrian infrastructure

• AfricaSign -- A Crowd-sourcing Platform for the Documentation of STEM Vocabulary in African Sign Languages

  Abdelhadi Soudi, Kristof Van Laerhoven, Elmostafa Bou-Souf (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents AfricaSign, a web-based crowdsourcing platform designed to enable African Deaf communities to document their endangered sign languages, with a focus on early-grade and STEM vocabulary. Most African sign languages are…

  • sign language
  • Africa
  • endangered languages
  • crowdsourcing
  • signing avatar
  • STEM accessibility
  • Deaf education
  • language documentation
  • digital inclusion
  • developing nations

• The Efficacy of Collaborative Authoring of Video Scene Descriptions

  Rosiana Natalie, Jolene Loh, Huei Suen Tan, Joshua Tseng, Ian Luke Yi-Ren Chan, Ebrima H Jarjue, Hernisa Kacorri, Kotaro Hara (2021) — ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  The vast majority of online video content remains inaccessible to people with visual impairments because it lacks audio descriptions — verbal commentaries that depict visual information in scenes. Professional audio description services cost US$12 to…

  • audio description
  • video accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • crowdsourcing
  • collaborative authoring
  • scene description
  • text-to-speech
  • mixed-ability collaboration

• ASL Wiki: An Exploratory Interface for Crowdsourcing ASL Translations

  Abraham Glasser, Fyodor Minakov, Danielle Bragg (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper presents ASL Wiki, a novel bilingual web interface that enables the Deaf and Hard-of-hearing (DHH) community to crowdsource English-to-American Sign Language (ASL) translations of text articles. The system addresses two interconnected prob…

  • sign language
  • ASL
  • Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
  • crowdsourcing
  • bilingual interface
  • language accessibility
  • sign language datasets
  • education