Literature Reviews

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

• What's New? Making Web Page Updates Accessible

  Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Rohit Raman, I. V. Ramakrishnan (2008) — Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces Dynamo, a system that makes dynamic web page content accessible to blind screen reader users by automatically detecting changes across all types of web page updates and providing a unified interface for reviewing them. The paper…

  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • dynamic content
  • AJAX
  • ARIA
  • blind users
  • DOM
  • JavaScript

• WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader On-the-Go

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince (2007) — Assets '07: Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This demonstration paper introduces WebAnywhere, a web-based, self-voicing screen reader that enables blind users to access the web from any computer with a standard browser and sound output, without needing to install specialized software. The paper…

  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • blind users
  • assistive technology
  • text-to-speech
  • web-based tools

• Trailblazer: Enabling Blind Users to Blaze Trails Through the Web

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Tessa Lau, Jeffrey Nichols (2009) — IUI '09: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

  This paper introduces TrailBlazer, a system designed to help blind web users complete tasks more efficiently by providing step-by-step guidance through web pages. The core problem it addresses is that blind users relying on screen readers must often …

  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • non-visual interfaces
  • programming by demonstration
  • task guidance
  • intelligent user interfaces

• Accessibility by Demonstration: Enabling End Users to Guide Developers to Web Accessibility Solutions

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Bernie Zhang (2010) — Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper introduces Accessibility by Demonstration (ABD), a novel approach to accessibility evaluation that lets assistive technology users record the accessibility problems they encounter as shareable, replayable demonstrations and send them direc…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility testing
  • screen readers
  • blind and low vision
  • accessibility evaluation
  • developer tools
  • user research

• Mining Web Interactions to Automatically Create Mash-Ups

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Ryan S. Kaminsky, Jeffrey Nichols (2009) — Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2009)

  This paper introduces TX2, a Firefox browser extension that automatically creates meta-search mash-ups by mining the web interactions of multiple users to discover relationships between query forms on different websites. The deep web — information ac…

  • web accessibility
  • web development
  • information retrieval
  • end-user programming
  • personalization
  • user interface design

• Evaluating Existing Audio CAPTCHAs and an Interface Optimized for Non-Visual Use

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Anna C. Cavender (2009) — Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2009)

  This paper presents the first large-scale evaluation of audio CAPTCHAs — the purportedly accessible alternative to visual CAPTCHAs — revealing that they are dramatically more difficult for both blind and sighted users. The study gathered 10 types of …

  • blind and low vision
  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • CAPTCHA
  • authentication
  • non-visual interfaces
  • usability testing
  • accessibility barriers

• Increasing Web Accessibility by Automatically Judging Alternative Text Quality

  Jeffrey P. Bigham (2007) — Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2007)

  This paper presents a machine learning classifier that can automatically judge whether alternative text assigned to web images is appropriate or inappropriate, using contextual features rather than visual analysis of the image itself. The research ad…

  • alternative text
  • web accessibility
  • machine learning
  • screen readers
  • automated testing
  • image accessibility
  • blind and low vision

• Making the Web Easier to See with Opportunistic Accessibility Improvement

  Jeffrey P. Bigham (2014) — ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

  This paper introduces the concept of "opportunistic accessibility improvement" — the idea that accessibility enhancements like magnification should be automatically applied to the maximum extent possible without causing negative side effects. The aut…

  • low vision
  • magnification
  • web accessibility
  • responsive design
  • screen magnification
  • JavaScript
  • browser extension
  • automated accessibility

• CodeA11y: Making AI Coding Assistants Useful for Accessible Web Development

  Peya Mowar, Yi-Hao Peng, Jason Wu, Aaron Steinfeld, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2025) — Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25)

  This paper addresses a persistent problem: despite decades of accessibility standards and tools, ~96% of web pages contain accessibility violations. The authors argue that AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot represent an untapped opportunity bec…

  • web accessibility
  • AI coding assistants
  • developer tools
  • WCAG
  • automated testing
  • GitHub Copilot
  • large language models
  • accessibility education
  • software development

• Morae: Proactively Pausing UI Agents for User Choices

  Yi-Hao Peng, Dingzeyu Li, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Amy Pavel (2025) — Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '25)

  This paper introduces Morae, a UI agent that proactively pauses during automated task execution to involve blind and low-vision (BLV) users in critical decisions, rather than completing tasks end-to-end without user input. The work is motivated by a …

  • UI agents
  • blind and low vision
  • large language models
  • human-agent interaction
  • user agency
  • mixed-initiative interaction
  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • artificial intelligence