Literature Reviews

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

• Lessons Learned in Designing AI for Autistic Adults

  Andrew Begel, John Tang, Sean Andrist, Michael Barnett, Tony Carbary, Piali Choudhury, Edward Cutrell, Alberto Fung, Sasa Junuzovic, Daniel McDuff, Kael Rowan, Shibashankar Sahoo, Jennifer Frances Waldern, Jessica Wolk, Hui Zheng, Annuska Zolyomi (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper from Microsoft Research presents a candid account of a design failure and the valuable lessons it produced. The team set out to build Video Calling for Autism (VC4A), a video calling application with an "Expressiveness Mirror" that u…

  • autism
  • artificial intelligence
  • emotion recognition
  • video calling
  • participatory design
  • Wizard of Oz
  • neurodiversity
  • facial expression

• Disability design and innovation in computing research in low resource settings

  Dafne Zuleima Morgado-Ramirez, Giulia Barbareschi, Maggie Kate Donovan-Hall, Mohammad Sobuh, Nida' Elayyan, Brenda T Nakandi, Robert Tamale Ssekitoleko, Joyce Olenja, Grace Nyachomba Magomere, Sibylle Daymond, Jake Honeywill, Ian Harris, Nancy Mbugua, Laurence Kenney, Catherine Holloway (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This experience report from a large international team spanning UCL, University of Southampton, University of Jordan, Makerere University (Uganda), University of Nairobi (Kenya), University of Salford, and the Global Disability Innovation Hub present…

  • disability innovation
  • ICT4D
  • low resource settings
  • Disability Interaction
  • inclusive design
  • Global South
  • participatory design
  • wheelchair provision
  • prosthetics
  • mobile phones
  • co-design

• Value beyond function: analyzing the perception of wheelchair innovations in Kenya

  Giulia Barbareschi, Sibylle Daymond, Jake Honeywill, Aneesha Singh, Dominic Noble, Nancy N. Mbugua, Ian Harris, Victoria Austin, Catherine Holloway (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This study evaluates a novel wheelchair service provision model called InnovATe, developed by Motivation UK, that uses Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing to manufacture bespoke wheelchairs in Kenya. Over five months at the Bethany Kids rehab…

  • wheelchairs
  • assistive technology
  • 3D printing
  • emotional design
  • service delivery
  • disability identity
  • Global South
  • participatory design
  • customization

• Teaching Digital Fabrication to Early Intervention Specialists for Designing Their Own Tools

  Florian Güldenpfennig, Peter Fikar, Roman Ganhör (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20)

  This demonstration paper describes a co-design project in which researchers from New Design University and TU Wien taught basic digital fabrication skills to four experienced early intervention therapists who work with children with cerebral visual i…

  • digital fabrication
  • DIY assistive technology
  • co-design
  • early intervention
  • cerebral visual impairment
  • therapeutic toys
  • children
  • visual impairment
  • maker culture
  • participatory design

• Using a participatory activities toolkit to elicit privacy expectations of adaptive assistive technologies

  Foad Hamidi, Kellie Poneres, Aaron Massey, Amy Hurst (2020) — Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper addresses a critical but often overlooked tension in assistive technology design: the privacy tradeoff inherent in adaptive assistive technologies (AATs) that must collect and analyze user performance data to function effectively. The auth…

  • privacy
  • assistive technology
  • adaptive systems
  • participatory design
  • essential tremor
  • older adults
  • data ethics

• Meeting Participants with Intellectual Disabilities during COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Improvisation

  Leandro Soares Guedes, Monica Landoni (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This short paper (poster) shares lessons learned from conducting participatory design research with adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of a project aimed at making museum visits more accessible, re…

  • intellectual disability
  • co-design
  • COVID-19
  • museum accessibility
  • participatory design
  • improvisation
  • research methods
  • cultural accessibility

• Aided Nonverbal Communication through Physical Expressive Objects

  Stephanie Valencia, Mark Steidl, Michael Rivera, Cynthia Bennett, Jeffrey Bigham, Henny Admoni (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents an in-depth case study of co-designing a physical expressive "sidekick" device to support nonverbal communication for an augmented communicator (AC) named Mark, who has cerebral palsy and uses a head-switch-operated AAC device. Wh…

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • nonverbal communication
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • cerebral palsy
  • physical disability
  • robotics
  • tangible interaction
  • assistive technology

• Making the Elusive More Tangible: Remote Tools & Techniques for Teaching Web Development to Screen Reader Users

  Claire Ferrari, Chancey Fleet, Keita Ohshiro, Veronica Alfaro Arias, Amy Hurst (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a free, remote web development workshop for 12 screen reader users, conducted over nine Saturday sessions between August and October 2020. The workshop was a collaboration between New…

  • education accessibility
  • screen readers
  • web development
  • STEM accessibility
  • blindness
  • tactile graphics
  • inclusive design
  • participatory design

• Implementing an Accessible Conversational User Interface: Applying Feedback from University Students and Disability Support Advisors

  Francisco Iniesto, Tim Coughlan, Kate Lister (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents results from a beta trial of the ADMINS (Assistants for the Disclosure and Management of Information about Needs and Support) virtual assistant, developed at The Open University (UK) to help students disclose disabilities and rece…

  • conversational user interfaces
  • disability disclosure
  • higher education
  • participatory design
  • chatbots
  • virtual assistants
  • user experience
  • accessibility testing

• Socially Connecting Adults with Intellectual Disabilities Through Inclusive Co-Design of Tangible and Visual Technology

  Manesha Andradi (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents an in-progress PhD research program exploring how tangible and visual technologies can be co-designed with adults who have intellectual disabilities to foster social connections at non-residential learning hubs…

  • intellectual disability
  • co-design
  • tangible technology
  • social connection
  • participatory design
  • communication
  • reverse inclusion
  • self-expression