Literature Reviews — A11y Paradise

The HearSay Non-Visual Web Browser

Yevgen Borodin, Jalal Mahmud, I. V. Ramakrishnan, Amanda Stent (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper presents the original HearSay non-visual web browser (version 1/2), developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Helen Keller Services for the Blind. HearSay is a free, open-source, cross-platform browser written in Java t…

(Natural Language) Interaction with Graphical Representations of Statistical Data

Leo Ferres, Petro Verkhogliad, Louis Boucher (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from Carleton University and Statistics Canada presents iGraph-Lite, a system that makes statistical graphs published in "The Daily" (Statistics Canada's main dissemination publication) accessible to blind and visually impaired users throu…

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 …

Ajax Live Regions: ReefChat Using the Fire Vox Screen Reader as a Case Example

Peter Thiessen, Charles Chen (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper presents ReefChat, an accessible Ajax chat application, and Fire Vox, an open-source screen reader extension for Firefox, as a proof-of-concept for WAI-ARIA live regions — one of the earliest practical demonstrations of this then-nascent s…

Accessible Image File Formats: The Need and the Way (Position Paper)

Sandeep R. Patil (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This position paper from IBM India argues that existing WCAG guidelines for image accessibility (alt text, longdesc, image maps) are insufficient because they rely on voluntary compliance by content authors and cannot address scenarios where images a…

Making Multimedia Content Accessible for Screen Reader Users

Hisashi Miyashita, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from IBM Research Tokyo describes an accessible multimedia browser designed to address three critical barriers blind users face with web multimedia content. The first problem is audio conflict: when media plays on a page, its sound masks t…

Accessibility for Simple to Moderate-Complexity DHTML Web Sites

Cynthia C. Shelly, George Young (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This detailed technical paper from Microsoft provides practical design and coding techniques for making Dynamic HTML and AJAX applications accessible using the browser and assistive technology capabilities available in 2007 — deliberately without rel…

Mathematics on the Web: Emerging Opportunities for Visually Impaired People

Cristian Bernareggi, Dominique Archambault (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from the @Science European thematic network surveys the state of the art in making mathematical content on the web accessible to visually impaired people, arguing that MathML adoption is the key to unlocking accessibility. The authors expl…

Using a CMS to Create Fully Accessible Websites

Sébastien Rainville-Pitt, Jean-Marie D'Amour (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This demonstration paper presents Edimaster Plus, a content management system developed over five years by Netic Hypermedia Inc. in Quebec, Canada, designed from the ground up to generate fully accessible websites meeting all three WAI priority level…

Accessibility 2.0: People, Policies and Processes

Brian Kelly, David Sloan, Stephen Brown, Jane Seale, Helen Petrie, Patrick Lauke, Simon Ball (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This influential paper by a multi-institutional UK team argues that the WAI's predominantly technology-focused approach to web accessibility is counter-productive, and proposes "Accessibility 2.0" — a user-focused, contextual, pluralistic alternative…