Literature Reviews

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

• An experimental sound-based hierarchical menu navigation system for visually handicapped use of graphical user interfaces

  Arthur I. Karshmer, P. Brawner, G. Reiswig (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper addresses the accessibility crisis created by the shift from character-based computer interfaces to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the early 1990s. The authors note that earlier text-based systems were well-served by assistive technol…

  • GUI accessibility
  • sonification
  • auditory interface
  • blind and low vision
  • menu navigation
  • screen readers
  • earcons

• Interactive audio documents

  T. V. Raman, David Gries (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper describes the browsing component of AsTeR (Audio System for Technical Readings), an interactive computing system developed by T. V. Raman that audio-formats electronic documents written in LaTeX to produce navigable audio documents. The pa…

  • mathematical accessibility
  • audio formatting
  • screen readers
  • document accessibility
  • blind and low vision
  • text-to-speech
  • interactive browsing

• Screen Reader/2: Access to OS/2 and the Graphical User Interface

  Jim Thatcher (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper describes IBM Screen Reader/2, a screen access system that enabled blind users to interact with the OS/2 graphical user interface (GUI), Windows programs running under OS/2, and text-mode DOS and OS/2 programs. The system evolved from near…

  • screen readers
  • graphical user interface
  • blind users
  • off-screen model
  • text-to-speech
  • GUI accessibility
  • IBM

• An accessible method of hiding HTML content

  Paul Ryan Bohman, Shane Anderson (2004) — Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from WebAIM researchers at Utah State University presents a CSS technique for visually hiding HTML content while keeping it accessible to screen readers — an early formalization of what became the widely adopted "sr-only" or "visually-hidd…

  • CSS
  • screen readers
  • visually hidden text
  • web development
  • skip navigation
  • form accessibility
  • image replacement

• Extracting content from accessible web pages

  Suhit Gupta, Gail Kaiser (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Columbia University presents Crunch, a web proxy tool that applies heuristic-based filters to extract core content from web pages by removing clutter such as advertisements, navigation menus, spacer elements, and extraneous links. Cru…

  • content extraction
  • screen readers
  • web clutter
  • DOM
  • web proxy
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility

• Is accessible design a myth?

  Eric A. Meyer (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  In this position paper, prominent CSS expert Eric Meyer (of Complex Spiral Consulting) examines the tensions between rich visual web design and accessibility, asking whether the two can truly coexist. Meyer traces the history of CSS image replacement…

  • screen readers
  • CSS
  • image replacement
  • skip links
  • web design
  • assistive technology
  • visual design
  • user education

• AcceSS: accessibility through simplification & summarization

  Bambang Parmanto, Reza Ferrydiansyah, Andi Saptono, Lijing Song, I Wayan Sugiantara, Stephanie Hackett (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Pittsburgh presents AcceSS, a transcoding system that makes web pages more accessible to visually impaired users through two complementary strategies: simplification and summarization. The authors identify a fundamen…

  • screen readers
  • visual impairment
  • web transcoding
  • content simplification
  • web navigation
  • gestalt comprehension
  • assistive technology

• 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…

  • non-visual web browser
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • machine learning
  • VoiceXML
  • speech recognition
  • navigation
  • assistive technology
  • open source

• 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 …

  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • blogging
  • multilingual accessibility
  • navigation
  • alternative text
  • CAPTCHA
  • Global Accessibility
  • Chinese language

• 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…

  • ARIA
  • live regions
  • web accessibility
  • AJAX
  • Web 2.0
  • screen readers
  • dynamic content
  • keyboard accessibility
  • instant messaging
  • open source