Literature Reviews

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

• Combining SADIe and AxsJAX to Improve the Accessibility of Web Content

  Darren Lunn, Simon Harper, Sean Bechhofer (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Manchester presents a prototype system that combines two accessibility approaches — SADIe and Google's AxsJAX framework — to improve web content access for visually impaired screen reader users. SADIe (Semantic Annot…

  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • transcoding
  • ARIA
  • CSS
  • assistive technology
  • visual impairment
  • Web 2.0
  • keyboard navigation

• TeleWeb: accessible service for web browsing via phone

  Yevgen Borodin, Glenn Dausch, I. V. Ramakrishnan (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper presents TeleWeb, a telephony service that enables web browsing via any standard telephone using speech and keypad input. Built on top of the HearSay non-visual web browser engine from Stony Brook University, TeleWeb allows users to call a…

  • screen readers
  • voice interface
  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • telephony
  • speech recognition
  • aging
  • web navigation
  • assistive technology

• TextSL: a screen reader accessible interface for second life

  Bugra Oktay, Eelke Folmer (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents TextSL, a text-based command interface for Second Life that enables visually impaired users to explore and interact with the virtual world using a screen reader (JAWS). Inspired by multi-user dungeon (MUD) text adventure games lik…

  • virtual worlds
  • screen readers
  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • text-based interface
  • command-line interface
  • Second Life
  • game accessibility

• Modelling web navigation with the user in mind

  Ruslan Fayzrakhmanov, Max Göbel, Wolfgang Holzinger, Bernhard Krüpl, Andreas Mager, Robert Baumgartner (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper introduces the ABBA (Advanced Barrier-free Browser Accessibility) framework, a novel approach to screen reader design that replaces traditional sequential DOM-based navigation with a multi-axial navigation model. The core insight is that c…

  • screen readers
  • web navigation
  • visual impairment
  • semantic web
  • ontology
  • web information extraction
  • document structure

• Social accessibility: the challenge of improving web accessibility through collaboration

  Daisuke Sato, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents Social Accessibility, a collaborative project from IBM Research Tokyo that enlists volunteers to fix web accessibility problems reported by visually impaired users. The system works through a three-step process: blind users encoun…

  • crowdsourcing
  • screen readers
  • alternative text
  • visual impairment
  • social computing
  • collaborative accessibility
  • external metadata

• Tailored presentation of dynamic content

  Andy Brown, Caroline Jay, Simon Harper (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the SASWAT browser, a research prototype built as a self-voicing extension to Firefox (based on Fire Vox), designed to address a fundamental challenge of the Web 2.0 era: how should screen readers notify users about dynamic page u…

  • screen readers
  • dynamic content
  • AJAX
  • Web 2.0
  • eye tracking
  • ARIA live regions
  • assistive technology

• WAI-ARIA Live Regions and HTML5

  Peter Thiessen (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper examines the interoperability of WAI-ARIA live regions with HTML5 semantic elements, testing whether screen readers can correctly handle dynamic DOM updates when live region attributes are applied to new HTML5 elements like section, nav, a…

  • WAI-ARIA
  • HTML5
  • screen readers
  • dynamic content
  • AJAX
  • web standards
  • accessibility testing
  • blind and low vision

• AJAX Time Machine

  Andy Brown, Simon Harper (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper proposes the AJAX Time Machine, a Google Chrome browser extension that records states of dynamically updating web page regions and allows users to step backwards and forwards through those states at their own pace. The authors argue that d…

  • AJAX
  • dynamic content
  • cognitive accessibility
  • aging
  • screen readers
  • browser extension
  • web accessibility
  • DOM manipulation

• Application of Content Adaptation in Web Accessibility for the Blind

  Pauli P. Y. Lai (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper proposes transforming web pages into hierarchical, numbered menu structures — modeled on Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS) — so blind users can navigate content by pressing number keys rather than listening sequentially through ent…

  • blind and low vision
  • content adaptation
  • screen readers
  • mobile accessibility
  • web page segmentation
  • navigation
  • DOM manipulation

• The AccDC Enterprise API for Advanced UI Automation

  Bryan Garaventa (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper presents the AccDC Enterprise API, a JavaScript-based dynamic content management system designed to build Rich Internet Applications with automatic accessibility built in from the ground up. Created by Bryan Garaventa through WhatSock…

  • WAI-ARIA
  • JavaScript
  • rich internet applications
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility tools
  • dynamic content
  • screen readers
  • keyboard accessibility