Literature Reviews

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

• The accessibility of administrative processes: Assessing the impacts on students in higher education

  Tim Coughlan, Kate Lister (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper investigates the impacts that administrative processes — such as applying for disability support, gaining medical evidence, registering for courses, and applying for government benefits — have on disabled university students. The research …

  • administrative burden
  • higher education
  • disability
  • mental health
  • forms accessibility
  • disability support
  • participatory research
  • stress
  • reasonable adjustments
  • UK

• On Accessibility Policies for Higher Education Institutions

  Giorgio Brajnik, Sanela Graca (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper analyses the web accessibility policies of twenty universities across Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia to identify what constitutes an effective accessibility policy and provide guidance for institutions creating or revising th…

  • web accessibility
  • higher education
  • accessibility policy
  • WCAG
  • organizational accessibility
  • compliance
  • Section 508
  • ADA
  • accessibility evaluation
  • governance

• Exploring the Role of Tunnel Vision Simulation in the Design Cycle of Accessible Interfaces

  Rie Kamikubo, Keita Higuchi, Ryo Yonetani, Hideki Koike, Yoichi Sato (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper investigates whether gaze-contingent tunnel vision simulation can serve as a reliable tool within the design cycle for accessible web interfaces, enabling sighted developers to experience and evaluate prototypes under simulated visual fiel…

  • low vision
  • tunnel vision
  • retinitis pigmentosa
  • simulation
  • eye tracking
  • accessible design
  • design methodology
  • usability testing
  • web accessibility
  • visual field loss

• Collaborative Accessibility Assessments by Senior Citizens Using Smartphone Application ReAcTS (Real-world Accessibility Transaction System)

  Takahiro Miura, Ken-ichiro Yabu, Ryogo Ogino, Atsushi Hiyama, Michitaka Hirose, Tohru Ifukube (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper presents ReAcTS (Real-world Accessibility Transaction System), a smartphone application designed to enable senior citizen volunteers to collaboratively assess and share real-world physical accessibility conditions in their local communitie…

  • crowdsourcing
  • older adults
  • urban accessibility
  • accessibility mapping
  • volunteering
  • smartphone
  • intergenerational collaboration
  • physical accessibility
  • Japan
  • citizen science

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Web Accessibility: Is Conformance Evaluation a Way Forward?

  Shadi Abou-Zahra, Judy Brewer, Michael Cooper (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper from three W3C/WAI staff members explores the potential and limitations of applying artificial intelligence to improve web accessibility, proposing accessibility conformance evaluation as a strategic pathway to accelerate AI adoption…

  • artificial intelligence
  • web accessibility
  • WCAG
  • automated testing
  • machine learning
  • image recognition
  • alternative text
  • conformance evaluation
  • W3C
  • accessibility standards

• CaBot: Designing and Evaluating an Autonomous Navigation Robot for Blind People

  João Guerreiro, Daisuke Sato, Saki Asakawa, Huixu Dong, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents CaBot (Carry-on roBot), an autonomous suitcase-shaped navigation robot designed to guide blind people to destinations in unfamiliar indoor environments while avoiding obstacles. Unlike smartphone navigation apps that provide turn-…

  • navigation robot
  • blind
  • orientation and mobility
  • haptic feedback
  • LiDAR
  • computer vision
  • human-robot interaction
  • obstacle avoidance
  • bone conduction
  • indoor navigation

• Exploration of Automatic Speech Recognition for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Higher Education Classes

  Janine Butler, Brian Trager, Byron Behm (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents a qualitative study of how deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (Rochester Institute of Technology) experienced automatic speech recognition (ASR) as a supplemental access servic…

  • speech recognition
  • Deaf and hard of hearing
  • captioning
  • higher education
  • real-time captions
  • CART
  • sign language interpreter
  • word error rate
  • STEM accessibility

• VERSE: Bridging Screen Readers and Voice Assistants for Enhanced Eyes-Free Web Search

  Alexandra Vtyurina, Adam Fourney, Meredith Ringel Morris, Leah Findlater, Ryen W. White (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper identifies the complementary strengths and weaknesses of screen readers and voice assistants (VAs) for blind web searchers, then presents VERSE (Voice Exploration, Retrieval, and SEarch), a prototype that merges the best of both technologi…

  • screen readers
  • voice assistant
  • blind
  • web search
  • information retrieval
  • web accessibility
  • smart speaker
  • smartwatch
  • multimodal interaction
  • VoiceOver

• Understanding Mental Ill-health as Psychosocial Disability: Implications for Assistive Technology

  Kathryn E. Ringland, Jennifer Nicholas, Rachel Kornfield, Emily G. Lattie, David C. Mohr, Madhu Reddy (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper argues that mental ill-health — including depression, anxiety, and other mental, emotional, or cognitive experiences — should be understood as psychosocial disability and examined through a social model lens rather than exclusively through…

  • psychosocial disability
  • mental health
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • social model of disability
  • stigma
  • assistive technology
  • disability studies
  • self-management
  • invisible disability

• Effect of Automatic Sign Recognition Performance on the Usability of Video-Based Search Interfaces for Sign Language Dictionaries

  Oliver Alonzo, Abraham Glasser, Matt Huenerfauth (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper investigates how the performance of automatic sign recognition technology affects user satisfaction when searching for unfamiliar words in an ASL-to-English dictionary. Looking up an unknown sign in ASL is fundamentally harder than looking…

  • sign language
  • ASL
  • sign language recognition
  • dictionary
  • Deaf and hard of hearing
  • information retrieval
  • Wizard of Oz
  • usability
  • computer vision
  • evaluation methods