Literature Reviews

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

• Feedback-based evaluation tool for web accessibility

  Daisuke Asai, Masahiro Watanabe, Yoko Asano (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This short Assets '07 demonstration paper from NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories proposes a feedback-driven approach to improving automated web-accessibility evaluation tools. The authors frame the familiar problem that automated checkers such as Bobb…

  • web accessibility
  • automated testing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • crowdsourcing
  • WCAG
  • accessibility tools
  • evaluation rules

• Techniques to Assist in Developing Accessibility Engineers

  Jim A. Carter, David W. Fourney (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper describes the design and outcomes of CMPT 480/840 "Accessible Computing," a computer science course at the University of Saskatchewan focused on producing Accessibility Engineers rather than merely raising awareness of accessibility issues…

  • accessibility education
  • accessibility engineering
  • curriculum design
  • universal access
  • computer science education
  • professional development
  • ISO 9241
  • WCAG

• Functional Web Accessibility Techniques and Tools from the University of Illinois

  Jon Gunderson, Hadi Bargi Rangin, Nicholas Hoyt (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents two complementary tools developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for helping web developers create functionally accessible websites: the CITES/DRES Functional Web Accessibility Best Practices and associated eval…

  • web accessibility
  • automated testing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • WCAG
  • Section 508
  • browser extension
  • best practices
  • dynamic HTML

• Programmer-Focused Website Accessibility Evaluations

  Chris Law, Julie Jacko, Paula Edwards (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper argues that accessibility evaluation and reporting processes have historically focused on the needs of end-users with disabilities while overlooking the actual audience for evaluation reports: the programmers who must implement the fixes. …

  • accessibility evaluation
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility reporting
  • developer tools
  • organizational accessibility
  • WCAG
  • automated testing

• Accessibility of Internet Websites through Time

  Stephanie Hackett, Bambang Parmanto, Xiaoming Zeng (2004) — Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)

  This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of web accessibility from 1997 to 2002 using archived snapshots from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The researchers evaluated 240 archived instances of random websites (40 per year from the Alexa t…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • longitudinal study
  • WCAG
  • Section 508
  • web complexity
  • government websites
  • metrics
  • automated testing

• Evaluating Web Resources for Disability Access

  Murray Rowan, Peter Gregor, David Sloan, Paul Booth (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper from the University of Dundee's Digital Media Access Group argues that existing accessibility evaluation methods in 2000 were individually insufficient and proposes a comprehensive meta-methodology that combines multiple evaluation techniq…

  • accessibility evaluation
  • accessibility audit
  • automated testing
  • manual testing
  • heuristic evaluation
  • WCAG
  • web accessibility
  • evaluation methodology
  • usability testing
  • assistive technology testing

• A comparative test of web accessibility evaluation methods

  Giorgio Brajnik (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper presents a controlled laboratory experiment comparing two web accessibility evaluation methods: conformance review (CR) and barrier walkthrough (BW). Conformance review is the traditional approach where evaluators check whether a page sati…

  • accessibility evaluation
  • conformance testing
  • barrier walkthrough
  • web accessibility
  • WCAG
  • evaluation methods
  • accessibility testing
  • quality assessment

• How Much Does Expertise Matter? A Barrier Walkthrough Study with Experts and Non-Experts

  Yeliz Yesilada, Giorgio Brajnik, Simon Harper (2009) — Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper investigates whether expertise matters in manual web accessibility evaluation by comparing results from 19 expert and 51 non-expert judges using the Barrier Walkthrough (BW) method. The BW method is an analytical technique based on heurist…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • barrier walkthrough
  • WCAG
  • evaluator effect
  • expertise
  • accessibility testing
  • research methodology

• Validity and Reliability of Web Accessibility Guidelines

  Giorgio Brajnik (2009) — Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper presents an experiment measuring the validity and reliability of WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 checkpoints when applied by human evaluators. The study recruited 35 young web developers with some accessibility knowledge from a university course and…

  • accessibility evaluation
  • WCAG
  • conformance testing
  • inter-rater reliability
  • web accessibility
  • guidelines

• Web Accessibility as a Side Effect

  John T. Richards, Kyle Montague, Vicki L. Hanson (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper investigates the conjecture that improvements in web accessibility have arisen partly as unintentional side effects of changes in web technology and design practices, rather than from deliberate accessibility efforts. Building on a prior 1…

  • web accessibility
  • WCAG
  • CSS
  • semantic markup
  • search engine optimization
  • responsive design
  • web standards
  • longitudinal study
  • curb cut effect
  • accessibility trends