Literature Reviews

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

• Smarter Board: A Community-Oriented Communication Tool

  Mateus Molinaro, Sergio Borger, Carlos Cardonha, Diego Gallo, Ricardo Herrmann, Ademir Ferreira, Fernando Koch, Priscilla Avegliano, Kelly Shigeno (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper from IBM Research Brazil presents the Smarter Board, a lightweight community-focused social network platform designed specifically for groups of people with disabilities. The system deliberately uses SMS text messages as its primary i…

  • social accessibility
  • community
  • digital inclusion
  • communication accessibility
  • SMS
  • low-technology
  • assistive technology
  • disability community

• Legion Scribe: Real-Time Captioning by the Non-Experts

  Walter S. Lasecki, Christopher D. Miller, Raja Kushalnagar, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper introduces Legion Scribe, a system that enables real-time captioning of speech by harnessing 3-5 ordinary typists working simultaneously, rather than relying on expensive professional stenographers. Real-time captioning provides text …

  • captioning
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • crowdsourcing
  • real-time captioning
  • communication accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • human computation

• Automatic Natural Language Generation Applied to Alternative and Augmentative Communication for Online Video Content Services using SimpleNLG for Spanish

  Silvia García-Méndez, Milagros Fernández-Gavilanes, Enrique Costa-Montenegro, Jonathan Juncal-Martínez, Francisco Javier González-Castaño (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper presents the development of a Spanish version of SimpleNLG — a natural language generation (NLG) library — specifically enhanced for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) applications. The work addresses a gap at the inter…

  • AAC
  • natural language processing
  • pictograms
  • Spanish
  • natural language generation
  • autism
  • communication accessibility
  • video accessibility
  • speech and language

• Breaking Boundaries with Live Transcribe: Expanding Use Cases Beyond Standard Captioning Scenarios

  Fernando Loizides, Sara Basson, Dimitri Kanevsky, Olga Prilepova, Sagar Savla, Susanna Zaraysky (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper catalogs non-traditional, serendipitous uses of Google's Live Transcribe, a free Android application that provides real-time speech-to-text transcription in over 80 languages. The authors — a mix of Google developers, researchers, an…

  • automatic speech recognition
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • captioning
  • speech to text
  • COVID-19
  • communication accessibility
  • mobile accessibility

• Student and Teacher Perspectives of Learning ASL in an Online Setting

  Garreth W. Tigwell, Roshan L Peiris, Stacey Watson, Gerald M. Garavuso, Heather Miller (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This experience report examines the challenges and opportunities of teaching and learning American Sign Language (ASL) online during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspectives of both students and a Deaf instructor at Rochester Institute of Technol…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • sign language
  • education accessibility
  • videoconferencing
  • remote learning
  • communication accessibility
  • COVID-19

• Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users' Preferences for Hearing Speakers' Behavior during Technology-Mediated In-Person and Remote Conversations

  Matthew Seita, Sarah Andrew, Matt Huenerfauth (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the first quantitative evidence of Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals' preferences for specific speech and non-verbal behaviors from hearing conversational partners during technology-mediated communication. The researchers…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • automatic speech recognition
  • videoconferencing
  • communication accessibility
  • speechreading
  • deaf accessibility
  • social interaction

• Notification Designs for Influencing Hearing Speakers' Behaviors During Captioned Conversations Among Mixed DHH-Hearing Groups

  Matthew Seita, Sarah Andrew, Matt Huenerfauth (2025) — Proceedings of the 22nd International Web for All Conference (W4A 2025)

  This paper investigates notification system designs that prompt hearing speakers to adjust their speech behaviors (speaking slower, louder, or more clearly) during ASR-captioned videoconference conversations with Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) partic…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • automatic speech recognition
  • captioning
  • notification design
  • videoconferencing
  • communication accessibility
  • Wizard-of-Oz