Literature Reviews

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

• Breaking Barriers to Digital Literacy: An Intergenerational Social-Cognitive Approach

  Keith Atkinson, Jaclyn Barnes, Judith Albee, Peter Anttila, Judith Haataja, Kanak Nanavati, Kelly Steelman, Charles Wallace (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This experience report presents narratives from learners and student tutors participating in the BASIC (Building Adult Skills in Computing) program at Michigan Technological University, which has paired university students with older community member…

  • aging
  • digital literacy
  • digital divide
  • education
  • collaborative learning
  • self-efficacy
  • cognitive accessibility
  • user experience

• Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology (DO-IT) on the electronic highway

  Sheryl Burgstahler, Dan Comden (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper describes DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology), a National Science Foundation-funded project based at the University of Washington's College of Engineering. DO-IT was designed to recruit and retain students w…

  • STEM accessibility
  • STEM education
  • digital divide
  • disability employment
  • internet accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • higher education
  • adaptive technology

• Mobile phones may be the right devices for supporting developing world accessibility, but is the WWW the right service delivery model?

  Tapan S. Parikh (2006) — Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This position paper from the University of Washington argues that while mobile phones are well-suited devices for delivering information services to rural developing world users, the World Wide Web as a service delivery model is fundamentally mismatc…

  • mobile accessibility
  • digital divide
  • ICT4D
  • rural accessibility
  • novice users
  • Global South accessibility
  • literacy
  • offline access

• Iconic Communication System by XML Language: (SCILX)

  Nathalie Cindy Kuicheu, Laure Pauline Fotso, François Siewe (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) and De Montfort University (UK) presents SCILX, an XML-based iconic communication system that extends traditional iconic interfaces to enable communication through the Internet. Previous iconic s…

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • iconic communication
  • XML
  • literacy
  • digital divide
  • Global Accessibility
  • healthcare accessibility
  • communication accessibility
  • developing countries

• Thailand's National Digital Divide Strategic Framework

  Proadpran Punyabukkana, Suchai Thanawastien, Ajin Jirachiefpattana (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents Thailand's Digital Divide Strategic Framework (2008-2010), a national plan developed by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to address ICT accessibility for three target populations: the poor, people with disa…

  • accessibility policy
  • digital divide
  • assistive technology
  • web accessibility
  • universal design
  • developing countries
  • government policy
  • Global Accessibility

• Accessibility Perspectives on Enabling South African Sign Language in the South African National Accessibility Portal

  Louis Coetzee, Guillaume Olivrin, Ilse Viviers (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of embedding animated South African Sign Language (SASL) content into the South African National Accessibility Portal (NAP), a government-backed information sharing platform for the disability…

  • sign language
  • deaf accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • localization
  • South Africa
  • digital divide
  • animated sign language
  • developing countries

• Augmenting social media accessibility

  Roberto Borrino, Marco Furini, Marco Roccetti (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper presents SOMFA (SOcial Media For All), an architecture that transforms web-based social media content into multimodal audio/video presentations suitable for television sets. The system addresses the growing social divide created by social …

  • social media
  • digital divide
  • aging
  • content adaptation
  • text-to-speech
  • multimodal interaction
  • television accessibility
  • web syndication

• (Voice) website creation and access using phones

  Arun Kumar, Sheetal K. Agarwal, Priyanka Manwani, Ketki Dhanesha (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This challenge paper from IBM Research India presents Spoken Web, a platform that enables people to create and access "voice websites" (VoiceSites) entirely through phone calls using speech and DTMF (touch-tone) input. The system takes a fundamentall…

  • voice interface
  • developing countries
  • digital divide
  • low literacy
  • user-generated content
  • mobile accessibility
  • multilingual access

• Developing countries; developing experiences: approaches to accessibility for the real world

  Brian Kelly, Sarah Lewthwaite, David Sloan (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper critically examines the limitations of relying solely on technical accessibility guidelines like WCAG to achieve digital inclusion, particularly in the context of developing countries. The authors argue that the WAI model — which depends o…

  • accessibility policy
  • social inclusion
  • disability studies
  • WCAG limitations
  • developing countries
  • digital divide
  • cognitive accessibility

• Web 2.0: Hype or Happiness?

  Mary Zajicek (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This keynote paper by Mary Zajicek of Oxford Brookes University takes a deliberately broad, holistic view of Web 2.0 accessibility, arguing that physical access to web content is only the starting point. Zajicek defines accessibility along three dime…

  • Web 2.0
  • digital inclusion
  • older adults
  • visual impairment
  • digital divide
  • social accessibility
  • community
  • developing world
  • deafblindness