Literature Reviews

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

• Designing an Animated Character System for American Sign Language

  Danielle Bragg, Raja Kushalnagar, Richard Ladner (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This University of Washington and Gallaudet University paper introduces the first animated character system prototype for sign language, addressing the fundamental problem that sign languages — used by approximately 70 million people worldwide as the…

  • sign language
  • deaf accessibility
  • ASL
  • writing systems
  • animation
  • literacy
  • participatory design
  • deaf culture
  • character systems

• Multimedia dictionary of American Sign Language

  Sherman Wilcox, Joanne Scheibman, Doug Wood, Dennis Cokely, William C. Stokoe (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper describes the Multimedia Dictionary of American Sign Language (MM-DASL), a Macintosh application functioning as a bilingual ASL-English dictionary that presents signs in full-motion digital video using Apple's QuickTime technology. The pro…

  • sign language
  • deaf accessibility
  • multimedia
  • dictionary
  • American Sign Language
  • digital video
  • linguistics
  • deaf culture
  • literacy

• 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

• Facilita: reading assistance to the functionally illiterate

  Willian Massami Watanabe (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents Facilita, a web application that uses natural language processing (NLP) to automatically simplify Portuguese web content for functionally illiterate users. In Brazil, 21.7% of the population aged 15 and over is…

  • literacy
  • cognitive accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • text simplification
  • readability
  • Portuguese
  • multilingual accessibility
  • digital inclusion

• WordMelodies: Supporting Children with Visual Impairment in Learning Literacy

  Sergio Mascetti, Giovanni Leontini, Cristian Bernareggi, Dragan Ahmetovic (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents WordMelodies, an inclusive cross-platform mobile application designed to support children with visual impairments in acquiring basic literacy skills. The app provides eight different exercises targeting foundational …

  • visual impairment
  • children
  • literacy
  • education
  • mobile application
  • inclusive design
  • assistive technology
  • accessibility
  • cross-platform

• WordMelodies: an Inclusive Mobile App Supporting the Acquisition of Literacy Skills

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, Irene Mantegazza, Sergio Mascetti (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This paper presents WordMelodies, a cross-platform mobile edutainment application designed for inclusive literacy education for primary school children with and without visual impairments or blindness (VIB). The app was motivated by a teacher of chil…

  • visual impairment
  • education accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • inclusive design
  • screen readers
  • literacy
  • edutainment