Literature Reviews

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

• Reading in Multimodal Environments: Assessing Legibility and Accessibility of Typography for Television

  Penelope Allen, Judith Garman, Ian Calvert, Jane Murison (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper from BBC Research & Development explores the legibility and accessibility of typography on television, an area that had received surprisingly little research attention despite the increasing complexity of text-based content o…

  • typography
  • readability
  • multimedia accessibility
  • low vision
  • cognitive accessibility
  • aging
  • television accessibility
  • visual design

• IDEAL: A Dyslexic-Friendly eBook Reader

  Gaurang Kanvinde, Luz Rello, Ricardo Baeza-Yates (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This demonstration paper presents the IDEAL eBook Reader, an Android application that displays ePub-formatted ebooks with a text layout specifically adapted for readers with dyslexia. The design is grounded in empirical research: layout guidelines we…

  • dyslexia
  • readability
  • ebook
  • ePub
  • text-to-speech
  • assistive technology
  • Android
  • text layout
  • reading accessibility
  • cognitive accessibility

• Good Fonts for Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Ricardo Baeza-Yates (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents the first experiment using eye tracking to objectively measure the impact of font type on reading performance for people with dyslexia. Using a within-subject design, 48 participants with clinically confirmed dyslexia (ages 11-50)…

  • dyslexia
  • typography
  • readability
  • eye tracking
  • font design
  • cognitive accessibility
  • text presentation
  • legibility

• Web Accessibility for Older Adults: Effects of Line Spacing and Text Justification on Reading Web Pages

  Helen Petrie, Sorachai Kamollimsakul, Christopher Power (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This poster paper empirically tests two common web accessibility recommendations for older adults: increased line spacing and left-only text justification. The authors note that at least 10 sets of guidelines for making websites accessible to older p…

  • older adults
  • web accessibility
  • typography
  • line spacing
  • text justification
  • readability
  • web design guidelines
  • aging

• Making It Simplext: Implementation and Evaluation of a Text Simplification System for Spanish

  Horacio Saggion, Sanja Štajner, Stefan Bott, Simon Mille, Luz Rello, Biljana Drndarevic (2015) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents Simplext, the first comprehensive automatic text simplification (ATS) system for Spanish. The research addresses a fundamental accessibility barrier: textual content written in complex language excludes people with cognitive disab…

  • text simplification
  • natural language processing
  • cognitive accessibility
  • readability
  • Spanish
  • intellectual disability
  • Down syndrome
  • automatic text simplification

• The Effect of Font Type on Screen Readability by People with Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Ricardo Baeza-Yates (2016) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This eye-tracking study investigates how different font types affect screen reading performance for people with dyslexia compared to non-dyslexic readers. The researchers recruited 97 native Spanish speakers—48 diagnosed with dyslexia and 49 without—…

  • dyslexia
  • typography
  • readability
  • eye tracking
  • font design
  • cognitive accessibility

• Good Background Colors for Readers: A Study of People with and without Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper presents the first large-scale user study measuring the effect of background colors on screen readability for people with and without dyslexia, providing empirical evidence for the widely recommended but previously unvalidated practice of …

  • dyslexia
  • readability
  • color contrast
  • reading accessibility
  • visual design
  • web accessibility
  • typography
  • Meares-Irlen syndrome

• Layout Guidelines for Web Text and a Web Service to Improve Accessibility for Dyslexics

  Luz Rello, Gaurang Kanvinde, Ricardo Baeza-Yates (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents evidence-based layout guidelines for making web text more readable for people with dyslexia, derived from a user study with 22 dyslexic participants and a matched control group. The study is notable for being the first to combine …

  • dyslexia
  • readability
  • typography
  • eye tracking
  • text presentation
  • web accessibility
  • cognitive accessibility
  • color contrast
  • font size
  • line spacing

• Size Matters (Spacing Not): 18 Points for a Dyslexic-Friendly Wikipedia

  Luz Rello, Martin Pielot, Mari-Carmen Marcos, Roberto Carlini (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates the effect of font size and line spacing on readability and comprehension for people with dyslexia, tested in the real-world context of Wikipedia articles rather than isolated text samples. The authors conducted an eye-trackin…

  • dyslexia
  • typography
  • readability
  • eye tracking
  • font size
  • line spacing
  • text presentation
  • cognitive accessibility
  • web accessibility

• DysWebxia 2.0! More Accessible Text for People with Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Clara Bayarri, Azuki Gòrriz, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Saurabh Gupta, Gaurang Kanvinde, Horacio Saggion, Stefan Bott, Roberto Carlini, Vasile Topac (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper introduces DysWebxia 2.0, a model for making text more accessible to people with dyslexia by modifying both the presentation and content of text. The project is notable for being the first model to combine text presentation changes (f…

  • dyslexia
  • text simplification
  • readability
  • assistive technology
  • text presentation
  • cognitive accessibility
  • browser extension
  • natural language processing