Literature Reviews

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

• Middleware to Expand Context and Preview in Hypertext

  Simon Harper, Carole Goble, Robert Stevens, Yeliz Yesilada (2004) — Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)

  This paper presents a middleware tool that automatically annotates web pages with expanded context and preview information for hypertext links, addressing a core navigation problem for visually impaired web users. The authors draw an analogy between …

  • web accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • web navigation
  • web transcoding
  • link context
  • screen reader
  • hypertext
  • web mobility

• Accessibility Designer: Visualizing Usability for the Blind

  Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Kentarou Fukuda, Junji Maeda (2003) — Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '04)

  This paper from IBM's Tokyo Research Laboratory presents Accessibility Designer (aDesigner), a tool that goes beyond conventional accessibility checkers by visualising the usability of web pages for blind screen reader users rather than merely checki…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility testing
  • screen reader
  • blindness and low vision
  • accessibility tools
  • usability
  • automated testing
  • skip navigation
  • alt text
  • heading hierarchy
  • accessibility evaluation

• Improving the Accessibility of Aurally Rendered HTML Tables

  Robert Filepp, James Challenger, Daniela Rosu (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper from IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center proposes TTPML (Table To Prose Markup Language), an XML-compliant markup language designed to transform HTML tables into intelligible prose descriptions for blind and visually impaired users. The auth…

  • web accessibility
  • tables
  • aural rendering
  • screen reader
  • XML
  • markup language
  • blindness
  • table linearization

• Auditory and Tactile Interfaces for Representing the Visual Effects on the Web

  Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shuichi Ino, Tohru Ifukube (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper from IBM Japan and Hokkaido University explores how blind users can perceive the visual structure and emphasis effects of web pages through auditory and tactile interfaces. The researchers identified a critical gap: modern web pages increa…

  • sonification
  • tactile interface
  • blindness
  • web accessibility
  • nonvisual interaction
  • visual effects
  • screen reader
  • multimodal interaction

• Site-Wide Annotation: Reconstructing Existing Pages to Be Accessible

  Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Kentarou Fukuda, Junji Maeda (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '02)

  This paper from IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory presents a system for making inaccessible web pages accessible through external annotations, without modifying the original pages. The core problem is "page fragmentation" — on visually designed web pages…

  • web accessibility
  • web transcoding
  • web annotation
  • screen reader
  • blindness and low vision
  • DOM
  • XPath
  • content adaptation

• Fast Web by Using Updated Content Extraction and a Bookmark Facility

  Tsuyoshi Ebina, Seiji Igi, Teruhisa Miyake (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper from Japan's Communications Research Laboratory presents two techniques for improving speech-based web navigation for visually impaired users. The core problem is that accessing web pages through speech output is significantly slower than …

  • web accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • web navigation
  • screen reader
  • speech-based navigation
  • content extraction
  • assistive technology

• A Java Programming Tool for Students with Visual Disabilities

  Ann C. Smith, Joan M. Francioni, Sam D. Matzek (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper presents JavaSpeak, a specialized programming environment designed to make learning Java accessible to students with visual disabilities. The authors, computer science educators at Saint Mary's University and Winona State University, ident…

  • programming education
  • visual impairment
  • screen reader
  • code accessibility
  • auditory interface
  • assistive technology
  • STEM accessibility

• Annotation-Based Transcoding for Nonvisual Web Access

  Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This companion paper to the same authors' transcoding proxy paper (also at Assets '00) provides a detailed technical description of the annotation-based component of their IBM Japan transcoding system. The core problem addressed is that modern web pa…

  • web accessibility
  • screen reader
  • transcoding
  • non-visual access
  • blindness and low vision
  • annotations
  • content adaptation
  • web navigation
  • crowdsourcing
  • authoring tools

• Transcoding Proxy for Nonvisual Web Access

  Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper presents a transcoding proxy system developed at IBM Japan that transforms existing web pages to be more accessible for blind users. The authors address the growing problem of web pages being designed with increasingly complex layouts that…

  • web accessibility
  • screen reader
  • transcoding
  • proxy
  • blind and low vision
  • non-visual access
  • annotations
  • content adaptation
  • web navigation

• An Interactive Method for Accessing Tables in HTML

  Toshiya Oogane, Chieko Asakawa (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from IBM Japan proposes a method for converting HTML tables into non-visual, navigable representations for screen reader users. At the time, Screen Reader/2 (the Japanese version of OS/2's screen reader) could read displayed text informati…

  • web accessibility
  • screen reader
  • HTML tables
  • table accessibility
  • blind and low vision
  • non-visual interaction
  • web development