Literature Reviews

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

• Should I Trust It When I Cannot See It? Credibility Assessment for Blind Web Users

  Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper examines how blind screen reader users assess the credibility of web content compared to sighted users, revealing fundamental differences in credibility assessment strategies between the two groups. Web credibility — the believability of i…

  • blindness
  • screen reader
  • web accessibility
  • web design
  • usability
  • information access
  • user research
  • security

• Who Should Have Access to my Pointing Data? Privacy Tradeoffs of Adaptive Assistive Technologies

  Foad Hamidi, Kellie Poneres, Aaron Massey, Amy Hurst (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This UMBC study examines the often-overlooked privacy tradeoffs inherent in Adaptive Assistive Technologies (AATs) — software systems that monitor user performance data to automatically adapt their functionality. While AATs offer significant usabilit…

  • privacy
  • security
  • adaptive systems
  • assistive technology
  • essential tremor
  • older adults
  • pointing
  • motor impairment
  • threat modeling
  • ethics

• Understanding Authentication Method Use on Mobile Devices by People with Vision Impairment

  Daniella Briotto Faustino, Audrey Girouard (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This Carleton University study presents the largest survey to date on how people with vision impairments use passwords and authentication methods on mobile devices. The researchers collected responses from 325 participants (225 blind, 100 low vision)…

  • blindness
  • low vision
  • mobile accessibility
  • authentication
  • security
  • privacy
  • passwords
  • biometrics
  • shoulder surfing

• Bend Passwords on BendyPass: A User Authentication Method for People with Vision Impairment

  Daniella Briotto Faustino, Audrey Girouard (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This demonstration paper presents BendyPass, a flexible silicone device that allows people with vision impairments to enter passwords through physical bend and fold gestures rather than typing PINs or text passwords. The project addresses a significa…

  • visual impairment
  • security
  • user authentication
  • deformable user interface
  • haptic feedback
  • shoulder surfing
  • prototyping

• Automatic Generation and Evaluation of Usable and Secure Audio reCAPTCHA

  Mohit Jain, Rohun Tripathi, Ishita Bhansali, Pratyush Kumar (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents reCAPGen, a system that automatically generates usable and secure audio CAPTCHAs by leveraging the gap between human and machine speech recognition abilities. Visual CAPTCHAs — the dominant form of online human verification — are …

  • CAPTCHA
  • audio accessibility
  • blind
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • speech recognition
  • security
  • crowdsourcing
  • screen readers

• Cognitive Function vs. Accessible Authentication: Insights from Dyslexia Research

  Jacques Ophoff, Graham Johnson, Karen Renaud (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper explores the accessibility challenges that password-based authentication poses to people with dyslexia, arguing that accessibility is a neglected third dimension alongside the well-studied security and usability considerations. The authors…

  • cognitive accessibility
  • dyslexia
  • authentication
  • security
  • passwords
  • WCAG
  • cognitive disability