Literature Reviews

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

• Designing for Dynamic Diversity: Interfaces for Older People

  Peter Gregor, Alan F. Newell, Mary Zajicek (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '02)

  This paper argues that mainstream interface design fails older people by assuming a static, "typical" user who is young, fit, and male. The authors identify three broad groups of older computer users: fit older people who do not consider themselves d…

  • aging
  • inclusive design
  • user-centered design
  • universal design
  • older adults
  • visual impairment
  • cognitive accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • design methodology
  • usability

• Speech Recognition in University Classrooms: Liberated Learning Project

  Keith Bain, Sara H. Basson, Mike Wald (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper describes the Liberated Learning Project (LLP), an international applied research initiative studying whether speech recognition technology can successfully convert live university lectures into real-time text displays, serving as an alter…

  • speech recognition
  • higher education
  • deaf accessibility
  • real-time captioning
  • universal design
  • lecture accessibility
  • notetaking

• Wearable Interfaces for Orientation and Wayfinding

  David A. Ross, Bruce B. Blasch (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper from the Atlanta VA Rehabilitation R&D Center presents the development and evaluation of three wearable orientation interfaces designed to help people with severe visual impairment maintain spatial orientation while navigating, with street…

  • wayfinding
  • orientation and mobility
  • wearable technology
  • blindness and low vision
  • haptic feedback
  • spatial audio
  • navigation
  • pedestrian infrastructure
  • assistive technology
  • universal design

• Expanded Interactions: Broadening Human-Centered Computing

  Richard A. Foulds, Arthur W. Joyce (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper reports on the preliminary results of an NSF-sponsored invitational workshop titled "Expanded Interaction: Broadening Human-Centered Computing," held at the Winterthur Museum and A.I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware in May 1997. A…

  • human-centered computing
  • universal design
  • universal access
  • multimodal interaction
  • inclusive design
  • disability
  • research agenda
  • human-computer interaction

• Designing the World Wide Web for People with Disabilities: A User Centered Design Approach

  Lila F. Laux, Peter R. McNally, Michael G. Paciello, Gregg C. Vanderheiden (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This 1996 panel paper brings together four perspectives on making the early World Wide Web accessible to people with disabilities. Lila Laux frames the problem by identifying special user populations — elderly people, those with low incomes, rural an…

  • web accessibility
  • user-centered design
  • assistive technology
  • universal design
  • presentation independence
  • hypermedia
  • pervasive accessible technology

• Advanced Auditory Menus: Design and Evaluation of Auditory Scroll Bars

  Pavani Yalla, Bruce N. Walker (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper from the Sonification Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology investigates how to design auditory scrollbars — non-speech sound cues that convey contextual information (menu size, current position) while navigating auditory menus. Visual me…

  • auditory interface
  • auditory menu
  • sonification
  • non-speech sounds
  • universal design
  • visual impairment
  • mobile accessibility
  • earcon

• EZ Ballot with Multimodal Inputs and Outputs

  Seunghyun Lee, Xiao Xiong, Liu Elaine Yilin, Jon Sanford (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This demonstration paper presents the EZ Ballot, a prototype accessible voting system that fundamentally reconceptualizes ballot design to provide an equal voting experience for all voters regardless of ability. Current accessible voting machines add…

  • accessible voting
  • multimodal interface
  • cognitive accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • dexterity
  • universal design
  • gestural input
  • iPad
  • civic participation

• Crowd Caption Correction (CCC)

  Rebecca Perkins Harrington, Gregg C. Vanderheiden (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '13)

  This short paper presents Crowd Caption Correction (CCC), a feature that allows meeting participants or authorized third parties to correct errors in real-time captions during telecollaboration sessions. Captions are critical for deaf and hard of hea…

  • captioning
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • crowdsourcing
  • telecollaboration
  • real-time captioning
  • universal design
  • open source
  • transcription
  • videoconferencing

• Inspiring Blind High School Students to Pursue Computer Science with Instant Messaging Chatbots

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Maxwell B. Aller, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Jessica O. Leung, Lindsay A. Yazzolino, Richard E. Ladner (2008) — Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '08)

  This paper describes the design and delivery of a four-day computer science workshop for fifteen blind high school students at the National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam, where two hundred blind and low vision students explored disciplines often…

  • accessible education
  • blind students
  • screen readers
  • computer science education
  • inclusive design
  • CAPTCHA
  • assistive technology
  • programming education
  • universal design

• Access and Empowerment: Commentary on "Computers and People with Disabilities"

  Richard E. Ladner (2008) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  Richard Ladner offers an optimistic assessment of progress since Glinert and York's 1992 call-to-arms, emphasizing how market forces—not just legal mandates—have driven accessibility improvements. With 16% of the U.S. population disabled and 10% of t…

  • universal design
  • ubiquitous computing
  • web accessibility
  • user empowerment
  • accessibility history
  • user-centered design