Literature Reviews

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

• Voice over Workplace (VoWP): Voice Navigation in a Complex Business GUI

  Frankie James, Jeff Roelands (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper explores the design of voice navigation interfaces for complex business GUIs, specifically SAP Workplace, to support physically disabled users who cannot use a mouse or keyboard. The authors conducted two user studies examining the fundame…

  • voice interface
  • speech recognition
  • physical disability
  • GUI accessibility
  • navigation
  • enterprise software
  • user study

• Speech-Based Cursor Control

  Azfar S. Karimullah, Andrew Sears (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '02)

  This paper from UMBC investigates the effectiveness of speech-based cursor control for navigating graphical user interfaces, comparing a standard cursor with a predictive cursor designed to compensate for speech recognition delays. While speech recog…

  • speech recognition
  • cursor control
  • motor disability
  • pointing devices
  • assistive technology
  • voice interface
  • human-computer interaction

• Automation of Repetitive Web Browsing Tasks with Voice-Enabled Macros

  Yevgen Borodin (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper proposes an approach for automating repetitive web browsing tasks through personalized macros with a speech-enabled interface, implemented within the HearSay non-visual web browser at Stony Brook University. The core problem is that non-vi…

  • screen reader
  • web accessibility
  • non-visual browsing
  • web macro
  • voice interface
  • web automation
  • blind users
  • assistive technology

• EPG: Speech Access to Program Guides for People with Disabilities

  Michael Johnston, Amanda J. Stent (2010) — Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This demo paper from AT&T Labs Research presents an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) prototype that uses speech input and text-to-speech output to make television listing navigation accessible to people with visual disabilities or limited hand mobility…

  • speech recognition
  • voice interface
  • television accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • motor impairment
  • assistive technology
  • text-to-speech

• How Voice Augmentation Supports Elderly Web Users

  Daisuke Sato, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Jiro Tanaka (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper from IBM Research Tokyo investigates how voice-based augmentation, originally developed for blind screen reader users, can be adapted to support older adults using web applications. The research addresses two key barriers that prevent elde…

  • aging
  • web accessibility
  • voice interface
  • cognitive accessibility
  • auditory interface
  • usability
  • digital inclusion

• ScratchThat: Supporting Command-Agnostic Speech Repair in Voice-Driven Assistants

  Jason Wu, Karan Ahuja, Richard Li, Victor Chen, Jeffrey Bigham (2019) — Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

  This paper presents ScratchThat, a command-agnostic speech repair system for voice-driven virtual assistants that allows users to naturally correct voice commands without repeating entire queries. Current voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant…

  • voice interface
  • speech recognition
  • conversational agents
  • error correction
  • natural language processing
  • smart speakers
  • virtual assistants
  • usability

• StepWrite: Adaptive Planning for Speech-Driven Text Generation

  Hamza El Alaoui, Atieh Taheri, Yi-Hao Peng, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2025) — Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '25)

  This paper introduces StepWrite, an LLM-powered voice-based writing system that enables structured, hands-free and eyes-free composition of longer-form texts. While speech-to-text tools handle short dictation well, composing structured emails or deta…

  • voice interface
  • speech-to-text
  • hands-free interaction
  • eyes-free interaction
  • large language models
  • text composition
  • cognitive load
  • adaptive planning
  • writing assistance
  • motor impairment
  • multitasking

• Improving Programming Interfaces for People with Limited Mobility Using Voice Recognition

  Xiomara Figueroa Fontánez, Patricia Ordóñez (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper describes an effort to make programming more accessible to people with motor impairments by integrating voice recognition into an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The work is motivated by the specific case of a computer scientist …

  • programming accessibility
  • voice interface
  • speech recognition
  • motor disability
  • spinal muscular atrophy
  • IDE
  • open source
  • participatory design

• Capti-Speak: A Speech-Enabled Accessible Web Interface

  Vikas Ashok (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Capti-Speak, a speech-augmented screen reader interface for the web that allows blind users to issue voice commands alongside traditional keyboard shortcuts. Built on top of the Capti web browsing application (which provides a JAW…

  • screen readers
  • speech recognition
  • voice interface
  • web accessibility
  • blindness
  • web browsing
  • multimodal interaction

• Being Old Doesn't Mean Acting Old: How Older Users Interact with Spoken Dialog Systems

  Maria Wolters, Kallirroi Georgila, Johanna D. Moore, Sarah E. MacPherson (2009) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study challenges the common practice of designing voice interfaces based on assumed age-related characteristics. Using a bottom-up approach rather than top-down age comparisons, the researchers analyzed 447 appointment scheduling dialogs between…

  • aging
  • voice interface
  • spoken dialog systems
  • cognitive aging
  • user diversity
  • natural language processing
  • interaction styles