Literature Reviews

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

• The Reliability of Fitts's Law as a Movement Model for People with and without Limited Fine Motor Function

  Ather Sharif, Victoria Pao, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper investigates a foundational assumption in HCI and assistive technology research: that Fitts's law reliably measures pointing performance. Fitts's law, introduced in 1954, models the relationship between the time to complete a pointing move…

  • motor accessibility
  • input methods
  • research methods
  • pointing devices
  • assistive technology
  • usability testing
  • HCI

• Eyelid Gestures on Mobile Devices for People with Motor Impairments

  Mingming Fan, Zhen Li, Franklin Mingzhe Li (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents a novel approach to mobile device interaction for people with severe motor impairments: using eyelid gestures detected by the smartphone's front-facing camera. While existing eye-based interaction research has primarily focused on…

  • motor accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • input methods
  • gesture interaction
  • eye tracking
  • assistive technology
  • spinal cord injury
  • computer vision

• Accessible Creativity with a Comic Spin

  Carla Tamburro, Timothy Neate, Abi Roper, Stephanie Wilson (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents Comic Spin, a tablet-based app (iOS and Android) designed to enable people with aphasia to create short comic strips. Aphasia, most commonly caused by stroke, affects language abilities including reading, writing, speaking, and li…

  • aphasia
  • creativity support tools
  • constrained creativity
  • cognitive accessibility
  • participatory design
  • content creation
  • disability arts

• Reading Experiences and Interest in Reading-Assistance Tools Among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Computing Professionals

  Oliver Alonzo, Lisa Elliot, Becca Dingman, Matt Huenerfauth (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This study investigates whether Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) computing professionals are interested in Automatic Text Simplification (ATS) tools to assist with reading in their professional work. ATS software rewrites text to improve readability us…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • automatic text simplification
  • reading accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • assistive technology
  • workplace accessibility
  • plain language

• Action Blocks: Making Mobile Technology Accessible for People with Cognitive Disabilities

  Lia Carrari, Rain Michaels, Ajit Narayanan, Lei Shi, Xiang Xiao (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents Action Blocks, a Google Android application designed to make mobile technology accessible to people with cognitive disabilities. The core problem the paper addresses is that modern smartphones require complex multi-s…

  • cognitive accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • aging in place
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • smart home
  • inclusive design

• Action Blocks: Making Mobile Technology Accessible for People with Cognitive Disabilities

  Lia Carrari, Rain Michaels, Ajit Narayanan, Lei Shi, Xiang Xiao (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents Action Blocks, an Android application developed by Google that simplifies mobile device interactions for people with cognitive disabilities. The app allows users or their caregivers to create customizable one-tap but…

  • cognitive accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • aging in place
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • smart home
  • interaction design
  • inclusive design

• "Maps are hard for me": Identifying How Older Adults Struggle with Mobile Maps

  Ja Eun Yu, Debaleena Chattopadhyay (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper from the University of Illinois at Chicago examines how older adults (aged 60+) use Google Maps on their own mobile devices and identifies the specific accessibility challenges they encounter. While smartphone ownership among US adul…

  • older adults
  • mobile accessibility
  • mobile maps
  • touchscreen
  • cognitive accessibility
  • visual saliency
  • affordances
  • information scent
  • usability

• Smooth Sailing? Autoethnography of Recreational Travel by a Blind Person

  Kate Stephens, Matthew Butler, Leona M Holloway, Cagatay Goncu, Kim Marriott (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents the first autoethnographic study of a blind traveller, documenting Kate Stephens' (the first author) experience planning and undertaking a 28-day cruise around Australia with her vision-impaired husband. Kate, a 63-year-old who ha…

  • visual impairments
  • travel
  • autoethnography
  • orientation and mobility
  • tactile maps
  • 3D printing
  • assistive technology
  • cognitive map
  • self-advocacy
  • accessible tourism

• Creating questionnaires that align with ASL linguistic principles and cultural practices within the Deaf community

  Rachel Boll, Shruti Mahajan, Jeanne Reis, Erin T. Solovey (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This poster paper from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The Learning Center for the Deaf addresses a fundamental gap in HCI research methodology: most interactive computing tools, including survey and questionnaire platforms, are designed exclusiv…

  • deaf
  • American Sign Language
  • questionnaire design
  • research methods
  • Deaf culture
  • linguistic accessibility
  • culturally responsive design

• Lessons Learned in Designing AI for Autistic Adults

  Andrew Begel, John Tang, Sean Andrist, Michael Barnett, Tony Carbary, Piali Choudhury, Edward Cutrell, Alberto Fung, Sasa Junuzovic, Daniel McDuff, Kael Rowan, Shibashankar Sahoo, Jennifer Frances Waldern, Jessica Wolk, Hui Zheng, Annuska Zolyomi (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper from Microsoft Research presents a candid account of a design failure and the valuable lessons it produced. The team set out to build Video Calling for Autism (VC4A), a video calling application with an "Expressiveness Mirror" that u…

  • autism
  • artificial intelligence
  • emotion recognition
  • video calling
  • participatory design
  • Wizard of Oz
  • neurodiversity
  • facial expression