Literature Reviews

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

• Coding Non-Visually in Visual Studio Code: Collaboration Towards Accessible Development Environment for Blind Programmers

  JooYoung Seo, Megan Rogge (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper documents a sustained collaboration between JooYoung Seo, a blind assistant professor and lifelong non-visual programmer, and Megan Rogge, a sighted software engineer on the Visual Studio Code team at Microsoft, aimed at improving VSCode a…

  • nonvisual programming
  • integrated development environment
  • visual studio code
  • screen readers
  • blind programmers
  • open source accessibility
  • co-design
  • audio cues
  • terminal accessibility

• Cripping Data Visualizations: Crip Technoscience as a Critical Lens for Designing Digital Access

  Stacy Hsueh, Beatrice Vincenzi, Akshata Murdeshwar, Marianela Ciolfi Felice (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper applies crip technoscience as a critical, generative framework for rethinking how accessible data visualizations are designed. The authors argue that current approaches to visualization accessibility largely treat access as a technical pro…

  • data visualization
  • crip technoscience
  • crip theory
  • blind and low vision
  • speculative design
  • critical disability studies
  • alternative text
  • tactile graphics
  • sonification
  • accessible design

• Screen or No Screen? Lessons Learnt from a Real-World Deployment Study of Using Voice Assistants With and Without Touchscreen for Older Adults

  Zhenyu Chen, Yijun Lin, Jiaxin Li, Qiuchen Qian, Mingzhe Li, Jikun Peng, Yuhang Zhao (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents a 40-day within-subjects deployment study examining how older adults interact with voice assistants (VAs) with and without touchscreen capability. Sixteen participants (mean age 82.5 years), all living independently, used an Amazo…

  • voice assistants
  • older adults
  • smart speakers
  • smart displays
  • touchscreen
  • aging in place
  • deployment study
  • multimodal interaction
  • usability

• Understanding Curators' Practices and Challenge of Making Exhibitions More Accessible for People with Visual Impairments

  Huang, Yuru, Zhang, Jingling, Jin, Xiaofu, Fan, Mingming (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper examines exhibition accessibility from the perspective of curators — a stakeholder group that plays a critical role in making museums and galleries accessible but has been largely overlooked in accessibility research. Through semi-structur…

  • museum accessibility
  • blind and low vision
  • curators
  • assistive technology
  • exhibition design
  • tactile
  • multi-sensory
  • indoor navigation
  • probe study

• Investigating Day-to-day Experiences with Conversational Agents by Users with Traumatic Brain Injury

  Hu, Yaxin, Lim, Hajin, Johnson, Hailey L., O'Shaughnessy, Josephine M., Kakonge, Lisa, Turkstra, Lyn, Duff, Melissa, Toma, Catalina, Mutlu, Bilge (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents a four-week in-the-wild field study investigating how nine adults with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the chronic stage (1-19 years post-injury) used Amazon Alexa on Echo Dot devices in their homes. TBI can cau…

  • traumatic brain injury
  • conversational agents
  • voice assistants
  • cognitive accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • mental health
  • rehabilitation
  • smart speakers
  • in-the-wild study

• Enhancing Non-Speech Information Communicated in Closed Captioning Through Critical Design

  May, Lloyd, Park, So Yeon, Berger, Jonathan (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper investigates the communication of non-speech information (NSI) in closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) viewers through a mixed-methods study combining needfinding interviews, prototype development, surveys, and evaluation…

  • captioning
  • non-speech information
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • critical design
  • sound communication
  • media accessibility
  • customization
  • video accessibility

• Azimuth: Designing Accessible Dashboards for Screen Reader Users

  Srinivasan, Arjun, Harshbarger, Tim, Hilliker, Darrell, Mankoff, Jennifer (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Azimuth, a prototype system that converts JSON-based dashboard specifications into web-based dashboards optimized for screen reader navigation, accompanied by automatically generated textual descriptions to support comprehension a…

  • data visualization
  • screen readers
  • dashboards
  • blind and low vision
  • co-design
  • text generation
  • accessible navigation
  • data analysis

• Embodied Exploration: Facilitating Remote Accessibility Assessment for Wheelchair Users with Virtual Reality

  Siyou Pei, Alexander Chen, Chen Chen, Franklin Mingzhe Li, Megan Fozzard, Hao-Yun Chi, Nadir Weibel, Patrick Carrington, Yang Zhang (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Embodied Exploration, a Virtual Reality system that allows wheelchair users to remotely assess the accessibility of unfamiliar physical environments by exploring high-fidelity digital replicas while embodied by personalized avatar…

  • wheelchair accessibility
  • virtual reality
  • embodied interaction
  • accessibility assessment
  • digital twin
  • 3D scanning
  • user-centered design
  • mobility disability
  • remote assessment

• Improving the Accessibility of Screen-Shared Presentations by Enabling Concurrent Exploration

  Danyang Fan, Sasa Junuzovic, John Tang, Thomas Jaeger (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper addresses a fundamental gap in remote meeting accessibility: when presenters screen-share slides during video calls, blind and low vision (BLV) screen reader users have no adequate way to independently explore slide content in real-time. W…

  • screen reader
  • blindness
  • presentations
  • screen sharing
  • spatial audio
  • cognitive load
  • videoconferencing
  • concurrent exploration
  • Microsoft Teams

• VisPhoto: Photography for People with Visual Impairments via Post-Production of Omnidirectional Camera Imaging

  Naoki Hirabayashi, Masakazu Iwamura, Zheng Cheng, Kazunori Minatani, Koichi Kise (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper introduces VisPhoto, a novel photography system that fundamentally reimagines how people with visual impairments (PVI) take photographs. Rather than helping users aim a conventional camera at a target in real-time (the dominant approach in…

  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • photography
  • computer vision
  • object detection
  • omnidirectional camera
  • assistive technology
  • self-expression
  • creative accessibility