Literature Reviews

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

• 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

• Non-Visual Beats: Redesigning the Groove Pizza

  William Payne, Alex Xu, Amy Hurst, S. Alex Ruthmann (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This demonstration paper describes the accessible redesign of the Groove Pizza, a popular free web-based drum step-sequencer developed by NYU’s Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab) that reaches thousands of users per month. The original Groove Pizz…

  • music accessibility
  • blind
  • visual impairment
  • screen readers
  • sonification
  • keyboard accessibility
  • music creation
  • web accessibility
  • universal design

• It's All About the Message: Visual Experience is a Precursor to Accurate Auditory Interaction

  Simon Harper, Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper argues that understanding how sighted users visually experience web pages is a necessary precursor to designing effective auditory (screen reader) experiences for visually disabled users. The authors challenge the assumption that the exper…

  • eye tracking
  • screen reader
  • page linearization
  • experiential transcoding
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • scanpath analysis
  • visual narrative
  • web design
  • cognitive accessibility

• Adults with High-functioning Autism Process Web Pages With Similar Accuracy but Higher Cognitive Effort Compared to Controls

  Victoria Yaneva, Le An Ha, Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates the accuracy and efficiency with which adults with high-functioning autism process web pages compared to neurotypical controls, using eye-tracking to reveal hidden cognitive effort differences. The study addresses a critical g…

  • autism spectrum disorder
  • eye tracking
  • cognitive accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • neurodivergence
  • cognitive load
  • visual attention
  • inclusive design
  • information searching
  • user study

• Handsfree for Web: A Google Chrome extension to browse the web via voice commands

  Javier Pérez (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Handsfree for Web, a free Google Chrome browser extension that enables users to browse the web entirely through voice commands. The tool addresses a fundamental accessibility barrier: nearly all websites require manu…

  • voice control
  • speech recognition
  • motor disability
  • browser extension
  • web accessibility
  • hands-free interaction
  • Chrome extension
  • Web Speech API
  • assistive technology

• Combining Semantic Tools for Automatic Evaluation of Alternative Texts

  Carlos Duarte, Carlos M. Duarte, Luís Carriço (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents SCREW v2, an updated algorithm for automatically assessing the quality of alternative texts for images on web pages from an accessibility perspective. The work is motivated by the EU Directive 2016/2102, which requires monitoring …

  • alternative text
  • automated accessibility testing
  • image accessibility
  • semantic analysis
  • computer vision
  • artificial intelligence
  • WCAG
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • natural language processing

• Automatic Identification of Widgets and their Subcomponents Based on a Classification Pipeline for DOM Mutation Records

  Eduardo Henrique Rizo, Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes, Humberto Lidio Antonelli, Willian Massami Watanabe (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a machine learning pipeline for automatically classifying web widgets (specifically dropdown menus) and their subcomponents by analyzing DOM mutation records — the dynamic changes that occur in a web page's HTML structure when use…

  • WAI-ARIA
  • machine learning
  • web accessibility
  • automated testing
  • widgets
  • DOM
  • rich internet applications
  • screen reader
  • accessibility evaluation
  • dropdown menu

• Adaptable Accessibility Features for Mathematics on the Web

  Davide Cervone, Volker Sorge (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the accessibility features in MathJax version 3, the widely-used JavaScript library for rendering mathematics on the web. The fundamental challenge is that standard mathematical markup formats (LaTeX, ASCIIMath, presentation MathM…

  • mathematics accessibility
  • MathJax
  • STEM accessibility
  • screen reader
  • Braille
  • speech output
  • dyslexia
  • low vision
  • personalization
  • web accessibility
  • MathML
  • semantic enrichment

• AudioFunctions.web: Multimodal Exploration of Mathematical Function Graphs

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, João Guerreiro, Sergio Mascetti, Anna Capietto (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This full research paper presents AudioFunctions.web, a web application that enables blind and visually impaired people to explore mathematical function graphs through a combination of sonification, earcons, and speech synthesis. The system is the pl…

  • sonification
  • mathematics accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • STEM accessibility
  • multimodal interaction
  • data visualization
  • assistive technology
  • web accessibility
  • user study
  • touchscreen
  • keyboard accessibility

• An Easy to Use Data Logger for Local User Studies

  Vagner Figueredo de Santana, Felipe Eduardo Ferreira Silva (2019) — Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper introduces User Test Logger, an open-source Firefox browser add-on designed to capture detailed user interaction data during local usability and accessibility studies. The authors identify a gap in available tooling: existing…

  • usability testing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • interaction logging
  • data collection
  • open source tools
  • user studies
  • web accessibility