Literature Reviews

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

• Dual Educational Electronic Textbooks: The Starlight Platform

  Dimitris Grammenos, Anthony Savidis, Yannis Georgalis, Themistoklis Bourdenas, Constantine Stephanidis (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper from the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) in Crete, Greece presents Starlight, a software platform for creating and reading multimodal interactive electronic textbooks that provide a Dual User Interface — an interface …

  • accessible publishing
  • electronic textbook
  • blind students
  • inclusive education
  • dual user interface
  • braille display
  • text-to-speech
  • non-visual interaction
  • multimodal interaction
  • earcons
  • educational technology

• Designing Auditory Displays to Facilitate Object Localization in Virtual Haptic 3D Environments

  Koen Crommentuijn, Fredrik Winberg (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper investigates five different auditory display designs to help blind users locate objects in a virtual haptic 3D environment explored with a PHANToM Desktop haptic device. While haptic devices give visually impaired users the ability to expl…

  • auditory display
  • sonification
  • haptic feedback
  • virtual environment
  • blindness
  • visual impairment
  • spatial audio
  • multimodal interaction

• Multimodal User Input Patterns in a Non-Visual Context

  Xiaoyu Chen, Marilyn Tremaine (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This exploratory study from the New Jersey Institute of Technology investigates how users choose between speech and hand (touchpad) inputs when performing tasks in a non-visual interface. The research used AudioBrowser, a system that organizes inform…

  • multimodal interaction
  • non-visual interaction
  • speech input
  • touchpad
  • visual impairment
  • dialogue design
  • input modalities
  • human-computer interaction

• Multimodal Virtual Reality Versus Printed Medium in Visualization for Blind People

  Wai Yu, Stephen Brewster (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '02)

  This paper presents a comparative evaluation of two approaches for making bar chart data accessible to blind and visually impaired people: traditional raised tactile diagrams and a multimodal virtual reality system. The VR system combines a SensAble …

  • data visualization
  • blindness and low vision
  • haptic technology
  • virtual reality
  • tactile graphics
  • multimodal interaction
  • sonification
  • force feedback
  • non-visual interaction

• Auditory and Tactile Interfaces for Representing the Visual Effects on the Web

  Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shuichi Ino, Tohru Ifukube (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper from IBM Japan and Hokkaido University explores how blind users can perceive the visual structure and emphasis effects of web pages through auditory and tactile interfaces. The researchers identified a critical gap: modern web pages increa…

  • sonification
  • tactile interface
  • blindness
  • web accessibility
  • nonvisual interaction
  • visual effects
  • screen reader
  • multimodal interaction

• Multimodal Feedback: Establishing a Performance Baseline for Improved Access by Individuals with Visual Impairments

  Holly S. Vitense, Julie A. Jacko, V. Kathlene Emery (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This study investigates how different combinations of auditory, haptic, and visual feedback affect the performance of fully sighted users during a complex direct manipulation task. The researchers designed the study as a baseline from which to later …

  • multimodal interaction
  • haptic feedback
  • auditory feedback
  • visual impairment
  • workload measurement
  • pupillometry
  • direct manipulation
  • assistive technology

• Zooming Interfaces! Enhancing the Performance of Eye Controlled Pointing Devices

  Richard Bates, Howell Istance (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '02)

  This paper from De Montfort University quantifies the performance problems of eye-based pointing on standard graphical user interfaces and demonstrates that adding a zoom facility dramatically improves usability. The researchers identified three fund…

  • eye tracking
  • pointing devices
  • assistive technology
  • motor disability
  • zoom interface
  • screen magnification
  • multimodal interaction
  • graphical user interface

• 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

• Comparing Effects of Navigational Interface Modalities on Speaker Prosodics

  Julie Baca (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper investigates whether speech-only (displayless) interfaces impose a measurable cognitive burden on users compared to multimodal interfaces that include visual or tactile components. The research uses an innovative methodology: rather than r…

  • speech technology
  • cognitive load
  • non-visual interaction
  • navigation
  • prosody
  • displayless interface
  • multimodal interaction
  • blind and low vision
  • spatial data

• Head Pointing and Speech Control as a Hands-Free Interface to Desktop Computing

  Rainer Malkewitz (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper presents a hands-free computer interface that combines head pointing with speech control to enable users who cannot use a mouse and keyboard to operate standard WIMP-style graphical user interfaces. Developed at the Fraunhofer Institute in…

  • head tracking
  • speech recognition
  • hands-free interface
  • alternative input
  • motor disability
  • assistive technology
  • graphical user interface accessibility
  • multimodal interaction