Literature Reviews

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

• 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

• Constructing Sonified Haptic Line Graphs for the Blind Student: First Steps

  Rameshsharma Ramloll, Wai Yu, Stephen Brewster, Beate Riedel, Mike Burton, Gisela Dimigen (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper presents early research from the University of Glasgow's MultiVis project, a three-year initiative investigating how different sensory modalities can make statistical information representations accessible to blind people. The focus is on …

  • data visualization
  • sonification
  • haptic technology
  • blindness and low vision
  • tactile graphics
  • force feedback
  • education
  • spatial audio
  • multimodal
  • STEM accessibility

• Lessons from Developing Audio HTML Interfaces

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

  This paper presents the AHA (Audio HTML Access) framework, a set of principles for choosing sounds to use in audio-based HTML interfaces designed for blind and visually impaired users. The research builds on earlier work at Stanford University explor…

  • audio interfaces
  • non-visual web access
  • sonification
  • speech synthesis
  • blind users
  • auditory display
  • HTML accessibility
  • sound design

• Reading and Writing Mathematics: The MAVIS Project

  A. I. Karshmer, G. Gupta, S. Geiiger, C. Weaver (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from New Mexico State University presents the MAVIS (Mathematics Accessible to Visually Impaired Students) project, an NSF-funded effort to develop comprehensive tools for bidirectional communication of mathematics between blind students a…

  • mathematical accessibility
  • STEM accessibility
  • Nemeth code
  • LaTeX
  • blindness
  • braille
  • sonification
  • language translation
  • assistive technology
  • education

• Enhancing Scanning Input with Non-Speech Sounds

  Stephen A. Brewster, Veli-Pekka Raty, Atte Kortekangas (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper proposes adding structured non-speech sounds (earcons) to scanning input systems used by people with severe motor disabilities who can only operate a single switch. Scanning input works by sequentially highlighting items in a grid; the use…

  • scanning input
  • earcons
  • sonification
  • auditory display
  • switch access
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • multimodal interaction
  • motor disability

• AudioGraf: A Diagram-Reader for the Blind

  Andrea R. Kennel (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from ETH Zürich presents AudioGraf, a system that enables blind and visually impaired users to read diagrams through a combination of touch panel input and auditory display. The core problem addressed is that diagrams — widely used in tech…

  • blindness and low vision
  • auditory display
  • tactile graphics
  • diagram accessibility
  • non-visual access
  • touch panel
  • sonification
  • audio-tactile

• Touching and Hearing GUIs: Design Issues for the PC-Access System

  Christophe Ramstein, Odile Martial, Aude Dufresne, Michel Carignan, Patrick Chassé, Philippe Mabilleau (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This 1996 paper from Canada's Centre for Information Technology Innovation presents PC-Access, a pioneering multimodal system that combines haptic (touch) and auditory feedback to make Microsoft Windows graphical user interfaces accessible to visuall…

  • haptic technology
  • force feedback
  • multimodal interface
  • GUI accessibility
  • blind users
  • sonification
  • haptic feedback
  • accessibility history
  • assistive technology

• Constructing Relational Diagrams in Audio: The Multiple Perspective Hierarchical Approach

  Oussama Metatla, Nick Bryan-Kinns, Tony Stockman (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper from Queen Mary, University of London presents a novel approach for constructing and manipulating relational diagrams — such as Entity-Relationship (ER) diagrams — through an audio-only interface. While previous research addressed non-visu…

  • auditory display
  • non-visual representation
  • diagram accessibility
  • blind users
  • accessible graphics
  • information accessibility
  • sonification
  • interaction design

• Advanced Auditory Menus: Design and Evaluation of Auditory Scroll Bars

  Pavani Yalla, Bruce N. Walker (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper from the Sonification Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology investigates how to design auditory scrollbars — non-speech sound cues that convey contextual information (menu size, current position) while navigating auditory menus. Visual me…

  • auditory interface
  • auditory menu
  • sonification
  • non-speech sounds
  • universal design
  • visual impairment
  • mobile accessibility
  • earcon