Literature Reviews

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

• Understanding Peer-to-Peer Instructional Support in an Online Community for Blind Audio Producers

  Abir Saha, Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper examines how blind and low-vision audio producers seek and provide instructional support through an online text-based Q&A mailing list community centered around using Logic Pro, a professional digital audio workstation (DAW), with the Voic…

  • screen readers
  • blind and low vision
  • audio production
  • peer support
  • online communities
  • collaborative troubleshooting
  • VoiceOver
  • digital audio workstation

• Speaking with My Screen Reader: Using Audio Fictions to Explore Conversational Access to Interfaces

  Mahika Phutane, Crescentia Jung, Niu Chen, Shiri Azenkot (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper explores whether and how human-like conversational assistants could extend the screen reader experience for blind and low vision (BLV) users. Current screen readers provide linear, impersonal access to interfaces through keyboard-driven cu…

  • screen readers
  • conversational agents
  • blind and low vision
  • design fiction
  • voice assistants
  • nonvisual access
  • speculative design
  • anthropomorphism
  • assistive technology
  • AI 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

• 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

• AudioQ: A Debugging Extension for Visually Impaired Developers

  Sehej Kumar, Shreyas Kotla (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This extended abstract presents AudioQ, a Visual Studio Code extension designed to improve the debugging experience for visually impaired software developers. The extension addresses a specific gap in current accessibility tools: while screen readers…

  • software development
  • blind and low vision
  • screen readers
  • debugging
  • IDE accessibility
  • Visual Studio Code
  • NVDA

• Understanding Digital Content Creation Needs of Blind and Low Vision People

  Lotus Zhang, Simon Sun, Leah Findlater (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This mixed-method study investigates the digital content creation needs, interests, and experiences of blind and low vision (BLV) people through a large-scale survey (N=165) and follow-up interviews (N=15). The research addresses a gap in accessibili…

  • blind and low vision
  • content creation
  • creativity
  • digital accessibility
  • screen readers
  • visual content
  • ableism
  • social media

• "If I'm supposed to be the facilitator, I should be the host": Understanding the Accessibility of Videoconferencing for Blind and Low Vision Meeting Facilitators

  Taslima Akter, Yoonha Cha, Isabela Figueira, Stacy M. Branham, Anne Marie Piper (2023) — ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how blind and low vision (BLV) professionals facilitate meetings using videoconferencing tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, and the unique accessibility challenges they face in leadership roles. While prior res…

  • blind and low vision
  • videoconferencing
  • remote work
  • screen readers
  • workplace accessibility
  • career advancement
  • interdependence
  • meeting facilitation

• Exploring Community-Driven Descriptions for Making Livestreams Accessible

  Daniel Killough, Amy Pavel (2023) — ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the feasibility of using livestream community members — sighted viewers who are domain experts in the content being streamed — to provide real-time descriptions that make livestreams accessible to viewers with visual impairmen…

  • audio description
  • livestreaming
  • blind and low vision
  • crowdsourcing
  • video accessibility
  • community sourcing
  • screen readers

• Notably Inaccessible — Data Driven Understanding of Data Science Notebook (In)Accessibility

  Venkatesh Potluri, Sudheesh Singanamalla, Nussara Tieanklin, Jennifer Mankoff (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)

  This paper presents the first large-scale analysis of the accessibility of computational notebooks — interactive documents combining code, text, and data visualizations that have become the standard tool for data science work. The researchers analyze…

  • computational notebooks
  • data science
  • screen readers
  • blind and visually impaired
  • data visualization
  • alternative text
  • automated testing
  • web accessibility

• Understanding and Improving Drilled-Down Information Extraction from Online Data Visualizations for Screen-Reader Users

  Ather Sharif, Olivia H. Wang, Alida T. Muongchan, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2023) — Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This full research paper presents a comprehensive investigation into how screen-reader users (SRUs) extract drilled-down information from online data visualizations, and how the VoxLens tool can be improved to support this process. While prior work o…

  • screen readers
  • data visualization
  • voice interface
  • information extraction
  • natural language processing
  • assistive technology
  • data sonification
  • user study