Literature Reviews

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

• Reassurance Robots: OCD in the Age of Generative AI

  Grace Barkhuff (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstracts paper by Grace Barkhuff (Georgia Tech) is an exploratory qualitative study of how generative AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, are reshaping the lived experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD is a mental h…

  • OCD
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  • generative AI
  • ChatGPT
  • mental health
  • qualitative research
  • grounded theory
  • Reddit
  • accessibility
  • large language models

• Keeping Community-in-the-Loop: A Novel Methodology for UX Research

  M C, Clara Caldeira, Talita Pagani, Vinita Tibdewal (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstracts poster from a Google research team introduces Community-in-the-Loop (CoLoop), a research and design methodology aimed at correcting the shortcomings of transactional, short-term UX research when working with people wi…

  • UX research
  • participatory design
  • co-design
  • community-based participatory research
  • disability rights
  • Global South
  • marginalized communities
  • generative AI
  • methodology

• Turning the Knobs of Musical Emotion: Designing Emotion-Oriented Audio Control Interface for Cochlear Implant Users

  Hyojin Kim, Taein Song, Kyung Myun Lee (2026) — CHI EA '26: Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  Kim, Song, and Lee (KAIST) tackle a persistent but under-designed problem in hearing accessibility: cochlear implant (CI) users can hear music but receive it in a spectrally coarse, pitch-degraded form that blunts emotional perception. Rather than pu…

  • cochlear implant
  • music accessibility
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • audio interface
  • musical emotion
  • valence-arousal
  • personalization
  • HCI

• Embroidered Braille: Towards Accessible and Inclusive Educational Tools and Everyday Applications

  Pouya M Khorsandi, Sara Nabil (2026) — CHI EA '26: Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This short CHI Extended Abstracts paper by Khorsandi and Nabil (Queen's University iStudio) stakes out digitally embroidered Braille as a design space for DIY making of accessible everyday artefacts, rather than as another institutional assistive-tec…

  • braille
  • digital embroidery
  • tactile graphics
  • blind and low vision
  • DIY
  • hybrid craft
  • e-textiles
  • maker culture
  • self-expression
  • STEM education

• Silence is a Feature, Not a Bug: A Deaf Developer’s Autoethnography on Agency and Local AI

  Chenyang Gong (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract is a three-page autoethnographic provocation by a Deaf computer science graduate student who uses a MED-EL cochlear implant. The author refuses the medical-model framing of deafness as deficit and instead argues that t…

  • autoethnography
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • cochlear implant
  • automatic speech recognition
  • captioning
  • local-first software
  • privacy
  • crip technoscience
  • AI accessibility

• Investigating the Role of Agentic AI in Facilitating Travel Planning for People with Low Vision

  Ranran Ding, Maryam Bandukda (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract examines a stage of accessible travel that most assistive-technology research has overlooked: the pre-trip planning work people with low vision (PLV) do before ever leaving the house. The authors argue that most existi…

  • low vision
  • wayfinding
  • agentic AI
  • large language models
  • conversational agents
  • voice interface
  • co-design
  • autonomy
  • trust
  • orientation and mobility

• Auto-Generating Personas from User Reviews in VR App Stores

  Yi Wang, Kexin Cheng, Xiao Liu, Chetan Arora, John Grundy, Thuong Hoang, Henry Been-Lirn Duh (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract reports on an auto-generated persona system developed to help undergraduate students surface accessibility requirements in virtual reality design projects. The authors argue that personas are well-established in user-c…

  • virtual reality
  • VR accessibility
  • personas
  • requirements engineering
  • large language models
  • retrieval-augmented generation
  • accessibility education
  • user-centered design
  • empathy

• Access to Interpretation: How Formal Cues Ground Interpretive Alt Text for Paintings

  Vera L. Zhong, Lucy Jiang, Kathryn E. Ringland (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract examines a gap between mainstream alt text conventions and the interpretive work that paintings are designed to evoke. The authors argue that dominant guidance for alt text foregrounds brevity, objectivity, and functio…

  • alt text
  • image description
  • blind and low vision
  • museum accessibility
  • cultural heritage
  • interpretive access
  • art analysis
  • screen readers

• Mapping Movies: A Mind-Map Approach to Aphasia-Friendly Video

  Shayan Bali, Alexandre Nevsky, Filip Bircanin, Timothy Neate (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26)

  Bali, Nevsky, Bircanin, and Neate (King's College London) target an under-served corner of media accessibility: viewers with aphasia and other complex communication needs (CCNs) for whom subtitles, audio description, and existing simplified-media int…

  • aphasia
  • complex communication needs
  • video accessibility
  • cognitive accessibility
  • mind maps
  • artificial intelligence
  • media accessibility
  • text-to-speech
  • visualisation

• Speech AI for All: The What, How, and Who of Measurement

  Kimi Wenzel, Alisha Pradhan, Maria Teleki, Tobias M. Weinberg, Robin Netzorg, Alyssa Hillary Zisk, Anna Seo Gyeong Choi, Jingjin Li, Raja Kushalnagar, Colin Lea, Abraham Glasser, Christian Vogler, Ly Xinzhen M. Zhangsun Brown, Nan Bernstein Ratner, Allison Koenecke, Karen Nakamura, Shaomei Wu (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) — Workshop

  This CHI 2026 workshop proposal — the second in the organisers' 'Speech AI for All' series — assembles 17 researchers, practitioners, and community advocates to tackle a specific downstream problem in fair and accessible speech AI: measurement. The m…

  • speech AI
  • automatic speech recognition
  • speech diversity
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • disfluency
  • stuttering
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • algorithmic fairness
  • accessibility research
  • workshop
  • AI FATE