Literature Reviews — A11y Paradise

Tactile Accessibility: Does Anyone Need a Haptic Glove?

Andrii Soviak, Anatoliy Borodin, Vikas Ashok, Yevgen Borodin, Yury Puzis, I.V. Ramakrishnan (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

This paper presents FeelX, a low-cost haptic glove system designed to enable blind users to tactilely explore graphical user interfaces (GUIs) by moving their hands on any flat surface such as a desk or table. The fundamental problem addressed is tha…

How People with Low Vision Access Computing Devices: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities

Sarit Felicia Anais Szpiro, Shafeka Hashash, Yuhang Zhao, Shiri Azenkot (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

This paper presents a contextual inquiry study examining how 11 people with low vision use mainstream computing devices (smartphones, tablets, and computers) to perform common tasks like reading email and browsing news. Low vision affects at least 3.…

Remote Access Programs to Better Integrate Individuals with Disabilities

Thomas Hahn, Hidayat Ur Rahman, Richard Segall, Christoph Heim, Raphaela Brunson, Ankush Sharma, Maryam Aslam, Ana Lara-Rodriguez, Md. Sahidul Islam, Neha Gupta, Charles S. Embry, Patrick Grossmann, Shahrukh Babar, Gregory A. Skibinski, Fusheng Tang (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

This experience report, written primarily from the perspective of the first author who is legally blind due to albinism, describes how remote access programs (such as TeamViewer and AnyDesk) combined with voice communication tools (Skype, Google Hang…

OnScreenDualScribe with Point-and-Click Interface: A Viable Computer Interaction Alternative based on a Virtual Modified Numerical Keypad

Kavita Krishnaswamy, Patricia Ordóñez, Phillip Beckerle, Stephan Rinderknecht, Torsten Felzer (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

This paper presents a first-person evaluation of the OnScreenDualScribe (OSDS) Point-and-Click Interface, a virtual keyboard designed for people who cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse effectively. The first author, who has Spinal Muscular Atroph…

"But, I Don't Want/Need a Power Wheelchair": Toward Accessible Power Assistance for Manual Wheelchairs

Dafne Zuleima Morgado Ramirez, Catherine Holloway (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This paper explores the needs, expectations, and experiences of manual wheelchair users regarding power assist devices — motorized attachments that augment a manual wheelchair's propulsion without converting it into a full power wheelchair. Manual wh…

NavCog3: An Evaluation of a Smartphone-Based Blind Indoor Navigation Assistant with Semantic Features in a Large-Scale Environment

Daisuke Sato, Uran Oh, Kakuya Naito, Hironobu Takagi, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This paper presents NavCog3, a smartphone-based indoor navigation assistant for people with visual impairments, evaluated at scale in a 21,000 m² shopping mall in Japan. Unlike many prior indoor navigation prototypes that were tested only in constrai…

WeLi: A Smartwatch Application to Assist Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Hui Zheng, Vivian Genaro Motti (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This poster paper presents WeLi (Wearable Life), a smartwatch application designed to assist students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) in post-secondary educational environments. The system was developed for and deployed at Mas…

VocalIDE: An IDE for Programming via Speech Recognition

Lucas Rosenblatt (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This student research paper addresses the underrepresentation of people with upper-limb physical impairments in the developer community — while 6.7% of Americans have upper-limb impairments, less than 4% of developers report any physical disability. …

Speed-Dial: A Surrogate Mouse for Non-Visual Web Browsing

Syed Masum Billah, Vikas Ashok, Donald E. Porter, IV Ramakrishnan (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This paper presents Speed-Dial, a system that uses an off-the-shelf Microsoft Surface Dial as a surrogate mouse for non-visual web browsing. The core problem it addresses is the fundamental mismatch between how sighted and blind users interact with t…

CymaSense: A Novel Audio-Visual Therapeutic Tool for People on the Autism Spectrum

John McGowan, Grégory Leplâtre, Iain McGregor (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

This paper presents CymaSense, an interactive multimodal tool that generates real-time 3D visual representations of sound based on Cymatics — the study of visible patterns created by sound vibrations in physical media like water or metal plates. The …