Literature Reviews — A11y Paradise

Making Multimedia Content Accessible for Screen Reader Users

Hisashi Miyashita, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from IBM Research Tokyo describes an accessible multimedia browser designed to address three critical barriers blind users face with web multimedia content. The first problem is audio conflict: when media plays on a page, its sound masks t…

Accessibility for Simple to Moderate-Complexity DHTML Web Sites

Cynthia C. Shelly, George Young (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This detailed technical paper from Microsoft provides practical design and coding techniques for making Dynamic HTML and AJAX applications accessible using the browser and assistive technology capabilities available in 2007 — deliberately without rel…

Mathematics on the Web: Emerging Opportunities for Visually Impaired People

Cristian Bernareggi, Dominique Archambault (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from the @Science European thematic network surveys the state of the art in making mathematical content on the web accessible to visually impaired people, arguing that MathML adoption is the key to unlocking accessibility. The authors expl…

Using a CMS to Create Fully Accessible Websites

Sébastien Rainville-Pitt, Jean-Marie D'Amour (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This demonstration paper presents Edimaster Plus, a content management system developed over five years by Netic Hypermedia Inc. in Quebec, Canada, designed from the ground up to generate fully accessible websites meeting all three WAI priority level…

AxsJAX: A Talking Translation Bot Using Google IM: Bringing Web-2.0 Applications to Life

Charles L. Chen, T. V. Raman (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from Google describes how the AxsJAX framework uses WAI-ARIA live regions to make Google Talk — an instant messaging client integrated into GMail — fully accessible to screen reader and self-voicing browser users, and demonstrates a compel…

Thailand's National Digital Divide Strategic Framework

Proadpran Punyabukkana, Suchai Thanawastien, Ajin Jirachiefpattana (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper presents Thailand's Digital Divide Strategic Framework (2008-2010), a national plan developed by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to address ICT accessibility for three target populations: the poor, people with disa…

The SADIe Transcoding Platform

Darren Lunn, Sean Bechhofer, Simon Harper (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This short paper presents the SADIe (Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence) transcoding platform, developed at the University of Manchester. SADIe addresses a fundamental challenge for visually impaired screen reader users: w…

Combining SADIe and AxsJAX to Improve the Accessibility of Web Content

Darren Lunn, Simon Harper, Sean Bechhofer (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from the University of Manchester presents a prototype system that combines two accessibility approaches — SADIe and Google's AxsJAX framework — to improve web content access for visually impaired screen reader users. SADIe (Semantic Annot…

TeleWeb: accessible service for web browsing via phone

Yevgen Borodin, Glenn Dausch, I. V. Ramakrishnan (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

This paper presents TeleWeb, a telephony service that enables web browsing via any standard telephone using speech and keypad input. Built on top of the HearSay non-visual web browser engine from Stony Brook University, TeleWeb allows users to call a…

Enabling the blind in virtual worlds

William S. Carter (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

This paper from IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Center describes experimental techniques for enabling blind users to participate in virtual world environments. Unlike conventional web content where text and images can be given alternative descr…