Literature Reviews

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

• Gesture-based Interaction for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities in India

  Sumita Sharma, Saurabh Srivastava, Krishnaveni Achary, Blessin Varkey, Tomi Heimonen, Jaakko Hakulinen, Markku Turunen, Nitendra Rajput (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This full paper presents the design, development, and evaluation of Kirana, a Kinect-based gesture application that simulates purchasing groceries from a local Indian kirana (grocery) store to teach life skills to individuals with developmental disab…

  • developmental disability
  • gesture interaction
  • educational technology
  • cognitive accessibility
  • independent living
  • Global South accessibility
  • self-efficacy
  • Down syndrome
  • autism
  • participatory design

• Would You Be Mine: Appropriating Minecraft as an Assistive Technology for Youth with Autism

  Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, LouAnne E. Boyd, Mark S. Baldwin, Gillian R. Hayes (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper presents findings from a 24-month digital ethnography of Autcraft, a semi-private Minecraft server created for children with autism and their allies, examining how this community has appropriated the game into a variety of assistive techno…

  • autism
  • gaming
  • game accessibility
  • DIY assistive technology
  • social accessibility
  • self-regulation
  • sensory processing
  • online communities
  • disability identity
  • virtual reality

• COSMA: Cooperative Self-Management Tool for Adolescents with Autism

  Myeonghan Ryu, Eunkyung Jo, Sung-In Kim (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This student research competition paper presents COSMA, a mobile application prototype designed to support cooperative self-management of behavior for adolescents with autism during their transition through puberty. Adolescence is particularly challe…

  • autism
  • self-management
  • adolescents
  • behavior change
  • mobile application
  • caregiving
  • self-regulation
  • co-design

• Digital Strategies for Supporting Strengths- and Interests-based Learning with Children with Autism

  Cara Wilson, Margot Brereton, Bernd Ploderer, Laurianne Sitbon, Beth Saggers (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper investigates how an open-ended audio-visual calendaring app called MeCalendar was appropriated by children with autism and their teachers in classroom settings, shifting the focus from deficit-remediation to strengths- and interests-based …

  • autism
  • educational technology
  • children
  • strengths-based approach
  • self-determination
  • participatory design
  • inclusive design
  • classroom technology
  • self-expression
  • neurodiversity

• From Behavioral and Communication Intervention to Interaction Design: User Perspectives from Clinicians

  Yao Du, LouAnne Boyd, Seray Ibrahim (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This experience report from three clinicians-turned-researchers (a board certified behavior analyst from the US, and two speech and language therapists from the UK and US) reflects on the gap between clinical practice with neurodiverse children and H…

  • AAC
  • autism
  • children
  • behavioral intervention
  • speech and language therapy
  • neurodiversity
  • clinician perspectives
  • assistive technology design
  • sensory processing

• Volunteer-Based Online Studies With Older Adults and People with Disabilities

  Qisheng Li, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Katharina Reinecke (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper validates volunteer-based online experiments as a methodology for conducting large-scale accessibility research with people with disabilities and older adults — populations that are notoriously difficult to recruit for laboratory studies. …

  • research methodology
  • online experimentation
  • accessibility research
  • aging
  • participant recruitment
  • crowdsourcing
  • dyslexia
  • autism
  • cognitive accessibility

• GeniAuti: Tracking Challenging Behaviors of Children with Autism for Data-Driven Interventions

  Kiwon Choi, Dongho Jang, Dasol Lee, Seoyoung Park (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This student research competition paper presents GeniAuti, a mobile application designed to help caregivers of children with autism track challenging behaviors using the ABC (Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence) framework. Challenging behaviors in autism…

  • autism
  • challenging behavior
  • mobile application
  • data visualization
  • voice recognition
  • caregiving
  • behavior tracking

• "Wow! You're Wearing a Fitbit, You're a Young Boy Now!": Socio-Technical Aspirations for Children with Autism in India

  Sumita Sharma, Krishnaveni Achary, Harmeet Kaur, Juhani Linna, Markku Turunen, Blessin Varkey, Jaakko Hakulinen, Sanidhya Daeeyya (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper explores how socio-technical aspirations — the ambitions and desires of stakeholders to own or use technology for personal benefit or societal acceptance — influence technology adoption for children with autism in India. The research is ba…

  • autism
  • Global South accessibility
  • technology adoption
  • wearable technology
  • physical activity
  • cultural accessibility
  • co-design
  • children

• ABCD SW: Autistic Behavior & Computer-based Didactic Software

  M. Claudia Buzzi, Marina Buzzi, Davide Gazzè, Caterina Senette, Maurizio Tesconi (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper from IIT-CNR in Pisa presents ABCD SW, an open-source web application designed to support Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) intervention with low-functioning autistic children. The software implements Discrete Trial Training (DTT) — a s…

  • autism
  • cognitive accessibility
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • educational technology
  • assistive technology
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • adaptive interfaces

• Adult Autism Research Priorities and Conceptualization in Computing Research: Invitation to Co-lead with Autistic Adults

  Dafne Zuleima Morgado Ramirez, Giulia Barbareschi, Cathy Holloway (2024) — ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

  This extensive literature review critically examines computing research involving autistic adults, analyzing 44 papers from the ACM Guide to Computing Literature published between 2007 and 2022. The work is distinctive in that the first author is aut…

  • autism
  • neurodiversity
  • adult autism
  • research priorities
  • disability models
  • double empathy problem
  • participatory research
  • ableism
  • critical disability studies
  • identity-first language