Literature Reviews

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

• Evaluating Web Accessibility for Specific Mobile Devices

  Markel Vigo, Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue, Julio Abascal (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a fundamental limitation in early mobile web accessibility testing: the reliance on a single Default Delivery Context (DDC) that assumed all mobile devices shared the same baseline capabilities. The W3C mobileOK Basic tests, desi…

  • mobile accessibility
  • automated testing
  • evaluation tools
  • device independence
  • mobile web

• MokE: A Tool for Mobile-ok Evaluation of Web Content

  John Garofalakis, Vassilios Stefanis (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents MokE (Mobile-OK Evaluator), a web-based tool for evaluating whether web content provides an acceptable experience on mobile devices, based on W3C's mobileOK Basic Tests and Mobile Web Best Practices. Written at a time when mobile …

  • mobile accessibility
  • mobile web
  • automated testing
  • web crawling
  • W3C standards
  • evaluation tools
  • hidden web

• 2005 Accessibility Diagnosis on the Government Web Sites in Taiwan, R.O.C.

  Yui-Liang Chen, Yen-Yu Chen, Monica Shao (2006) — Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This study assessed the accessibility of 117 Taiwanese government websites in 2005 using the Freego Stand-Alone Validation Tool, developed by Taiwan's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) under the Executive Yuan. Taiwan had establi…

  • government accessibility
  • automated testing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • WCAG compliance
  • accessibility policy
  • East Asian accessibility
  • conformance levels

• Quantitative Metrics for Measuring Web Accessibility

  Markel Vigo, Myriam Arrue, Giorgio Brajnik, Raffaella Lomuscio, Julio Abascal (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a fundamental limitation of WCAG conformance levels (A, AA, AAA): they function as binary pass/fail thresholds that cannot distinguish between a site meeting all Priority 1 checkpoints and one meeting all Priority 1 plus nearly a…

  • accessibility metrics
  • automated testing
  • accessibility evaluation
  • quality assurance
  • web accessibility monitoring
  • WCAG conformance
  • accessibility measurement

• Forcing Standardization or Accommodating Diversity? A Framework for Applying the WCAG in the Real World

  Brian Kelly, David Sloan, Lawrie Phipps, Helen Petrie, Fraser Hamilton (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper critically examines how the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) were being applied in practice six years after their publication, arguing that rigid, context-free application of WCAG was creating serious problems for web de…

  • web accessibility
  • WCAG
  • accessibility policy
  • accessibility guidelines
  • holistic accessibility
  • user evaluation
  • automated testing
  • accessibility legislation

• A Macroscopic Web Accessibility Evaluation at Different Processing Phases

  Nádia Fernandes, Luís Carriço (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates a fundamental question about automated accessibility evaluation: does it matter whether you evaluate a web page as it arrives from the server (before browser processing) or as the user actually experiences it (after browser pr…

  • automated testing
  • large-scale evaluation
  • web accessibility
  • browser processing
  • dynamic content
  • accessibility metrics
  • WCAG evaluation

• Using Acceptance Tests to Validate Accessibility Requirements in RIA

  Willian Massami Watanabe, Renata P. M. Fortes, Ana Luiza Dias (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a significant gap in automated accessibility testing: the inability of traditional static HTML evaluation tools to assess Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that use Ajax, JavaScript, and dynamically generated DOM content. The auth…

  • automated testing
  • acceptance testing
  • continuous integration
  • rich internet applications
  • keyboard accessibility
  • dynamic content
  • ARIA
  • test-driven development

• Transition of Accessibility Evaluation Tools to New Standards

  Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue, Markel Vigo, Julio Abascal (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a practical challenge that faced the web accessibility community following the release of WCAG 2.0 in December 2008: how to update the large ecosystem of existing automated evaluation tools that were built around WCAG 1.0. The au…

  • automated testing
  • web accessibility
  • WCAG transition
  • evaluation tools
  • accessibility guidelines

• SourceProbe: web accessibility remediation framework

  Shunguo Yan (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper from IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Center describes the architecture of SourceProbe, a Web Accessibility Remediation Framework designed to automate the four phases of accessibility remediation: validation, source identificati…

  • accessibility remediation
  • automated testing
  • source identification
  • server-side accessibility
  • development tools
  • accessibility workflow

• Prediction of Web Page Accessibility Based on Structural and Textual Features

  Sina Bahram, Debadeep Sen, Robert St. Amant (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from NC State University explores whether machine learning classifiers can predict the accessibility of web pages based on structural and textual features of their DOM — features that are independent of explicit accessibility markup like a…

  • machine learning
  • accessibility evaluation
  • automated testing
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility metrics
  • artificial intelligence