Literature Reviews

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

• 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

• Jellys: Towards a Videogame that Trains Rhythm and Visual Attention for Dyslexia

  Mikel Ostiz-Blanco, Marie Lallier, Sergi Grau, Luz Rello, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Manuel Carreiras (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This demo paper describes Jellys, a video game designed to train two cognitive components linked to reading development — auditory rhythm perception and visual attention — as an intervention for children with dyslexia. The research is grounded in evi…

  • dyslexia
  • serious games
  • game accessibility
  • reading accessibility
  • visual attention
  • auditory rhythm
  • cognitive accessibility
  • children
  • education

• "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

• Tangicraft: A Multimodal Interface for Minecraft

  David Bar-El, Thomas Large, Lydia Davison, Marcelo Worsley (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This demonstration paper presents Tangicraft, a work-in-progress multimodal interface designed to enable visually impaired children to play and collaborate in Minecraft, one of the world's most popular video games with over 121 million copies sold. L…

  • game accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • children
  • haptic feedback
  • tangible interface
  • multimodal interface
  • educational technology
  • inclusive design
  • Minecraft

• Dyslexia Exercises on my Tablet are more Fun

  Luz Rello, Clara Bayarri, Azuki Gòrriz (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents Dyseggxia, a free mobile game for iOS and Android designed to help children with dyslexia practice language exercises in an engaging, adaptive format. Dyslexia affects approximately 10% of children worldwide and is characterized b…

  • dyslexia
  • serious game
  • mobile accessibility
  • adaptive learning
  • natural language processing
  • children
  • cognitive accessibility
  • assistive technology

• Enabling Collaboration in Learning Computer Programing Inclusive of Children with Vision Impairments

  Anja Thieme, Cecily Morrison, Nicolas Villar, Martin Grayson, Siân Lindley (2017) — Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS)

  This paper from Microsoft Research explores how Torino, a physical programming language, enables collaborative learning of computer programming by children aged 7-12 with mixed visual abilities — from full blindness to full sight. Torino uses tangibl…

  • visual impairment
  • children
  • collaborative learning
  • tangible interface
  • computational thinking
  • inclusive design
  • education
  • tactile accessibility

• Math Melodies: Supporting Visually Impaired Primary School Students in Learning Math

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Valeria Alampi, Cristian Bernareggi, Andrea Gerino, Sergio Mascetti (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Math Melodies, a free iPad application designed to teach mathematics to primary school children who are blind or visually impaired, while simultaneously engaging sighted peers. Mathematics education poses particular …

  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • education accessibility
  • mathematics accessibility
  • children
  • iPad
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • audio icons
  • multimodal interaction
  • inclusive design
  • screen reader
  • assistive technology
  • serious games
  • participatory design
  • text-to-speech

• Towards the Prediction of Dyslexia by a Web-based Game with Musical Elements

  Maria Rauschenberger, Luz Rello, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Emilia Gomez, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents DysMusic, a web-based serious game prototype that aims to predict the risk of dyslexia in pre-reading children using musical elements rather than linguistic tasks. Current dyslexia screening tools rely on reading and writing abili…

  • dyslexia
  • screening
  • serious games
  • gamification
  • music
  • auditory perception
  • pre-readers
  • children
  • phonological awareness
  • web-based assessment
  • usability testing
  • language independence
  • early detection
  • learning disabilities

• Towards Language Independent Detection of Dyslexia with a Web-based Game

  Maria Rauschenberger, Luz Rello, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper presents MusVis, a web-based game designed to detect dyslexia in children using musical and visual elements that are language independent, potentially enabling screening before children learn to read. Dyslexia affects 5-15% of the world’s …

  • dyslexia
  • screening
  • serious games
  • language independent
  • auditory processing
  • visual perception
  • children
  • learning disabilities
  • early detection
  • phonological awareness

• BrailleBlocks: Braille Toys for Cross-Ability Collaboration

  Vinitha Gadiraju (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This student research abstract presents BrailleBlocks, a tangible learning system designed to help blind or visually impaired children learn Braille collaboratively with their sighted parents. Braille literacy in the United States is critically low —…

  • braille
  • blind
  • education
  • children
  • tangible interaction
  • cross-ability collaboration
  • game-based learning
  • computer vision
  • braille literacy