Literature Reviews

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

• Detecting Objects and Obstacles for Visually Impaired Individuals Using Visual Saliency

  Benoît Deville, Guido Bologna, Thierry Pun (2010) — Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This demo paper presents the detection module of See ColOr (Seeing Colors with an Orchestra), a mobility aid for visually impaired people developed at the University of Geneva. See ColOr transforms visual information from the environment into musical…

  • visual impairment
  • obstacle detection
  • mobility aid
  • computer vision
  • sensory substitution
  • visual saliency
  • assistive technology

• Text Locating in Scene Images for Reading and Navigation Aids for Visually Impaired Persons

  Chucai Yi (2010) — Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents a computer vision algorithm for locating text in natural scene images — a key capability needed for camera-based reading assistants and navigation aids for people who are blind or visually impaired. While existing reading assistan…

  • computer vision
  • text recognition
  • blindness
  • navigation
  • reading assistant
  • scene text
  • optical character recognition
  • assistive technology

• Toward 3D Scene Understanding via Audio-description: Kinect-iPad Fusion for the Visually Impaired

  Juan Diego Gomez, Sinan Mohammed, Guido Bologna, Thierry Pun (2011) — Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This demonstration paper presents a computer-vision-based framework that combines a Microsoft Kinect 3D depth sensor with an iPad touchscreen to enable visually impaired users to understand the spatial layout of indoor scenes through audio. The syste…

  • sonification
  • visual substitution
  • Kinect
  • computer vision
  • blindness
  • object recognition
  • spatial audio
  • tactile exploration
  • electronic travel aid
  • sensory substitution

• Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Help (NOAH) for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study

  Pooja Viswanathan, James J. Little, Alan K. Mackworth, Alex Mihailidis (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper describes NOAH (Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Help), an intelligent powered wheelchair system designed to provide adaptive navigation assistance to older adults with cognitive impairment in long-term care settings. An estimated 60-80% …

  • intelligent wheelchair
  • dementia
  • cognitive impairment
  • collision avoidance
  • wayfinding
  • computer vision
  • older adults
  • assistive technology
  • machine learning
  • long-term care

• Brazilian Sign Language Multimedia Hangman Game: A Prototype of an Educational and Inclusive Application

  Renata Cristina Barros Madeo (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents a prototype educational game — a hangman game that uses Brazilian Sign Language (BSL/Libras) as its input method. Instead of typing letters on a keyboard, players perform fingerspelling signs from the Libras ma…

  • sign language
  • sign language recognition
  • deaf accessibility
  • educational technology
  • game accessibility
  • gesture recognition
  • computer vision
  • inclusive design

• Situation-based Indoor Wayfinding System for the Visually Impaired

  Eunjeong Ko, Jin Sun Ju, Eun Yi Kim (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents an indoor wayfinding system for visually impaired people that uses situation-aware color codes affixed to building walls to guide users to destinations in unfamiliar environments. The key innovation is a situation-based approach: …

  • blindness and low vision
  • indoor navigation
  • wayfinding
  • computer vision
  • assistive technology
  • mobile accessibility
  • navigation

• Analyzing Visual Questions from Visually Impaired Users

  Erin L. Brady (2011) — The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents an analysis of the types of visual questions that visually impaired users ask through VizWiz, a mobile phone application that provides near-realtime answers to visual questions. VizWiz allows users to take a ph…

  • blindness and low vision
  • crowdsourcing
  • computer vision
  • mobile accessibility
  • visual question answering
  • object recognition
  • assistive technology

• Design and Evaluation of Classifier for Identifying Sign Language Videos in Video Sharing Sites

  Caio D.D. Monteiro, Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna, Frank M. Shipman (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper presents the design and evaluation of a video classifier that automatically distinguishes sign language (SL) videos from non-sign-language videos on video sharing sites like YouTube. Currently, deaf and hard-of-hearing users must rely on t…

  • sign language
  • deaf community
  • video classification
  • computer vision
  • machine learning
  • SVM
  • video sharing
  • YouTube
  • ASL
  • British Sign Language
  • content discovery

• Smartphone Application for Indoor Scene Localization

  Nabeel Younus Khan, Brendan McCane (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This demonstration paper presents a smartphone-based assistive technology that uses computer vision to determine a blind user's location inside a building where GPS is ineffective. The system operates on a client-server model running on an Android HT…

  • visual impairment
  • blind navigation
  • indoor localization
  • computer vision
  • smartphone
  • image matching
  • SIFT features
  • client-server
  • assistive technology
  • Android

• Helping Visually Impaired Users Properly Aim a Camera

  Marynel Vázquez, Aaron Steinfeld (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper evaluates three interaction modes for helping visually impaired users aim a camera to achieve good photo composition: speech-based feedback (spoken directional words like "up", "down", "left", "right" with pitch indicating proximity), tone…

  • visual impairment
  • blind users
  • low vision
  • photography
  • camera aiming
  • computer vision
  • audio feedback
  • transit accessibility
  • saliency maps
  • iPhone
  • assistive technology