Literature Reviews

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

• AMI: An Adaptable Music Interface to Support the Varying Needs of People with Dementia

  P. Frazer Seymour, Justin Matejka, Geoff Foulds, Ihor Petelycky, Fraser Anderson (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper presents AMI (Adaptable Music Interface), a tangible, modular music player designed to be reconfigured by caregivers to match the changing needs and preferences of individuals with dementia. Over 46 million people worldwide live with demen…

  • dementia
  • tangible interaction
  • music accessibility
  • personalization
  • aging
  • modular design
  • assistive technology
  • cognitive accessibility

• Improving Smartphone Accessibility with Personalizable Static Overlays

  André Rodrigues, André Santos, Kyle Montague, Tiago Guerreiro (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper addresses a fundamental usability problem for blind smartphone users: the loss of interface consistency that occurred when physical keypad phones gave way to touchscreen smartphones. Feature phones had tactually recognizable keys, simpler …

  • blindness
  • smartphone accessibility
  • screen readers
  • mobile accessibility
  • personalization
  • interaction design
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • TalkBack

• DytectiveU: A Game to Train the Difficulties and the Strengths of Children with Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Arturo Macias, María Herrera, Camila de Ros, Enrique Romero, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This demonstration paper presents DytectiveU, a game-based application containing 35,000 exercises designed to train cognitive abilities related to dyslexia in Spanish-speaking children. Unlike most existing dyslexia interventions that focus narrowly…

  • dyslexia
  • serious games
  • cognitive accessibility
  • gamification
  • learning disabilities
  • education
  • personalization
  • reading accessibility

• The semantic web, web accessibility, and device independence

  Lisa Seeman (2004) — Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  Written by Lisa Seeman of UB Access, this paper argues that Semantic Web technologies — particularly RDF (Resource Description Framework) annotations — can dramatically improve web accessibility beyond what WCAG guidelines alone can achieve, especial…

  • semantic web
  • RDF
  • cognitive accessibility
  • learning disabilities
  • personalization
  • knowledge representation
  • assistive technology

• Adapting learning environments with AccessForAll

  Greg Gay, Silvia Mirri, Marco Roccetti, Paola Salomoni (2009) — Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper describes the first implementation of the ISO FDIS 24751 accessibility standards (and the closely related IMS AccessForAll specifications) in ATutor, an open-source Learning Management System (LMS) developed at the University of Toronto's …

  • e-learning accessibility
  • learning management systems
  • content adaptation
  • personalization
  • ISO 24751
  • IMS AccessForAll
  • open source
  • ATutor
  • inclusive education

• Towards Ubiquitous Accessibility: Capability-based Profiles and Adaptations, Delivered via the Semantic Web

  Matthew Tylee Atkinson, Matthew J. Bell, Colin H. C. Machin (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Loughborough University proposes using semantic web technologies (RDF and OWL) to deliver capability-based user profiles and adaptive accessibility solutions across devices and platforms. The authors argue that the current assistive t…

  • adaptive interfaces
  • personalization
  • semantic web
  • user modeling
  • assistive technology
  • universal design
  • accessibility standards
  • user profiles

• Widget Design Authoring Toolkit

  Elaine Pearson, Franck-Olivier Perrin (2014) — Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents WIDGaT (Widget Design and Authoring Toolkit), an open-source, code-free online tool that enables non-technical teaching and support staff to create personalised widgets for disabled students in higher education. The project, devel…

  • education accessibility
  • personalization
  • authoring tools
  • learning disabilities
  • assistive technology
  • open source
  • inclusive design
  • educational technology

• Accessibility and Smart Data: the Case Study of mPASS

  Catia Prandi (2014) — Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents mPASS (mobile Pervasive Accessibility Social Sensing), a research project from the University of Bologna that applies the concept of Smart Data to urban accessibility. The paper argues that while crowdsourcing …

  • accessible maps
  • crowdsourcing
  • smart data
  • urban accessibility
  • user modeling
  • mobile accessibility
  • personalization
  • navigation

• APSIS4all: Personalisation as a Strategy to Ensure Accessibility and Enhance User Experience of Public Digital Terminals

  R. Ignacio Madrid, Christopher Bailey (2014) — Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the APSIS4all project, a European Commission-funded initiative that uses personalisation to make Public Digital Terminals (PDTs) — specifically ATMs and Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) — accessible to people with disabilities, olde…

  • kiosk accessibility
  • personalization
  • public digital terminals
  • ATM accessibility
  • user experience
  • assistive technology
  • NFC
  • sign language avatar
  • user profiles
  • adaptive interfaces

• Personalization of User Interfaces for Browsing XML Content Using Transformations Built on End-User Requirements

  Benoît Encelle, Nadine Baptiste-Jessel (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from IRIT at the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse presents a model for generating personalized multimodal user interfaces for browsing XML content, driven by end-user requirements rather than developer-imposed defaults. The authors ide…

  • personalization
  • multimodal interaction
  • user profiles
  • content adaptation
  • XML
  • model-based user interfaces
  • braille
  • text-to-speech