Literature Reviews

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

• Improving Non-Visual Web Access Using Context

  Jalal Mahmud, Yevgen Borodin, Dipanjan Das, I.V. Ramakrishnan (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents CSurf, a context-directed non-visual web browsing system that significantly reduces browsing time for blind users by intelligently rearranging page content based on navigational context. The core insight is that when a sighted use…

  • screen readers
  • non-visual access
  • web navigation
  • context analysis
  • web page segmentation
  • content rearrangement
  • blind users
  • browsing efficiency

• Measuring Website Usability for Visually Impaired People - A Modified GOMS Analysis

  Henrik Tonn-Eichstädt (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper adapts the GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods, Selection rules) model — a well-established HCI method for estimating task execution times — to measure website usability specifically for blind screen reader users. The author argues that access…

  • screen readers
  • usability
  • web accessibility
  • GOMS
  • braille
  • blind users
  • evaluation methods
  • navigation strategies
  • efficiency

• Analyzing Visual Layout for a Non-Visual Presentation-Document Interface

  Tatsuya Ishihara, Hironobu Takagi, Takashi Itoh, Chieko Asakawa (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper from IBM Japan tackles a fundamental accessibility challenge: presentation documents (like PowerPoint slides) convey information primarily through visual layout, making them inherently difficult for blind screen reader users to understand.…

  • screen readers
  • presentation accessibility
  • diagram accessibility
  • visual layout analysis
  • metadata
  • non-visual access
  • document accessibility
  • alternative interface

• MathPlayer: Web-Based Math Accessibility

  Neil Soiffer (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This poster paper presents MathPlayer, a free plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer developed by Design Science Inc. that renders MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) visually in web pages and makes mathematical expressions accessible to people wi…

  • mathematical accessibility
  • MathML
  • screen readers
  • print disability
  • learning disabilities
  • braille
  • STEM accessibility
  • web accessibility

• Emerging Issues, Solutions & Challenges from the Top 20 Issues Affecting Web Application Accessibility

  David Hoffman, Lisa Battle (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This poster paper presents the results of a second in-depth analysis of hundreds of accessibility issues documented across real web application projects at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), compared with findings from a prior study of ov…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • accessibility barriers
  • design patterns
  • web applications
  • keyboard accessibility
  • screen readers

• Gist Summaries for Visually Impaired Surfers

  Simon Harper, Neha Patel (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper from the University of Manchester addresses a fundamental problem in web accessibility for visually impaired users: the inability to quickly assess a web page's relevance before committing to having the entire page read aloud by a screen r…

  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • text summarization
  • screen readers
  • cognitive overload
  • web browsing
  • document engineering
  • browser extension
  • information architecture

• Online Focus Groups Used as an Accessible Participatory Research Method

  Ted L. Wattenberg (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper proposes the use of online focus groups as a method for meaningfully including people with disabilities in participatory research, addressing persistent barriers to their involvement in technology studies. The author situates this work wit…

  • participatory research
  • accessibility
  • research methods
  • screen readers
  • disability inclusion
  • focus groups
  • assistive technology
  • usability

• DHTML Accessibility – Solving the JavaScript Accessibility Problem

  Becky Gibson, Richard Schwerdtfeger (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This landmark paper from IBM researchers Becky Gibson and Richard Schwerdtfeger describes the foundational work that would become WAI-ARIA. At the time of writing, JavaScript was used on over 50% of websites, yet no accessibility solution existed for…

  • web accessibility
  • JavaScript
  • ARIA
  • screen readers
  • keyboard accessibility
  • accessibility API
  • DHTML
  • web standards

• BlackBoardNV: A System for Enabling Non-Visual Access to the Blackboard Course Management System

  Vineet Enagandula, Niraj Juthani, I. V. Ramakrishnan, Devashish Rawal, Ritwick Vidyasagar (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper introduces BlackBoardNV, a system designed to make the Blackboard Learning Management System accessible to users with visual disabilities through non-visual (audio and keyboard) interaction. The core problem addressed is that screen reader…

  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • education
  • non-visual access
  • content analysis
  • learning management system
  • assistive technology

• Navigation of HTML Tables, Frames, and XML Fragments

  Enrico Pontelli, Douglas Gillan, Weiqiang Xiong, Elham Saad, Gopal Gupta, Arthur I. Karshmer (2002) — Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets 02)

  This paper provides a progress report on a multi-institution project developing technology to support non-visual navigation of complex HTML tables, frames, and XML structures. The authors identify tables, frames, and forms as the most difficult areas…

  • table accessibility
  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • non-visual navigation
  • semantic navigation
  • HTML frames
  • XML accessibility
  • domain specific language