Literature Reviews

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

• Wearables for All: Development of Guidelines to Stimulate Accessible Wearable Technology Design

  Jobke Wentzel, Eric Velleman, Thea van der Geest (2016) — Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Twente and The Accessibility Foundation (Netherlands) presents the rationale and methodology for developing accessibility guidelines specifically for wearable technology — a domain where no dedicated accessibility st…

  • wearable technology
  • universal design
  • guidelines
  • visual impairment
  • multimodal interaction
  • digital divide
  • human-centered design

• Contextual Language Learning with Capti ESL Assistant

  Yevgen Borodin, Yury Puzis, Andrii Soviak, Vikas Ashok, Andrii Melnyk, I. V. Ramakrishnan (2016) — Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents Capti ESL Assistant, a web application designed to help English language learners develop reading and listening skills simultaneously while remaining accessible to users with print disabilities including dyslexia and vision loss. …

  • language accessibility
  • print disabilities
  • text-to-speech
  • dyslexia
  • education accessibility
  • universal design
  • natural language processing

• Towards Universal Rendering in MathJax

  Davide Cervone, Peter Krautzberger, Volker Sorge (2016) — Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the MathJax Consortium's effort to transform MathJax from a purely visual mathematics rendering library into a universal rendering solution that supports readers with visual, print, and motor impairments. The authors describe how …

  • STEM accessibility
  • mathematics accessibility
  • MathML
  • screen readers
  • universal design
  • assistive technology
  • web accessibility

• Supporting the selection of web content modality based on user interactions logs

  Fabiano Marcon de Moraes, Vagner Figueredo de Santana, Juliana Cristina Braga (2016) — Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper explores using machine learning to automatically detect whether a web user is employing assistive technology based solely on their interaction patterns during a single pageview, without requiring explicit profile configuration or customiza…

  • universal design
  • machine learning
  • personalization
  • assistive technology
  • user interaction
  • adaptive interfaces
  • content modality
  • data mining

• Improving Usability of Math Editors

  Neil Soiffer (2018) — Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper presents an empirical analysis of mathematical symbol usage across US grade 6-12 textbooks to demonstrate that context-aware math editors could dramatically reduce the number of buttons needed for symbol entry, significantly improvin…

  • mathematics accessibility
  • STEM accessibility
  • MathML
  • equation editors
  • screen readers
  • switch access
  • universal design
  • keyboard accessibility
  • visual impairment

• Non-Visual Beats: Redesigning the Groove Pizza

  William Payne, Alex Xu, Amy Hurst, S. Alex Ruthmann (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This demonstration paper describes the accessible redesign of the Groove Pizza, a popular free web-based drum step-sequencer developed by NYU’s Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab) that reaches thousands of users per month. The original Groove Pizz…

  • music accessibility
  • blind
  • visual impairment
  • screen readers
  • sonification
  • keyboard accessibility
  • music creation
  • web accessibility
  • universal design

• Evaluating Instructor Strategy and Student Learning Through Digital Accessibility Course Enhancements

  Claire Ferrari, Devorah Kletenik, Kate Sonka, Deborah Sturm, Amy Hurst (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper evaluates the Teach Access Curriculum Development Awards program, an initiative by the Teach Access consortium (comprising 10 industry partners including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, 5 advocacy groups, and 20 university partners) to in…

  • accessibility education
  • higher education
  • curriculum development
  • WCAG
  • universal design
  • inclusive design
  • workforce development

• Accessible conversational user interfaces: considerations for design

  Kate Lister, Tim Coughlan, Francisco Iniesto, Nick Freear, Peter Devine (2020) — Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the first comprehensive review of accessibility considerations for conversational user interfaces (CUIs) — a category that includes chatbots, voice-activated personal assistants (like Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri), interactive voic…

  • conversational user interfaces
  • chatbots
  • voice assistants
  • cognitive accessibility
  • mental health
  • autism
  • inclusive design
  • universal design

• For one or for all? Survey of educator perceptions of Web Speech-based auditory description in science interactives

  Brett L. Fiedler, Taliesin L. Smith, Jesse Greenberg, Emily B. Moore (2022) — Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates how educators perceive a Web Speech API-based auditory description feature called Voicing, implemented in two PhET Interactive Simulations (John Travoltage and Gravity Force Lab: Basics) used globally for science education. Un…

  • auditory description
  • web speech
  • science education
  • interactive simulations
  • universal design
  • educator perceptions
  • surveys

• Teaching Accessibility in Different Disciplines: Topics, Approaches, Resources, Challenges

  Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, Rachel F. Adler, Caterina Almendral, Soyoung Choi, Devorah Kletenik, Bruno Oro, JooYoung Seo (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024)

  This workshop proposal addresses a significant gap in accessibility education: while teaching accessibility has been extensively explored within computer science and related computing disciplines, its integration into other fields remains under-inves…

  • accessibility education
  • interdisciplinary
  • computing education
  • curriculum design
  • pedagogy
  • K-12
  • higher education
  • universal design