Literature Reviews

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

• Comparing Locomotion Techniques in Virtual Reality for People with Upper-Body Motor Impairments

  Rachel L. Franz, Jinghan Yu, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)

  This paper presents the first empirical study comparing the accessibility of virtual reality locomotion techniques — methods for navigating virtual environments — for people with upper-body motor impairments. Despite over 100 distinct locomotion tech…

  • virtual reality
  • locomotion
  • motor impairments
  • VR accessibility
  • interaction techniques
  • personalization
  • simulator sickness
  • user study

• Understanding and Improving Drilled-Down Information Extraction from Online Data Visualizations for Screen-Reader Users

  Ather Sharif, Olivia H. Wang, Alida T. Muongchan, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2023) — Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This full research paper presents a comprehensive investigation into how screen-reader users (SRUs) extract drilled-down information from online data visualizations, and how the VoxLens tool can be improved to support this process. While prior work o…

  • screen readers
  • data visualization
  • voice interface
  • information extraction
  • natural language processing
  • assistive technology
  • data sonification
  • user study

• Bring Environments to People – A Case Study of Virtual Tours in Accessibility Assessment for People with Limited Mobility

  Hao-Yun Chi, Jingzhen Sha, Yang Zhang (2023) — Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A '23)

  This study presents the first user research with people with limited mobility on using virtual tours — 3D digital replicas of physical environments captured with 360-degree cameras and depth sensors — to remotely assess the accessibility of indoor sp…

  • physical accessibility
  • wheelchair users
  • virtual reality
  • accessible housing
  • mobility impairments
  • independent living
  • built environment
  • assistive technology
  • spinal cord injury
  • user study

• Understanding Low Vision Graphical Perception of Bar Charts

  Yash Prakash, Akshay Kolgar Nayak, Sampath Jayarathna, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok (2024) — ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how low-vision users who rely on screen magnifiers perceive and interact with bar charts, addressing a significant gap in data visualization accessibility research. While studies on chart perception have extensively examined s…

  • low vision
  • data visualization
  • bar charts
  • screen magnifier
  • graphical perception
  • magnification
  • chart accessibility
  • user study

• Design and Evaluation of an Automatic Text Simplification Prototype with Deaf and Hard-of-hearing Readers

  Oliver Alonzo, Sooyeon Lee, Akhter Al Amin, Mounica Maddela, Wei Xu, Matt Huenerfauth (2024) — ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the design preferences and interactions of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) readers with automatic text simplification (ATS) tools. Many DHH individuals who use sign language as their primary language experience English as a sec…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • text simplification
  • reading accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • lexical simplification
  • syntactic simplification
  • plain language
  • user study

• Echolocation as an Accessible Navigation Tool in a Virtual 3D Environment

  Mai Ricaplaza Thøgersen, Rasmus Jens Frølich Kjeldsen (2024) — Assets '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates whether active echolocation — emitting a sound and interpreting its echo — can serve as a viable navigation tool for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals in virtual 3D environments. Virtual spaces remain overwhelmingly visua…

  • virtual environments
  • echolocation
  • blind and low vision
  • spatial navigation
  • sonic design space
  • user study