Literature Reviews

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

• "Is Someone There? Do They Have a Gun": How Visual Information about Others Can Improve Personal Safety Management for Blind Individuals

  Stacy M. Branham, Ali Abdolrahmani, William Easley, Morgan Scheuerman, Erick Ronquillo, Amy Hurst (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper investigates an underexplored dimension of accessibility for people who are blind: the need for visual information about other people to manage personal physical safety. While decades of assistive technology research have focused on helpin…

  • blindness
  • personal safety
  • facial recognition
  • assistive technology
  • navigation
  • computer vision
  • interpersonal safety
  • law enforcement
  • violence

• Exploring Aural and Haptic Feedback for Visually Impaired People on a Track: A Wizard of Oz Study

  Kyle Rector, Rachel Bartlett, Sean Mullan (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This University of Iowa study investigates how to make outdoor jogging tracks accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, addressing a gap in exercise accessibility research. Standard 400-meter tracks rely entirely on visual lane markings,…

  • blindness
  • low vision
  • exercise accessibility
  • navigation
  • haptic technology
  • audio feedback
  • vibration feedback
  • Wizard of Oz
  • physical activity

• Turn Right: Analysis of Rotation Errors in Turn-by-Turn Navigation for Individuals with Visual Impairments

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Uran Oh, Sergio Mascetti, Chieko Asakawa (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper examines a frequently overlooked problem in navigation assistance for blind and visually impaired (BVI) people: how accurately users execute rotation instructions during turn-by-turn guidance. While much research has focused on improving l…

  • navigation
  • blindness
  • orientation and mobility
  • indoor navigation
  • assistive technology
  • turn-by-turn navigation
  • Bluetooth beacons

• "It Looks Beautiful but Scary": How Low Vision People Navigate Stairs and Other Surface Level Changes

  Yuhang Zhao, Elizabeth Kupferstein, Doron Tal, Shiri Azenkot (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This qualitative study investigates how people with low vision experience and navigate surface level changes — stairs, curbs, and other depth transitions — in built environments. Using contextual inquiry, the researchers observed and interviewed 14 p…

  • low vision
  • mobility
  • navigation
  • depth perception
  • stairs
  • physical accessibility
  • contextual inquiry
  • built environment

• Personal guidance system for the visually impaired

  J. M. Loomis, R. G. Golledge, R. L. Klatzky, J. M. Speigle, J. Tietz (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This 1994 paper outlines the design and progress of a portable navigation system intended to enable visually impaired individuals to travel independently through both familiar and unfamiliar environments. The system integrates three core functional c…

  • navigation
  • blind users
  • GPS
  • geographic information system
  • wayfinding
  • spatial orientation
  • route planning
  • portable system
  • visually impaired
  • assistive navigation

• Hyperbraille: a hypertext system for the blind

  T. Kieninger, N. Kuhn (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This 1994 paper presents Hyperbraille, a system designed to make hypertext documents accessible to blind users through braille output devices. The research addresses a fundamental challenge: hypertext systems rely heavily on visual cues such as highl…

  • Braille
  • hypertext
  • blind users
  • navigation
  • document analysis
  • accessibility
  • office workplace
  • braille display
  • link management
  • non-visual browsing
  • document conversion

• The HearSay Non-Visual Web Browser

  Yevgen Borodin, Jalal Mahmud, I. V. Ramakrishnan, Amanda Stent (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the original HearSay non-visual web browser (version 1/2), developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Helen Keller Services for the Blind. HearSay is a free, open-source, cross-platform browser written in Java t…

  • non-visual web browser
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • machine learning
  • VoiceXML
  • speech recognition
  • navigation
  • assistive technology
  • open source

• The Status of Using "Big Eye" Chinese Screen Reader on "Wretch" Blog in Taiwan

  Yui-Liang Chen, Yung-Yu Ho (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper examines the accessibility of Wretch Blog (wretch.cc), one of the most popular blogging platforms in Taiwan, when used with "Big Eye," a Chinese-language screen reader. The authors find that most core functionality of the blog works …

  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • blogging
  • multilingual accessibility
  • navigation
  • alternative text
  • CAPTCHA
  • Global Accessibility
  • Chinese language

• Grouping Hyperlinks for Improved Voice/Mobile Accessibility

  Alex Penev, Raymond K. Wong (2008) — Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from UNSW Sydney proposes an automatic technique for clustering a web page's hyperlinks into topical groups to help blind screen reader users and mobile device users locate desired links more quickly. The core problem is that sighted users…

  • web accessibility
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • navigation
  • mobile accessibility
  • clustering
  • information retrieval
  • algorithms

• HapticRiaMaps: Towards Interactive Exploration of Web World Maps for the Visually Impaired

  Nikolaos Kaklanis, Konstantinos Votis, Panagiotis Moschonas, Dimitrios Tzovaras (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents HapticRiaMaps, a free open-source web application from the Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH) in Greece that makes online 2D maps accessible to visually impaired users through haptic force feedback and audio sonific…

  • blind and low vision
  • haptic technology
  • accessible maps
  • sonification
  • multimodal interaction
  • navigation
  • assistive technology
  • spatial cognition