Literature Reviews

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

• An Enhanced Electrolarynx with Automatic Fundamental Frequency Control based on Statistical Prediction

  Kou Tanaka, Tomoki Toda, Graham Neubig, Sakriani Sakti, Satoshi Nakamura (2015) — ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This demonstration paper presents a prototype system that enhances electrolarynx speech by automatically controlling pitch (fundamental frequency, or F0) using statistical prediction. An electrolarynx is a speaking aid device used by laryngectomees—p…

  • electrolarynx
  • laryngectomy
  • speech synthesis
  • assistive technology
  • voice prosthesis
  • fundamental frequency
  • machine learning
  • speech rehabilitation

• A Personalizable Mobile Sound Detector App Design for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users

  Danielle Bragg, Nicholas Huynh, Richard E. Ladner (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper presents the design and evaluation of a personalizable mobile phone app that detects sounds of interest to deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) users by learning from training examples recorded by the user themselves. Unlike existing commercial …

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • mobile accessibility
  • machine learning
  • sound detection
  • personalization
  • assistive technology
  • user research

• Supporting Orientation of People with Visual Impairment: Analysis of Large Scale Usage Data

  Hernisa Kacorri, Sergio Mascetti, Andrea Gerino, Dragan Ahmetovic, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper analyzes large-scale remote usage data from iMove, an iOS GPS-based orientation app for people with visual impairments, to understand how users interact with assistive navigation technology in real-world conditions. Traditional assistive t…

  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • navigation
  • orientation and mobility
  • mobile accessibility
  • data collection
  • machine learning
  • user research
  • VoiceOver

• Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs for Detecting Sign Language Content in Video Sharing Sites

  Frank M. Shipman, Satyakiran Duggina, Caio D.D. Monteiro, Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper addresses the problem of automatically detecting sign language content in videos on sharing platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. For many deaf and hard-of-hearing people, sign language is their primary communication medium, and they rely on o…

  • sign language
  • computer vision
  • video classification
  • information retrieval
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • machine learning
  • video accessibility
  • content detection

• Real-Time Depth-Camera Based Hand Tracking for ASL Recognition

  Brandon Taylor, Anind Dey, Daniel Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper validates the use of a publicly available real-time hand tracking algorithm (Sphere-Mesh) for recognizing American Sign Language (ASL) handshapes using a depth camera. Sign Language Recognition (SLR) has long been a motivatin…

  • sign language recognition
  • hand tracking
  • computer vision
  • depth camera
  • machine learning
  • American Sign Language
  • fingerspelling
  • deaf and hard of hearing

• MANA: Designing and Validating a User-Centered Mobility Analysis System

  Boyd Anderson, Shenggao Zhu, Ke Yang, Jian Wang, Hugh Anderson, Chao Xu Tay, Vincent Y. F. Tan, Ye Wang (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)

  This paper presents MANA (Mobility ANAlytics), a wearable sensor system designed to measure gait parameters in people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) in clinical and home settings. The system addresses a significant gap in accessible health monitoring:…

  • Parkinson's disease
  • wearable sensors
  • gait analysis
  • inertial measurement units
  • mobility assessment
  • user-centered design
  • machine learning
  • assistive technology

• Modeling the Speed and Timing of American Sign Language to Generate Realistic Animations

  Sedeeq Al-khazraji, Larwan Berke, Sushant Kafle, Peter Yeung, Matt Huenerfauth (2018) — Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper addresses the challenge of generating realistic computer animations of American Sign Language (ASL) by automatically modeling three critical timing parameters: where prosodic pauses should be inserted, how long those pauses should last, an…

  • sign language
  • ASL
  • animation
  • machine learning
  • Deaf accessibility
  • natural language processing
  • prosody
  • motion capture

• EEG as a means of communication: preliminary experiments in EEG analysis using neural networks

  Charles W. Anderson, Saikumar V. Devulapalli, Erik A. Stolz (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper explores the use of electroencephalography (EEG) as a communication channel for paralyzed individuals, representing early brain-computer interface (BCI) research. The core premise is that if distinct mental states can be reliably identifie…

  • brain-computer interface
  • electroencephalography
  • neural network
  • machine learning
  • paralysis
  • assistive technology
  • pattern recognition
  • alternative input

• 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

• Predictive, Accessible Web Automation: A Longitudinal Study

  Yury Puzis, Yevgen Borodin, I.V. Ramakrishnan (2014) — Proceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a six-week longitudinal pilot study of Automation Assistant, a predictive web automation system designed to improve non-visual web browsing for blind users. The core problem is that screen readers force users to navigate web pages…

  • screen readers
  • web automation
  • blindness
  • non-visual web access
  • adaptive interfaces
  • machine learning
  • usability
  • assistive technology