Literature Reviews

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

• Exploring the Usability of Gaze-based Mobile Communication in Ghana

  Victoria Austin, Gifty Ayoka, Giulia Barbareschi, Richard Cave, Catherine Holloway (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This study evaluates the usability of Look to Speak, a free Android-based eye-gaze AAC application developed by Google Creative Lab, for people with severe communication disabilities in Ghana. The research involved training 10 local speech and langua…

  • augmentative communication
  • AAC
  • eye gaze
  • Global South
  • Ghana
  • smartphone accessibility
  • cerebral palsy
  • communication disability
  • assistive technology ecosystem
  • low-resource setting

• One Does Not Simply 'Mm-hmm': Exploring Backchanneling in the AAC Micro-Culture

  Tobias M Weinberg, Claire O'Connor, Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Stephanie Valencia, Thijs Roumen (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper explores how users of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) technology engage in backchanneling—the subtle verbal and non-verbal signals (like "uh-huh," nods, and facial expressions) that listeners use to show engagement, signal…

  • AAC
  • backchanneling
  • non-verbal communication
  • micro-culture
  • listener feedback
  • speech impairment
  • motor impairment
  • co-design
  • conversational agency
  • expressive communication

• Helping or Homogenizing? GenAI as a Design Partner to Pre-Service SLPs for Just-in-Time Programming of AAC

  Cynthia Zastudil, Christine Holyfield, Christine Kapp, Kate Hamilton, Kriti Baru, Liam Newsam, June A. Smith, Stephen MacNeil (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the integration of generative AI into augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, specifically examining how AI-suggested hotspots affect the creation of visual scene displays (VSDs). VSDs are image-based communi…

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • AAC
  • visual scene displays
  • generative AI
  • autism
  • speech-language pathology
  • just-in-time programming
  • AI homogenization
  • assistive technology design