Literature Reviews

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

• Empowering Blind Musicians to Compose and Notate Music with SoundCells

  William Christopher Payne, Fabiha Ahmed, Michael Zachor, Michael Gardell, Isabel Huey, Amy Hurst, R. Luke DuBois (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper presents a six-week remote study in which six blind and visually impaired (BVI) musicians used SoundCells, a text-based music notation web application, to compose original short works culminating in a live performance by a professional mus…

  • music accessibility
  • blindness
  • braille music
  • creative expression
  • assistive technology
  • text-based interface
  • co-design
  • longitudinal study

• A Workshop on Disability Inclusive Remote Co-Design

  Maryam Bandukda, Giulia Barbareschi, Aneesha Singh, Dhruv Jain, Maitraye Das, Tamanna Motahar, Jason Wiese, Lynn Cockburn, Amit Prakash, David Frohlich, Catherine Holloway (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 22)

  This workshop paper addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic forced accessibility researchers to adapt co-design methods from in-person to remote formats, and the unique challenges this created for research involving disabled and aging participants. While…

  • co-design
  • remote research
  • participatory design
  • disability inclusion
  • COVID-19
  • accessible platforms
  • research methods
  • Global South accessibility

• Designing with and for People with Intellectual Disabilities

  Leandro Soares Guedes, Ryan Colin Gibson, Kirsten Ellis, Laurianne Sitbon, Monica Landoni (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This workshop paper proposes a half-day community-building event at ASSETS '22 focused on sharing expertise in designing technologies with and for people with intellectual disabilities. The authors identify that while assistive technologies can signi…

  • intellectual disability
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • assistive technology
  • inclusive design
  • cognitive accessibility
  • research methods
  • community building

• Understanding Social and Environmental Factors to Enable Collective Access Approaches to the Design of Captioning Technology

  Emma McDonnell (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents a dissertation research program that reimagines how captioning technology should be designed by applying the disability justice principle of collective access — the idea that accessibility is a shared responsib…

  • captioning
  • collective access
  • disability justice
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • co-design
  • social accessibility
  • automatic speech recognition
  • social media accessibility

• Supporting Physical Activity in Later Life: Perspectives from Older Adults

  Muhe Yang (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents a research plan to investigate how behaviour change technology can be better designed to support physical activity among older adults living alone, with a specific focus on walking. The author identifies a core…

  • aging
  • older adults
  • physical activity
  • behaviour change technology
  • persuasive technology
  • co-design
  • human-centred design
  • digital divide

• Creating 3D Printed Assistive Technology Through Design Shortcuts: Leveraging Digital Fabrication Services to Incorporate 3D Printing into the Physical Therapy Classroom

  Erin Higgins, William Berkley Easley, Karen L. Gordes, Amy Hurst, Foad Hamidi (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper investigates how to integrate 3D printing into physical therapy (PT) education without requiring PT students to become experts in CAD or digital fabrication. Previous research showed that while 3D printing has great potential for creating …

  • 3D printing
  • assistive technology
  • digital fabrication
  • physical therapy
  • education
  • makerspaces
  • co-design
  • DIY assistive technology
  • interdisciplinary collaboration

• Sounds and (Braille) Cells: Co-Designing Music Technology with Blind and Visually Impaired Musicians

  William Payne (2022) — Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper outlines a three-phase dissertation addressing the accessibility barriers that blind and visually impaired (BVI) musicians face when using music creation technologies. Music software has democratized composition, produc…

  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • music technology
  • braille music
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • assistive technology
  • screen readers

• Playing with Feeling: Exploring Vibrotactile Feedback and Aesthetic Experiences for Developing Haptic Wearables for Blind and Low Vision Music Learning

  Leon Lu, Jin Kang, Chase Crispin, Audrey Girouard (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper explores how musical haptic wearables (MHWs) using vibrotactile feedback can support music learning for blind and low-vision (BLV) people, and investigates the role of material aesthetics in shaping the user experience of such devices. The…

  • blind and low vision
  • assistive technology
  • haptic feedback
  • vibrotactile
  • music learning
  • co-design
  • wearable technology
  • material experience

• Coding Non-Visually in Visual Studio Code: Collaboration Towards Accessible Development Environment for Blind Programmers

  JooYoung Seo, Megan Rogge (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper documents a sustained collaboration between JooYoung Seo, a blind assistant professor and lifelong non-visual programmer, and Megan Rogge, a sighted software engineer on the Visual Studio Code team at Microsoft, aimed at improving VSCode a…

  • nonvisual programming
  • integrated development environment
  • visual studio code
  • screen readers
  • blind programmers
  • open source accessibility
  • co-design
  • audio cues
  • terminal accessibility

• Azimuth: Designing Accessible Dashboards for Screen Reader Users

  Srinivasan, Arjun, Harshbarger, Tim, Hilliker, Darrell, Mankoff, Jennifer (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Azimuth, a prototype system that converts JSON-based dashboard specifications into web-based dashboards optimized for screen reader navigation, accompanied by automatically generated textual descriptions to support comprehension a…

  • data visualization
  • screen readers
  • dashboards
  • blind and low vision
  • co-design
  • text generation
  • accessible navigation
  • data analysis