Literature Reviews

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

• Beyond Sight: Empowering Visually Impaired Users with Audible Graphs

  Wajdi Aljedaani, Uday Kiran Chimpiri, Durgasantosh Gaddam, Vaseem Ahammed Shaik, Yaswitha Karasala, Marcelo M. Eler (2024) — Proceedings of the 21st International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This technical note presents a tool designed to make data visualizations accessible to people with visual impairments by converting them into audible and textual representations. The tool addresses a significant gap: while data visualization is centr…

  • data visualization
  • visual impairments
  • sonification
  • screen readers
  • optical character recognition
  • deep learning
  • assistive technology
  • text-to-speech

• ChartA11y: Designing Accessible Touch Experiences of Visualizations with Blind Smartphone Users

  Zhuohao Zhang, John R. Thompson, Aditi Shah, Manish Agrawal, Alper Sarikaya, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Edward Cutrell, Bongshin Lee (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024)

  This paper presents ChartA11y, an iOS mobile application that makes 2-D data visualizations accessible to blind and low-vision (BLV) smartphone users through multimodal touch interactions. Developed through an iterative participatory design process i…

  • data visualization
  • blind and low vision
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • sonification
  • multimodal interaction
  • participatory design
  • smartphone accessibility

• Leveraging Dynamic Audio-Tactile UIs to Assist Visually Impaired Users in Exploring Line Charts through Tactile Graphic Readers

  Gaspar Ramôa, Karin Müller (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents the Melodic Line Tracing Exploration UI, a novel dynamic audio-tactile user interface designed to help blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals interpret complex line charts through tactile graphic readers. The research addre…

  • data visualization
  • tactile graphics
  • sonification
  • audio-tactile interface
  • blindness and visual impairment
  • participatory design
  • assistive technology
  • line charts

• 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

• MAIDR Meets AI: Exploring Multimodal LLM-Based Data Visualization Interpretation by and with Blind and Low-Vision Users

  JooYoung Seo, Sanchita S. Kamath, Aziz Zeidieh, Saairam Venkatesh, Sean McCurry (2024) — ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how blind and low-vision (BLV) users interact with large language models to interpret data visualizations, building on the authors' previously developed MAIDR (Multimodal Access and Interactive Data Representation) framework. …

  • blind and low vision
  • data visualization
  • large language models
  • generative AI
  • sonification
  • screen readers
  • multimodal interaction
  • prompt engineering
  • accessibility

• Understanding and Reducing the Challenges Faced by Creators of Accessible Online Data Visualizations

  Ather Sharif, Joo Gyeong Kim, Jessie Zijia Xu, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This paper investigates the challenges visualization creators face in making online data visualizations accessible to screen-reader users and develops interventions to address these challenges. Data visualizations (charts, graphs, maps, dashboards) a…

  • data visualization
  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • sonification
  • blind and low vision
  • developer tools
  • ARIA