Literature Reviews

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

• Accessible Web Automation Interface: A User Study

  Yury Puzis (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents the evaluation of two web automation user interfaces designed to help blind and low-vision screen reader users complete web browsing tasks more efficiently. The fundamental problem is that while the web has bec…

  • web accessibility
  • web automation
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • low vision
  • JAWS
  • browsing efficiency
  • user study
  • assistive technology
  • implicit automation

• Accessible Skimming: Faster Screen Reading of Web Pages

  Faisal Ahmed (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This doctoral consortium paper presents an automated approach to enable non-visual skimming of web pages for screen reader users. Sighted people routinely skim web content through quick eye movements (saccades) that let them glance over headlines and…

  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • text summarization
  • natural language processing
  • skimming
  • information overload
  • aural browsing
  • cognitive load

• Back Navigation Shortcuts for Screen Reader Users

  Romisa Rohani Ghahari, Mexhid Ferati, Tao Yang, Davide Bolchini (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper introduces two novel back navigation strategies — topic-based back and list-based back — designed to make backtracking through previously visited web pages dramatically more efficient for screen reader users. The fundamental problem is tha…

  • screen readers
  • navigation
  • information architecture
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • usable accessibility
  • back navigation
  • aural browsing
  • cognitive load

• How Accessible is the Process of Web Interface Design?

  Kirk Norman, Yevgeniy Arber, Ravi Kuber (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '13)

  This short paper investigates the accessibility challenges faced by blind web interface developers through interviews with six legally blind participants (all male, aged 29-48) who had experience building websites and online applications. Five used J…

  • blind developers
  • web development
  • screen readers
  • programming accessibility
  • JAWS
  • collaborative design
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • workplace accessibility
  • developer tools

• Auditory Displays for Accessible Fantasy Sports

  Jared M. Batterman, Jonathan H. Schuett, Bruce N. Walker (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '13)

  This short paper addresses the inaccessibility of online fantasy sports platforms for visually impaired users and presents an accessible fantasy football system built around auditory display techniques. Fantasy sports are a major social and recreatio…

  • auditory display
  • sonification
  • blind users
  • visual impairment
  • sports accessibility
  • earcons
  • spearcons
  • auditory graphs
  • screen readers
  • recreation
  • social inclusion

• Uncovering the Role of Expectations on Perceived Web Accessibility

  Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue, Markel Vigo (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '13)

  This short paper investigates how user expectations shape the perception of web accessibility for blind users, arguing that guideline compliance alone does not guarantee a satisfying user experience. The authors note a key gap: prior research found t…

  • web accessibility
  • blind users
  • screen readers
  • user experience
  • perceived accessibility
  • expectations
  • usability testing
  • WCAG
  • qualitative research

• Inspiring Blind High School Students to Pursue Computer Science with Instant Messaging Chatbots

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Maxwell B. Aller, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Jessica O. Leung, Lindsay A. Yazzolino, Richard E. Ladner (2008) — Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '08)

  This paper describes the design and delivery of a four-day computer science workshop for fifteen blind high school students at the National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam, where two hundred blind and low vision students explored disciplines often…

  • accessible education
  • blind students
  • screen readers
  • computer science education
  • inclusive design
  • CAPTCHA
  • assistive technology
  • programming education
  • universal design

• WebInSight: Making Web Images Accessible

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Ryan S. Kaminsky, Richard E. Ladner, Oscar M. Danielsson, Gordon L. Hempton (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper introduces WebInSight, a system that automatically generates and inserts alternative text for web images that lack it. The authors first establish the scale of the problem through a series of web studies examining five groups of important …

  • web accessibility
  • alternative text
  • image accessibility
  • OCR
  • optical character recognition
  • transformation proxy
  • blind users
  • screen readers
  • automated labeling
  • crowdsourcing

• WebinSitu: A Comparative Analysis of Blind and Sighted Browsing Behavior

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Anna C. Cavender, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Richard E. Ladner (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper presents WebinSitu, a remote in situ study comparing the web browsing behavior of 10 blind and 10 sighted users over a one-week period. The study used an advanced web proxy built on UsaProxy that injected JavaScript into viewed pages to re…

  • web accessibility
  • blind users
  • screen readers
  • browsing behavior
  • user research
  • remote study
  • coping strategies
  • alternative text
  • dynamic content
  • AJAX
  • skip links

• Accessibility Commons: A Metadata Infrastructure for Web Accessibility

  Shinya Kawanaka, Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Darren Lunn, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2008) — Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper introduces Accessibility Commons (AC), a shared metadata infrastructure designed to integrate, store, and share accessibility metadata produced by diverse research projects, assistive technologies, and individual users. The authors identif…

  • web accessibility
  • metadata
  • assistive technology
  • screen readers
  • social accessibility
  • crowdsourcing
  • alternative text
  • web transcoding