Literature Reviews

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

• Slide Rule: Making Mobile Touch Screens Accessible to Blind People Using Multi-Touch Interaction Techniques

  Shaun K. Kane, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2008) — Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces Slide Rule, a set of audio-based multi-touch interaction techniques that make touch screen devices accessible to blind users without requiring any additional hardware. Published in 2008 — just one year after the iPhone launched …

  • blind users
  • touch screens
  • mobile accessibility
  • multi-touch interaction
  • gestures
  • screen readers
  • assistive technology
  • eyes-free interaction

• Crowdsourcing Subjective Fashion Advice Using VizWiz: Challenges and Opportunities

  Michele A. Burton, Erin Brady, Robin Brewer, Callie Neylan, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Amy Hurst (2012) — ASSETS '12: Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the accessibility barriers that fashion and clothing present to people with vision impairments, and explores whether crowdsourcing through VizWiz can provide useful subjective fashion advice. The research is grounded in the re…

  • blind users
  • crowdsourcing
  • fashion accessibility
  • VizWiz
  • subjective questions
  • social participation
  • assistive technology
  • trust

• ClassInFocus: Enabling Improved Visual Attention Strategies for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

  Anna C. Cavender, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Richard E. Ladner (2009) — Assets '09: Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents ClassInFocus, a system designed to help deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students manage the demanding visual attention requirements of modern multi-modal classrooms. DHH students face a unique challenge: while hearing students can …

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • classroom accessibility
  • visual attention
  • notifications
  • eye tracking
  • sign language interpretation
  • real-time captioning
  • education

• Using Real-time Feedback to Improve Visual Question Answering

  Yu Zhong, Phyo Thiha, Grant He, Walter Lasecki, Jeffrey Bigham (2012) — CHI EA '12: CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This work-in-progress paper introduces Legion:View, a system that extends the VizWiz model of crowd-powered visual question answering by adding a real-time feedback loop between blind users and crowd workers. The original VizWiz allowed blind users t…

  • visual question answering
  • crowdsourcing
  • blind users
  • real-time systems
  • assistive technology
  • human computation
  • VizWiz
  • mobile accessibility

• WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader On-the-Go

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince (2007) — Assets '07: Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This demonstration paper introduces WebAnywhere, a web-based, self-voicing screen reader that enables blind users to access the web from any computer with a standard browser and sound output, without needing to install specialized software. The paper…

  • screen readers
  • web accessibility
  • blind users
  • assistive technology
  • text-to-speech
  • web-based tools

• Visual Challenges in the Everyday Lives of Blind People

  Erin Brady, Meredith Ringel Morris, Yu Zhong, Samuel White, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2013) — CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper presents the findings of a year-long large-scale study of VizWiz Social, an iPhone application that allows blind users to take a photograph, record a spoken question about it, and receive answers from crowd workers or social contacts withi…

  • blind users
  • crowdsourcing
  • mobile accessibility
  • VizWiz
  • visual question answering
  • assistive technology
  • human-powered access technology
  • information needs

• Supporting Blind Photography

  Chandrika Jayant, Hanjie Ji, Samuel White, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2011) — ASSETS '11: The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper explores how blind and low-vision people use cameras and presents two applications designed to make photography more accessible. The research begins with a large-scale online survey of 118 blind and low-vision people that establishes the e…

  • blind users
  • low vision
  • photography
  • computer vision
  • mobile accessibility
  • audio feedback
  • haptic feedback
  • face detection
  • assistive technology

• Chorus: A Crowd-Powered Conversational Assistant

  Walter S. Lasecki, Rachel Wesley, Jeffrey Nichols, Anand Kulkarni, James F. Allen, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2013) — UIST '13: Proceedings of the 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

  This paper presents Chorus, a crowd-powered conversational assistant that enables users to hold natural, continuous conversations with what appears to be a single partner, but is actually backed by multiple crowd workers operating in real-time. The s…

  • crowdsourcing
  • conversational assistants
  • human computation
  • dialog systems
  • real-time systems
  • situational disability

• Trailblazer: Enabling Blind Users to Blaze Trails Through the Web

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Tessa Lau, Jeffrey Nichols (2009) — IUI '09: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces

  This paper introduces TrailBlazer, a system designed to help blind web users complete tasks more efficiently by providing step-by-step guidance through web pages. The core problem it addresses is that blind users relying on screen readers must often …

  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • web accessibility
  • non-visual interfaces
  • programming by demonstration
  • task guidance
  • intelligent user interfaces

• Adaptive Time Windows for Real-Time Crowd Captioning

  Matthew J. Murphy, Christopher D. Miller, Walter S. Lasecki, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2013) — CHI EA '13: CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper addresses a key barrier to real-time captioning access for deaf and hard of hearing people: the high cost of professional stenographers, who can charge up to $200 per hour. Building on the Legion:Scribe system, which demonstrated that grou…

  • real-time captioning
  • crowdsourcing
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • assistive technology
  • human computation
  • CART alternatives