Literature Reviews

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

• WebUI: A Dataset for Enhancing Visual UI Understanding with Web Semantics

  Jason Wu, Siyan Wang, Siman Shen, Yi-Hao Peng, Jeffrey Nichols, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2023) — Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper introduces WebUI, a large-scale dataset of approximately 400,000 web pages automatically crawled and paired with visual, semantic, and stylistic metadata extracted from the browser engine. The dataset addresses a critical bottleneck in UI …

  • machine learning
  • computer vision
  • UI modeling
  • web semantics
  • transfer learning
  • datasets
  • mobile accessibility
  • accessibility metadata

• Never-ending Learning of User Interfaces

  Jason Wu, Rebecca Krosnick, Eldon Schoop, Amanda Swearngin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeffrey Nichols (2023) — Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)

  This paper introduces the Never-ending UI Learner, an automated system that continuously crawls real mobile applications to learn semantic properties of user interfaces. The system addresses a fundamental limitation of current approaches to UI unders…

  • machine learning
  • mobile accessibility
  • UI semantics
  • automated crawling
  • tappability
  • screen readers
  • computer vision

• System-class Accessibility: The Architectural Support for Making a Whole System Usable by People with Disabilities

  Chris Fleizach, Jeffrey P. Bigham (2024) — ACM Queue

  This article introduces the concept of "system-class accessibility" — the architectural support built into an operating system to make the entire platform usable by people with disabilities. Written by Chris Fleizach (who led the development of Voice…

  • accessibility API
  • screen readers
  • VoiceOver
  • iOS accessibility
  • operating systems
  • platform accessibility
  • gesture interaction
  • system architecture
  • assistive technology
  • mobile accessibility

• Move&Flick: Design and Evaluation of a Single-Finger and Eyes-Free Kana-Character Entry Method on Touch Screens

  Ryosuke Aoki, Ryo Hashimoto, Akihiro Miyata, Shunichi Seko, Masahiro Watanabe, Masayuki Ihara (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS '14)

  This demonstration paper presents Move&Flick, a Japanese Kana-character text entry method designed for visually impaired users on touchscreen devices. Standard touchscreen text entry for visually impaired people is burdensome: users must explore the …

  • text entry
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • visual impairment
  • mobile accessibility
  • gesture interaction
  • Japanese accessibility
  • eyes-free interaction
  • input methods

• Real-Time Caption Challenge: C-Print

  Michael S. Stinson, Pamela Francis, Lisa B. Elliot, Donna Easton (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS '14)

  This demonstration paper presents C-Print, a typing-based real-time captioning system developed over 25 years by researchers at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology. C-Print provides communication …

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • real-time captioning
  • communication access
  • transcription
  • mobile accessibility
  • education

• Path-Guided Indoor Navigation for the Visually Impaired Using Minimal Building Retrofitting

  Dhruv Jain (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS 2014)

  This paper presents the design and evaluation of a cellphone-based indoor navigation system that provides step-by-step path guidance for visually impaired users in unfamiliar buildings with minimal infrastructure requirements. The system combines inf…

  • indoor navigation
  • visual impairment
  • wayfinding
  • assistive technology
  • infrared
  • dead reckoning
  • mobile accessibility
  • developing countries

• BraillePlay: Educational Smartphone Games for Blind Children

  Lauren R. Milne, Cynthia L. Bennett, Richard E. Ladner, Shiri Azenkot (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS 2014)

  This paper presents BraillePlay, a suite of four educational smartphone games designed to teach Braille character encodings to blind children aged 5 and older. The games are built on VBraille, a method for displaying Braille characters on a touchscre…

  • blindness
  • Braille literacy
  • educational games
  • children
  • mobile accessibility
  • haptic feedback
  • accessible gaming
  • touchscreen

• DigitCHAT: Enabling AAC Input at Conversational Speed

  Karl Wiegand, Rupal Patel (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS 2014)

  This paper presents DigitCHAT, a prototype augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system designed for literate users with mild upper limb motor impairments who need fast, expressive face-to-face communication on mobile phones. The authors i…

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • AAC
  • text entry
  • mobile accessibility
  • motor impairments
  • continuous motion input
  • speech impairments
  • conversational interaction

• Designing a Text Entry Multimodal Keypad for Blind Users of Touchscreen Mobile Phones

  Maria Claudia Buzzi, Marina Buzzi, Barbara Leporini, Amaury Trujillo (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents MTITK (Multimodal Text Input Touchscreen Keypad), a software-only text entry system for blind users of touchscreen phones that combines the familiar 12-key telephone keypad layout with multimodal audio-tactile feedback. The work i…

  • mobile accessibility
  • text entry
  • blindness
  • multimodal interaction
  • haptic feedback
  • touchscreen accessibility
  • Android

• Explorations on Breathing Based Text Input for Mobile Devices

  Jackson F. Filho, Thiago Valle, Wilson Prata (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents progress on PuffText, a breathing-based text input system for mobile phones designed for people with motor disabilities who cannot handle a mobile device manually. The system uses the phone's built-in microphone to detect "puffs" …

  • text entry
  • alternative input
  • motor disability
  • sip-and-puff
  • mobile accessibility
  • breathing input
  • assistive technology