Literature Reviews

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

• Impact of Online Learning in the Context of COVID-19 on Undergraduates with Disabilities and Mental Health Concerns

  Han Zhang, Margaret Morris, Paula Nurius, Kelly Mack, Jennifer Brown, Kevin Kuehn, Yasaman Sefidgar, Xuhai Xu, Eve Riskin, Anind Dey, Jennifer Mankoff (2022) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This mixed-methods study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic's shift to online learning affected undergraduate students with disabilities and mental health concerns at a large US public university. The researchers compared 28 students with disabilitie…

  • online learning
  • COVID-19
  • mental health
  • higher education
  • disability
  • accommodations
  • flexible learning
  • ADHD
  • depression
  • anxiety

• Enriching Social Sharing for the Dementia Community: Insights from In-Person and Online Social Programs

  Jiamin Dai, Karyn Moffatt (2023) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a comparative study of in-person and virtual social programs for people with dementia, examining how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed community-based social engagement. The research centers on "Tales & Travels," a storytelling pr…

  • dementia
  • cognitive accessibility
  • social computing
  • videoconferencing
  • caregivers
  • community programs
  • COVID-19
  • remote interaction
  • older adults

• Video Conferencing Tools: Comparative Study of the Experiences of Screen Reader Users and the Development of More Inclusive Design Guidelines

  Barbara Leporini, Marina Buzzi, Marion Hersh (2023) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This comprehensive study investigates the accessibility and usability of three major video conferencing platforms—Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams—for blind and visually impaired people using screen readers. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandem…

  • video conferencing
  • screen readers
  • blind users
  • Zoom
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Google Meet
  • remote work
  • COVID-19
  • usability

• The Accessibility of Data Visualizations on the Web for Screen Reader Users: Practices and Experiences During COVID-19

  Danyang Fan, Alexa Fay Siu, Hrishikesh Rao, Gene Sung-Ho Kim, Xavier Vazquez, Lucy Greco, Sile O'Modhrain, Sean Follmer (2023) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This comprehensive mixed-methods study examines data visualization accessibility through three complementary investigations: an accessibility audit of 87 COVID-19 visualizations, an online survey of 127 screen reader users, and contextual inquiry wit…

  • data visualization
  • screen readers
  • visual impairment
  • web accessibility
  • accessibility audit
  • COVID-19
  • sonification
  • tactile graphics
  • data literacy

• Breaking Boundaries with Live Transcribe: Expanding Use Cases Beyond Standard Captioning Scenarios

  Fernando Loizides, Sara Basson, Dimitri Kanevsky, Olga Prilepova, Sagar Savla, Susanna Zaraysky (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper catalogs non-traditional, serendipitous uses of Google's Live Transcribe, a free Android application that provides real-time speech-to-text transcription in over 80 languages. The authors — a mix of Google developers, researchers, an…

  • automatic speech recognition
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • captioning
  • speech to text
  • COVID-19
  • communication accessibility
  • mobile accessibility

• Student and Teacher Perspectives of Learning ASL in an Online Setting

  Garreth W. Tigwell, Roshan L Peiris, Stacey Watson, Gerald M. Garavuso, Heather Miller (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This experience report examines the challenges and opportunities of teaching and learning American Sign Language (ASL) online during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspectives of both students and a Deaf instructor at Rochester Institute of Technol…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • sign language
  • education accessibility
  • videoconferencing
  • remote learning
  • communication accessibility
  • COVID-19

• Disability and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Using Twitter to Understand Accessibility during Rapid Societal Transition

  Cole Gleason, Stephanie Valencia, Lynn Kirabo, Jason Wu, Anhong Guo, Elizabeth Jeanne Carter, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Cynthia Bennett, Amy Pavel (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This Carnegie Mellon University study uses Twitter data to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected people with disabilities (PWD) across three critical domains where technology and accessibility intersect: grocery delivery servi…

  • COVID-19
  • disability
  • social media
  • Twitter
  • emergency preparedness
  • online education
  • grocery delivery
  • public health
  • deaf
  • hard of hearing
  • visual impairment
  • digital divide
  • Universal Design for Learning

• Providing and Accessing Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Mental Health Professionals, Community and Vocational Support Providers, and Adults with ASD

  Tiffany Thang, Alice Liang, Yechan Choi, Adrian Parrales, Sara H. Kuang, Sri Kurniawan, Heather Perez (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This experience report examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the provision and receipt of essential services for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at Hope Services, a community center for adults with developmental disabilities in Calif…

  • autism spectrum disorder
  • telehealth
  • COVID-19
  • mental health
  • developmental disability
  • digital divide
  • virtual conferencing
  • community services

• Meeting Participants with Intellectual Disabilities during COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Improvisation

  Leandro Soares Guedes, Monica Landoni (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This short paper (poster) shares lessons learned from conducting participatory design research with adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of a project aimed at making museum visits more accessible, re…

  • intellectual disability
  • co-design
  • COVID-19
  • museum accessibility
  • participatory design
  • improvisation
  • research methods
  • cultural accessibility

• COVID-19 Highlights the Issues Facing Blind and Visually Impaired People in Accessing Data on the Web

  Alexa F. Siu, Danyang Fan, Gene S-H Kim, Hrishikesh V. Rao, Xavier Vazquez, Sile O'Modhrain, Sean Follmer (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This mixed-methods study examines how blind and visually impaired (BVI) people experienced accessing data-driven information on the web during the COVID-19 pandemic — a period when data visualizations such as infection curves, maps of hotspots, and t…

  • data visualization
  • blind and low vision
  • web accessibility
  • COVID-19
  • screen readers
  • sonification
  • data literacy
  • accessible data
  • information access