Literature Reviews

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

• Linux Screen Reader: Extensible Assistive Technology

  Peter Parente, Brett Clippingdale (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the Linux Screen Reader (LSR), an open source project from IBM that aimed to create a reusable, extensible development platform for building alternative and supplemental user interfaces on the GNOME desktop environment. Unlike con…

  • screen reader
  • Linux
  • open source
  • assistive technology
  • accessibility API
  • GNOME
  • extensibility
  • spatial audio
  • scripting

• DHTML Accessibility – Solving the JavaScript Accessibility Problem

  Becky Gibson, Richard Schwerdtfeger (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This landmark paper from IBM researchers Becky Gibson and Richard Schwerdtfeger describes the foundational work that would become WAI-ARIA. At the time of writing, JavaScript was used on over 50% of websites, yet no accessibility solution existed for…

  • web accessibility
  • JavaScript
  • ARIA
  • screen readers
  • keyboard accessibility
  • accessibility API
  • DHTML
  • web standards

• Programming for Usability in Nonvisual User Interfaces

  Gerhard Weber (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This short paper from Harz University addresses a fundamental problem in accessible software development: sighted developers working in visual programming environments must create interfaces that are usable nonvisually, but standard software engineer…

  • accessibility API
  • screen readers
  • software engineering
  • nonvisual interface
  • usability
  • accessibility testing
  • MSAA

• Capture: A Desktop Display-Centric Text Recorder

  Oren Laadan, Andrew Shu, Jason Nieh (2012) — Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper presents Capture, a display-centric text recording system that continuously tracks all onscreen text and metadata across both foreground and background windows with low overhead and without requiring modifications to applications, window s…

  • screen reader
  • accessibility API
  • accessibility tree
  • text recording
  • desktop accessibility
  • GNOME
  • Linux
  • AT-SPI
  • caching architecture
  • assistive technology

• 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

• Providing access to graphical user interfaces — not graphical screens

  W. Keith Edwards, Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Kathryn Stockton (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper argues that screen readers for graphical user interfaces should provide access to application interfaces at the semantic level rather than merely translating graphical screen contents. The authors from Georgia Tech's GVU Center identify th…

  • GUI accessibility
  • screen readers
  • accessibility API
  • blind and low vision
  • auditory interface
  • off-screen model
  • software architecture
  • X Window System

• Accessibility of Emerging Rich Web Technologies: Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web

  Michael Cooper (2007) — Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This keynote paper by Michael Cooper of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative examines the accessibility challenges and opportunities created by the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies in the mid-2000s. Cooper frames Web 2.0 as a paradigm shift characte…

  • WAI-ARIA
  • Web 2.0
  • Semantic Web
  • rich internet applications
  • web standards
  • assistive technology
  • accessibility API
  • dynamic content

• Mozilla Accessibility on Unix/Linux

  Louie Zhao, Jay Yan, Kyle Yuan (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper by Sun Microsystems engineers documents the first implementation of accessibility support in Mozilla on Unix/Linux, addressing a significant gap that left disabled users of free operating systems without an accessible web browser. At the t…

  • screen readers
  • keyboard navigation
  • open source
  • Linux accessibility
  • accessibility API
  • browser accessibility
  • assistive technology integration
  • GNOME desktop

• Platform-Independent Accessibility API: Accessible Document Object Model

  Andres Gonzalez, Loretta Guarino Reid (2005) — Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper, authored by Adobe engineers, addresses a fundamental problem in cross-platform accessibility: application developers who want to support assistive technologies must implement separate integrations for each operating system's accessibility…

  • accessibility API
  • DOM
  • cross-platform accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • MSAA
  • screen readers
  • platform independence
  • accessibility architecture

• Developing Accessible Mobile Applications with Cross-Platform Development Frameworks

  Sergio Mascetti, Mattia Ducci, Niccolò Cantù, Paolo Pecis, Dragan Ahmetovic (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This experience report from the EveryWare Lab at the University of Milan systematically analyzes how well cross-platform development frameworks (CPDFs) support screen reader accessibility APIs compared to native iOS and Android development. The team,…

  • mobile accessibility
  • cross-platform development
  • screen readers
  • React Native
  • Xamarin
  • accessibility API
  • mobile development
  • VoiceOver
  • TalkBack