Literature Reviews

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

• Effects of sampling methods on web accessibility evaluations

  Giorgio Brajnik, Andrea Mulas, Claudia Pitton (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  Brajnik, Mulas, and Pitton's Assets '07 paper is a large, careful empirical investigation of the sampling step in web-accessibility evaluation — the step at which an evaluator picks which pages of a site to actually test. For any site above a trivial…

  • web accessibility
  • accessibility evaluation
  • sampling methods
  • accessibility metrics
  • conformance testing
  • automated testing
  • WCAG
  • quality assurance
  • research methodology
  • accessibility audit

• Evaluating Web Resources for Disability Access

  Murray Rowan, Peter Gregor, David Sloan, Paul Booth (2000) — Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper from the University of Dundee's Digital Media Access Group argues that existing accessibility evaluation methods in 2000 were individually insufficient and proposes a comprehensive meta-methodology that combines multiple evaluation techniq…

  • accessibility evaluation
  • accessibility audit
  • automated testing
  • manual testing
  • heuristic evaluation
  • WCAG
  • web accessibility
  • evaluation methodology
  • usability testing
  • assistive technology testing

• Testability and Validity of WCAG 2.0: The Expertise Effect

  Giorgio Brajnik, Yeliz Yesilada, Simon Harper (2010) — Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper investigates the testability and validity of WCAG 2.0 success criteria through an empirical study with 22 accessibility experts and 27 non-experts (university students with 14 hours of accessibility training). Participants evaluated all 61…

  • WCAG 2.0
  • web accessibility
  • conformance review
  • evaluator effect
  • accessibility audit
  • guidelines
  • expertise
  • evaluation methodology

• 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

• Creating Accessible Local Government: The Process

  Vivienne Conway, Keith Fitzpatrick (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This short paper documents the end-to-end process the City of Cockburn, a local government authority in Western Australia, followed to develop an accessible replacement website. The paper provides a practical 9-step roadmap: (1) embed accessibility i…

  • government accessibility
  • WCAG compliance
  • procurement
  • organizational accessibility
  • case study
  • Australia
  • accessibility audit
  • user testing
  • accessibility training
  • project management
  • web development
  • content management
  • policy
  • mobile accessibility

• Challenges and Opportunities in Creating an Accessible Web Application for Learning Organic Chemistry

  Allyson Grace Yu (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper investigates the accessibility challenges of creating web-based educational tools for organic chemistry, a STEM subject that relies heavily on visual 2D and 3D molecular representations. The author notes that while 19.8% of undergraduate s…

  • STEM accessibility
  • STEM education
  • web accessibility
  • organic chemistry
  • keyboard accessibility
  • usability testing
  • accessibility audit
  • device-dependent event handlers
  • 3D interaction

• Optimising the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology

  Alexander Hambley, Yeliz Yesilada, Markel Vigo, Simon Harper (2022) — Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper critically examines the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM), the W3C's standard five-step process for evaluating website conformance to WCAG. The authors identify several methodological weaknesses in WCAG-EM …

  • accessibility evaluation
  • WCAG-EM
  • sampling methodology
  • automated testing
  • web crawling
  • conformance evaluation
  • accessibility audit
  • statistical methods