Literature Reviews

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

• Ability Heuristics for Conducting Accessibility Inspections

  Claire L. Mitchell, Junhan Kong, Jesse J. Martinez, Shaun K. Kane, Amy J. Ko, Alexis Hiniker, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Mitchell and colleagues develop and evaluate a set of nine 'ability heuristics' intended to let designers and developers — not just accessibility specialists — inspect interactive technology for accessibility problems. The authors argue that existing…

  • heuristic evaluation
  • ability-based design
  • accessibility inspection
  • accessibility evaluation
  • design methods
  • inspection methods
  • accessibility quality
  • design education

• Design for Social Accessibility Method Cards: Engaging Users and Reflecting on Social Scenarios for Accessible Design

  Kristen Shinohara, Cynthia L. Bennett, Wanda Pratt, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2020) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper introduces Design for Social Accessibility (DSA) method cards, a practical tool that helps designers incorporate social dimensions of accessibility into their work. The authors argue that most accessibility guidelines focus on functional a…

  • social accessibility
  • design methods
  • method cards
  • participatory design
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • inclusive design
  • design education

• Receptive Design Methodologies: Human-Centered Design methodologies receptive to adaptation, accessibility and inclusion

  Apoorva Avadhana (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This short paper proposes a set of new design methodologies that bridge the gaps between Human-Centred Design (HCD), accessibility research, disability studies, occupational therapy (OT), and assistive technology (AT) development. The author argues t…

  • design methods
  • assistive technology
  • inclusive design
  • occupational therapy
  • adaptation
  • activities of daily living

• DREEM: Moving from Empathy to Enculturation in Disability Related Human-Centered Design

  Leya Breanna Baltaxe-Admony, Jared Duval, Kathryn E. Ringland (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This paper introduces DREEM (Disability-Related Empathy from Existing Media), a four-step method that replaces traditional empathy-building exercises in human-centred design with an enculturation approach grounded in disability culture. The authors a…

  • design methods
  • disability culture
  • empathy
  • human-centred design
  • ableism
  • enculturation
  • qualitative methods