Literature Reviews

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

• An Operantly Conditioned Looking Task for Assessing Infant Auditory Processing Ability

  Jason Nawyn, Cynthia Roesler, Teresa Realpe-Bonilla, Naseem Choudhury, April A. Benasich (2007) — Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper from the Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University describes the design and evaluation of a gaze-driven interface for assessing rapid auditory processing (RAP) abilities in infants aged 4 to 6 months. The researc…

  • early intervention
  • eye tracking
  • infant assessment
  • auditory processing
  • language impairment
  • operant conditioning
  • clinical tools
  • developmental disabilities
  • dyslexia

• visiBabble Demo

  Harriet Fell, Joel MacAuslan, Jun Gong, Josh Ostrow (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents a demonstration of visiBabble, a computer-based system designed to encourage and reinforce pre-speech vocalizations in infants at risk of being nonspeaking due to neurological or oral/motor impairments. The system consists of a no…

  • early intervention
  • pre-speech vocalizations
  • speech technology
  • visual feedback
  • assistive technology
  • child development
  • AAC
  • acoustic analysis

• visiBabble for Reinforcement of Early Vocalization

  Harriet Fell, Cynthia Cress, Joel MacAuslan, Linda Ferrier (2003) — Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '04)

  This paper presents visiBabble, a real-time system that detects syllable-like vocalizations in infant babbling and responds with brightly coloured animations as visual reinforcement. The system targets infants at risk for speech impairments due to co…

  • early intervention
  • speech and language
  • child development
  • acoustic analysis
  • developmental disabilities
  • cerebral palsy
  • biofeedback
  • assistive technology
  • speech technology
  • AAC

• Automatic Babble Recognition for Early Detection of Speech Related Disorders

  Harriet J. Fell, Joel MacAuslan, Karen Chenausky, Linda J. Ferrier (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper presents the Early Vocalization Analyzer (EVA), a program that automatically analyzes digitized recordings of infant babbling to detect syllable boundaries, with the goal of screening infants who may be at risk for later communication prob…

  • early intervention
  • speech technology
  • child development
  • speech disorders
  • babbling
  • acoustic analysis
  • developmental disabilities
  • screening

• EVA, an Early Vocalization Analyzer: An Empirical Validity Study of Computer Categorization

  Harriet J. Fell, Linda J. Ferrier, Zehra Mooraj, Etienne Benson, Dale Schneider (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper from Northeastern University presents EVA (Early Vocalization Analyzer), a Macintosh-based software tool that automatically analyzes digitized recordings of infant vocalizations to support early identification of speech and language delays…

  • early intervention
  • speech and language
  • acoustic analysis
  • infant vocalization
  • babbling
  • developmental disability
  • clinical tools
  • signal processing

• Using the Baby-Babble-Blanket for infants with motor problems: an empirical study

  Harriet J. Fell, Hariklia Delta, Regina Peterson, Linda J. Ferrier, Zebra Mooraj, Megan Valleau (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper presents the Baby-Babble-Blanket (BBB), a patented assistive device designed for infants with severe motor problems who are at risk of developing learned helplessness due to their inability to control their environment or communicate. The …

  • early intervention
  • motor disability
  • cerebral palsy
  • infant development
  • switch access
  • environmental control
  • assistive technology
  • cause and effect
  • single-case study

• Teaching Digital Fabrication to Early Intervention Specialists for Designing Their Own Tools

  Florian Güldenpfennig, Peter Fikar, Roman Ganhör (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20)

  This demonstration paper describes a co-design project in which researchers from New Design University and TU Wien taught basic digital fabrication skills to four experienced early intervention therapists who work with children with cerebral visual i…

  • digital fabrication
  • DIY assistive technology
  • co-design
  • early intervention
  • cerebral visual impairment
  • therapeutic toys
  • children
  • visual impairment
  • maker culture
  • participatory design

• Screening Risk of Dyslexia Through a Web-Game Using Language-Independent Content and Machine Learning

  Maria Rauschenberger, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Luz Rello (2020) — Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents MusVis, a web-based game designed to screen for dyslexia risk using language-independent content and machine learning, enabling potential early detection even in pre-readers who have not yet developed literacy skills. Dyslexia aff…

  • dyslexia
  • machine learning
  • screening
  • serious games
  • gamification
  • auditory perception
  • visual perception
  • early intervention
  • language-independent

• Early Diagnosis of Autism through Analysis of Pre-Speech Vocalizations

  Keshi Dai (2007) — SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing

  This paper proposes an approach for early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by computationally analyzing the pre-speech vocalizations of infants aged 6 to 18 months. The author notes that while autism can be reliably diagnosed by age 3, and…

  • autism spectrum disorder
  • early diagnosis
  • speech recognition
  • pre-speech vocalization
  • early intervention
  • assistive technology