Literature Reviews

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

• Towards Inclusive External Human-Machine Interface: Exploring the Effects of Visual and Auditory eHMI for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People

  Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Kurtis Weir, Chukwuemeka Eze, Mark Colley (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a companion to Xu et al. 2026 (10.1145/3772318.3791557) but with a broader, two-stage inclusive-design focus: selecting appropriate visual eHMI concepts for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) pedestrians and then evaluating how vis…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • external human-machine interface
  • automated vehicles
  • pedestrian safety
  • multimodal interaction
  • accessibility
  • virtual reality
  • focus groups
  • inclusive design

• "I Don't Trust it, but I Use it": Navigating Trust, Privacy, and Identity in Disabled People's Use of Generative AI

  Jazette Johnson, Aaleyah Lewis, Jennifer Mankoff, Olivia Banner (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper reports a qualitative focus-group study of how disabled people navigate generative AI (GenAI) tools in everyday life, with particular attention to how trust, privacy, and intersecting identities (race, gender, language, sexuality,…

  • generative AI
  • accessibility
  • trust
  • mistrust
  • privacy
  • intersectionality
  • disability identity
  • focus groups
  • qualitative research
  • accessibility tax
  • cross-disability
  • code-switching
  • race and disability
  • language and disability

• Online Focus Groups Used as an Accessible Participatory Research Method

  Ted L. Wattenberg (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper proposes the use of online focus groups as a method for meaningfully including people with disabilities in participatory research, addressing persistent barriers to their involvement in technology studies. The author situates this work wit…

  • participatory research
  • accessibility
  • research methods
  • screen readers
  • disability inclusion
  • focus groups
  • assistive technology
  • usability

• Assessing the Deaf User Perspective on Sign Language Avatars

  Michael Kipp, Quan Nguyen, Alexis Heloir, Silke Matthes (2011) — Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper investigates Deaf community attitudes toward sign language avatars — virtual characters that perform sign language — through focus groups and a large-scale online study. Sign language avatars have the potential to make written content acce…

  • deaf
  • sign language avatar
  • German Sign Language
  • user acceptance
  • focus groups
  • participatory design
  • sign language synthesis
  • nonmanual features
  • accessibility

• Opinions and Preferences of Blind and Low Vision Consumers Regarding Self-Driving Vehicles: Results of Focus Group Discussions

  Julian Brinkley, Brianna Posadas, Julia Woodward, Juan E. Gilbert (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper explores the opinions, concerns, and preferences of 38 blind and low vision participants regarding self-driving vehicle technology through eight focus group sessions conducted over two days in north central Florida. Participants had a mean…

  • blindness
  • low vision
  • autonomous vehicles
  • accessible transportation
  • mobility
  • independence
  • user research
  • focus groups

• Lost in Translation: Challenges and Barriers to Sign Language-Accessible User Research

  Amelie Unger, Dieter P. Wallach, Nicole Jochems (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This experience report describes the challenges hearing researchers face when conducting user research with sign language (SL) users, based on the authors' experience running remote focus groups with German Sign Language (GSL) users as part of the AV…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • sign language
  • user research
  • focus groups
  • language accessibility
  • ability-based design
  • research methods
  • German Sign Language
  • inclusion

• Trying to Piece It Together: Exploring Accessible Error Detection in Emerging Privacy Techniques With Blind People

  Rahaf Alharbi, Angela D Cheong, Jaylin Herskovitz, Robin N. Brewer, Sarita Schoenebeck (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how blind people might detect errors in AI-enabled privacy techniques (obfuscation) used within visual assistance technologies (VAT). Blind people routinely use VAT apps like Seeing AI, Be My Eyes, Aira, and TapTapSee to acces…

  • visual assistance technologies
  • privacy
  • obfuscation
  • AI error detection
  • assessment descriptors
  • blind users
  • sighted bias
  • transparency
  • trust
  • qualitative research
  • focus groups