Literature Reviews

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

• How to design cognitively accessible digital design patterns for booking tickets: A participative study with Easy-to-Read users.

  Sabina Sieghart, Björn Rohles, Kim Corti, Trang Nguyen, Ann Bessemans (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Sieghart and colleagues tackle a persistent gap in cognitive accessibility research: digital design patterns are almost never validated with Easy-to-Read (ETR) users — adults with intellectual disabilities who can read at a basic level. The paper rep…

  • cognitive accessibility
  • Easy-to-Read
  • intellectual disability
  • participatory design
  • digital design patterns
  • usability
  • inclusion
  • user study
  • interaction design
  • e-commerce accessibility

• Shiny Stories, Hidden Struggles: Investigating the Representation of Disability Through the Lens of LLMs

  Marco Bombieri, Simone Paolo Ponzetto, Marco Rospocher (2026) — ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology

  This paper investigates how Large Language Models (LLMs) represent disability by comparing AI-generated social media posts with self-descriptions from real people with disabilities on Reddit. The study addresses a critical gap in bias research: while…

  • AI bias
  • large language models
  • disability representation
  • inspiration porn
  • toxic positivity
  • sentiment analysis
  • inclusion
  • social media
  • debiasing

• User Participation When Users have Mental and Cognitive Disabilities

  Stefan Johansson, Jan Gulliksen, Ann Lantz (2015) — ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This paper describes methods developed to enable meaningful participation in ICT research by people with mental and cognitive disabilities—a population often excluded from user studies. Over 100 participants with conditions including depression, anxi…

  • mental health
  • cognitive disability
  • participatory design
  • user research
  • inclusion
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • schizophrenia
  • bipolar disorder
  • research methods

• 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

• Data Representativeness in Accessibility Datasets: A Meta-Analysis

  Rie Kamikubo, Lining Wang, Crystal Marte, Amnah Mahmood, Hernisa Kacorri (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper conducts a systematic meta-analysis of demographic representativeness in 190 accessibility datasets — datasets sourced from people with disabilities and older adults — spanning from 1984 to 2021. The authors examine how age, gender, and ra…

  • AI fairness
  • datasets
  • representation
  • diversity
  • inclusion
  • machine learning
  • intersectionality
  • data ethics
  • aging

• Working at the Intersection of Race, Disability and Accessibility

  Harrington, Christina N., Desai, Aashaka, Lewis, Aaleyah, Moharana, Sanika, Ross, Anne Spencer, Mankoff, Jennifer (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper argues that accessibility research has systematically overlooked race as a meaningful construct, treating it at best as a shallow demographic variable while studying disability in isolation. The authors — a racially diverse team from Carne…

  • intersectionality
  • race
  • disability
  • social justice
  • critical race theory
  • accessibility research
  • equity
  • inclusion
  • research methods

• Barriers and Benefits: The Path to Accessible Makerspaces

  Katherine H. Allen, Audrey K. Balaska, Reuben M. Aronson, Chris Rogers, Elaine Schaertl Short (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper investigates the intersection of makerspace culture and the disability community, exploring how makerspaces can better support the development of assistive technologies by and for disabled makers. The researchers conducted eleven semi-stru…

  • makerspaces
  • DIY assistive technology
  • co-design
  • inclusion
  • accessibility barriers
  • maker culture
  • digital fabrication
  • participatory design

• Is it Part of Me? Exploring Experiences of Inclusive Avatar Use For Visible and Invisible Disabilities in Social VR

  Katrin Angerbauer, Phoenix Van Wagoner, Tim Halach, Jonas Vogelsang, Natalie Hube, Andria Smith, Ksenia Keplinger, Michael Sedlmair (2024) — ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the lived experiences of people with disabilities (PWD) using inclusive avatars — avatars featuring disability signifiers — in the social VR platform VRChat. While prior research has documented accessibility barriers and haras…

  • virtual reality
  • avatars
  • invisible disability
  • visible disability
  • social VR
  • identity
  • self-representation
  • harassment
  • inclusion