Literature Reviews

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

• Usability and Accessibility Issues in the Localization of Assistive Technology

  Ira Jhangiani (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This doctoral consortium paper from Virginia Polytechnic Institute examines the usability and accessibility challenges that arise when assistive technology software designed in one country is localized for users with disabilities in another. The rese…

  • assistive technology
  • localization
  • internationalization
  • usability
  • low vision
  • partial sight
  • design guidelines
  • universal design
  • cultural accessibility

• Sparsha: A Comprehensive Indian Language Toolset for the Blind

  Anirban Lahiri, Satya Jyoti Chattopadhyay, Anupam Basu (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents Sparsha ("feeling of touch" in Hindi), the first comprehensive toolset enabling over 13 million visually impaired people in the Indian subcontinent to read and write in their native languages using a computer. Existing Braille tra…

  • braille
  • visual impairment
  • Indian languages
  • multilingual accessibility
  • screen reader
  • text-to-speech
  • tactile graphics
  • internationalization
  • digital inclusion
  • Global South accessibility

• Multilingual Website Assessment for Accessibility: A Survey on Current Practices

  Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez, Anton Bolfing (2013) — Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This short paper presents results from a survey of 67 web accessibility professionals exploring how multilingual websites are assessed for accessibility. The authors note that when a monolingual website is localized into multiple languages, the acces…

  • web accessibility
  • multilingual web
  • localization
  • accessibility assessment
  • internationalization
  • evaluation methods

• Introducing Web Accessibility to Localization Students: Implications for a Universal Web

  Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez (2014) — Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper explores the intersection of web accessibility and web localization, arguing that localization professionals — the people who adapt digital content for different languages and cultural contexts — should be trained in web accessibility as p…

  • web accessibility
  • localization
  • internationalization
  • multilingual web
  • accessibility education
  • translation studies
  • training

• Accessible Icon Design in Enterprise Applications

  Eric Stilan, Amy Chen, Lulit Bezuayehu (2011) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Oracle's design team presents case studies of designing accessible icons for enterprise software, focusing on the challenge of conveying complex meanings — conditional status, severity levels, data trends — within 16x16 pixel icons wi…

  • visual design
  • color contrast
  • color blindness
  • accessible design
  • user interface design
  • internationalization
  • WCAG compliance

• WebAnywhere: Experiences with a New Delivery Model for Access Technology

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Wendy Chisholm, Richard E. Ladner (2010) — Proceedings of the 2010 International Cross Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This follow-up paper describes the evolution of WebAnywhere two years after its initial release, documenting how it expanded from a web-based screen reader for blind users into a broader platform for delivering access technology. Released publicly in…

  • screen readers
  • blindness
  • low vision
  • web-based assistive technology
  • text-to-speech
  • speech recognition
  • open source
  • digital equity
  • internationalization
  • cloud computing
  • AT delivery

• Cross-Cultural Web Design Guidelines

  Rukshan Alexander, David Murray, Nik Thompson (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper develops evidence-based cross-cultural web design guidelines that go beyond simple language translation to address culturally specific design preferences in layout, navigation, links, multimedia, visual representation, colour, and text. Th…

  • cross-cultural design
  • web design guidelines
  • cultural factors
  • internationalization
  • localization
  • usability
  • HCI
  • Hofstede
  • inclusive design
  • Australia
  • China
  • Saudi Arabia
  • web accessibility