Literature Reviews

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

• Tinged with Heartbreak: An Ethnographic Account of Navigating Autistic Loneliness and the Fragile Promise of AI Companionship

  Anna Hollis (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a reflexive ethnographic case study (n=1) of 'Andrea', a middle-aged autistic businesswoman in the Western world, and her six-month relationship with Xander, a Replika AI companion she ultimately lost to a corrupting software u…

  • chatbot companions
  • autism
  • grief
  • technological instability
  • AI companionship
  • replika
  • large language models
  • loneliness
  • masking
  • autistic burnout
  • ethnography
  • disenfranchised grief
  • double empathy problem

• Navigating Neurodivergence with AI Chatbots: Benefits, Tensions, and Implications for HCI

  Deepak Giri, Erin Brady, Megh Marathe (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 short paper presents a qualitative interview study of how neurodivergent adults use AI chatbots (primarily ChatGPT) in everyday life, and what tensions arise. The authors conducted 23 semi-structured, 50-minute Zoom interviews with part…

  • neurodivergence
  • AI chatbots
  • ADHD
  • autism
  • masking
  • working memory
  • emotional regulation
  • large language models
  • mental health
  • privacy
  • authenticity

• "Chasing Shadows": Understanding Personal Data Externalization and Self-Tracking for Neurodivergent Individuals

  Tanya Rudberg Selin, Danielle Uneus, Soren Knudsen (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper examines a mismatch between the promises of self-tracking and personal informatics — rich self-awareness, reflection, insight — and the lived experience of neurodivergent individuals, for whom stable routines, generalised Likert i…

  • self-tracking
  • personal informatics
  • neurodiversity
  • autism
  • ADHD
  • masking
  • unmasking
  • qualitative research
  • data visualization

• Disclosure of Neurodivergence in Software Workplaces: a Mixed Methods Study of Forum and Survey Perspectives

  Kaia Newman, Sarah Snay, Madeline Endres, Manasvi Parikh, Andrew Begel (2025) — ASSETS 2025: 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents a large-scale mixed-methods study examining how neurodivergent software developers navigate the decision to disclose their neurodivergence at work. The researchers combined qualitative analysis of 99 posts and their comments from …

  • neurodiversity
  • disability disclosure
  • workplace accessibility
  • ADHD
  • autism
  • mental health
  • software engineering
  • mixed methods
  • stigma
  • masking

• TwIPS: A Large Language Model Powered Texting Application to Simplify Conversational Nuances for Autistic Users

  Rukhshan Haroon, Fahad Dogar (2024) — ASSETS '24: Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper presents TwIPS, a prototype texting application powered by a large language model that assists autistic users with the pragmatic and tonal aspects of text-based communication. Many autistic individuals experience difficulties interpreting …

  • autism
  • communication
  • large language models
  • text messaging
  • tone interpretation
  • masking
  • social cognition
  • AI-assisted communication
  • neurodiversity