Literature Reviews

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

• SocialCue: Exploring the Design Space of Social Wayfinding Assistants for Blind and Low Vision People

  Veronica Bossio Botero, Sidharth Sharma, Ruoyu Iris Xu, Lisa Maria DiSalvo, Ritvik Sharma, Brian A. Smith (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  SocialCue is a wearable technology probe that targets a problem most assistive navigation work ignores: not where to walk, but how to read and act inside an unfolding social scene. The authors argue that existing tools for blind and low vision (BLV) …

  • blind and low vision
  • social navigation
  • wayfinding
  • wearable technology
  • computer vision
  • spatial audio
  • technology probe
  • nonverbal communication
  • assistive technology

• EmojiFan: Designing A Social Interface Supporting Facial Expression Interaction for Blind and Low Vision People in Party Settings

  Jinlin Miao, Shan Luo, Yue Chen, Hongyue Wang, Zhejun Zhang, Rina R. Wehbe (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper presents EmojiFan, an AI-assisted wearable prototype designed to help blind and low-vision (BLV) adults participate in facial-expression interactions in party settings — a social context the authors identify as particularly hostil…

  • blind and low vision
  • visual impairment
  • facial expression
  • social accessibility
  • wearable technology
  • haptic feedback
  • AI-assisted assistive technology
  • emotion recognition
  • nonverbal communication
  • emoji
  • bodystorming
  • thematic analysis

• DiG-Net: Enhancing Human–Robot Interaction through Hyper-Range Dynamic Gesture Recognition in Assistive Robotics

  Eran Bamani Beeri, Eden Nissinman, Avishai Sintov (2026) — ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction

  DiG-Net (Distance-aware Gesture Network) addresses a fundamental limitation in gesture-controlled assistive robotics: existing dynamic gesture recognition systems work reliably only within about seven metres of the camera, severely constraining their…

  • assistive robotics
  • gesture recognition
  • human-robot interaction
  • mobility impairment
  • accessibility
  • computer vision
  • deep learning
  • nonverbal communication

• Co-designing Socially Assistive Sidekicks for Motion-based AAC

  Stephanie Valencia, Michal Luria, Amy Pavel, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Henny Admoni (2021) — Proceedings of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '21)

  This paper explores how socially assistive robots, framed as "sidekicks," could provide AAC users with a nonverbal channel of communication to support their conversational goals. While AAC devices enable speech-based communication through synthesized…

  • AAC
  • nonverbal communication
  • socially assistive robots
  • co-design
  • human-robot interaction
  • cerebral palsy
  • motor disability
  • participatory design

• Nonverbal Communication through Expressive Objects

  Stephanie Valencia, Mark Steidl, Michael L. Rivera, Cynthia L. Bennett, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Henny Admoni (2023) — Communications of the ACM

  This paper explores how physical motion through an expressive object — a "sidekick" — can support nonverbal communication for augmented communicators (ACs) who use AAC devices. The work centres on Mark, a co-author with cerebral palsy who has used AA…

  • AAC
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • cerebral palsy
  • nonverbal communication
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • assistive technology
  • motor disabilities
  • turn-taking

• A3: HCI Coding Guideline for Research Using Video Annotation to Assess Behavior of Nonverbal Subjects with Computer-Based Intervention

  Joshua Hailpern, Karrie Karahalios, James Halle, Laura DeThorne, Mary-Kelsey Coletto (2009) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper introduces A3 (Annotation for ASD Analysis), a comprehensive coding guideline containing 21 dependent variables for assessing the behavior of nonverbal individuals interacting with computer-based interventions. The authors developed A3 thr…

  • autism
  • nonverbal communication
  • video annotation
  • research methodology
  • behavioral assessment
  • computer-based intervention
  • AAC

• Aided Nonverbal Communication through Physical Expressive Objects

  Stephanie Valencia, Mark Steidl, Michael Rivera, Cynthia Bennett, Jeffrey Bigham, Henny Admoni (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents an in-depth case study of co-designing a physical expressive "sidekick" device to support nonverbal communication for an augmented communicator (AC) named Mark, who has cerebral palsy and uses a head-switch-operated AAC device. Wh…

  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • nonverbal communication
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • cerebral palsy
  • physical disability
  • robotics
  • tangible interaction
  • assistive technology

• Accessible Nonverbal Cues to Support Conversations in VR for Blind and Low Vision People

  Crescentia Jung, Jazmin Collins, Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Jonathan Isaac Segal, Andrea Stevenson Won, Shiri Azenkot (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This paper addresses the inaccessibility of nonverbal communication for blind and low-vision (BLV) users in social virtual reality environments. Social VR platforms like VRChat, Rec Room, and Meta Horizon Worlds rely heavily on avatar-mediated nonver…

  • virtual reality
  • blind and low vision
  • nonverbal communication
  • haptic feedback
  • social VR
  • spatial audio