Literature Reviews

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

• Using Think Aloud Protocol with Blind Users: A Case for Inclusive Usability Evaluation Methods

  Sambhavi Chandrashekar, Tony Stockman, Deborah Fels, Rachel Benedyk (2006) — Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper examines whether the Think Aloud Protocol (TAP), one of the most widely used usability evaluation methods, can be effectively applied when testing with blind screen reader users. The study involved six vision-impaired students evaluating a…

  • usability testing
  • think aloud protocol
  • blind users
  • screen readers
  • research methods
  • inclusive design
  • cognitive load
  • user research

• 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

• Anticipate and Adjust: Cultivating Access in Human-Centered Methods

  Kelly Mack, Emma McDonnell, Venkatesh Potluri, Maggie Xu, Jailyn Zabala, Jeffrey Bigham, Jennifer Mankoff, Cynthia Bennett (2022) — CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper investigates how accessibility experts make human-centered research methods accessible for both disabled participants and disabled facilitators. Through 17 interviews with US and Canadian accessibility experts (13 researchers and 4 communi…

  • research methods
  • accessibility
  • disability
  • participatory design
  • user research
  • inclusive research
  • access labor
  • crip time
  • interdependence
  • mixed-ability teams

• Investigating Best Practices for Remote Summative Usability Testing with People with Mild to Moderate Dementia

  Rachel Wood, Emma Dixon, Salma Elsayed-Ali, Ekta Shokeen, Amanda Lazar, Jonathan Lazar (2021) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study is the first to examine best practices for conducting remote summative usability testing with people who have mild to moderate dementia, independent of their caregivers. The research included 15 participants (5 pilot, 10 main study) with a…

  • dementia
  • usability testing
  • remote research
  • cognitive accessibility
  • older adults
  • research methods
  • user research
  • summative evaluation

• Race, Disability, and Technology: A Call to Action for Accessibility Researchers

  Aashaka Desai, Aaleyah Lewis, Sanika Moharana, Anne Spencer Ross, Jennifer Mankoff, Christina Harrington (2026) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a framework for accessibility researchers to meaningfully engage with race and disability as intersecting identity dimensions. Building on Kimberlé Crenshaw's foundational work on intersectionality—which originated to address how …

  • intersectionality
  • race
  • disability studies
  • research methods
  • critical theory
  • disability justice

• 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

• Design and Psychometric Evaluation of an American Sign Language Translation of the System Usability Scale

  Matt Huenerfauth, Kasmira Patel, Larwan Berke (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper addresses a significant gap in accessibility research methodology: the lack of standardized usability questionnaires available in American Sign Language (ASL) for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) participants. The System Usability Scale (SUS…

  • sign language
  • deaf accessibility
  • usability testing
  • survey translation
  • psychometrics
  • American Sign Language
  • research methods
  • inclusive research

• Eye Tracking Scanpath Analysis on Web Pages: How Many Users?

  Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada, Simon Harper (2016) — Proceedings of the Ninth Biennial ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA)

  This paper investigates how many participants are needed for reliable eye tracking scanpath analysis on web pages — a question that has been debated in usability research for over 30 years but never specifically addressed for scanpath studies. While …

  • eye tracking
  • scanpath analysis
  • usability testing
  • sample size
  • web accessibility
  • research methods
  • visual attention

• Lessons from Expert Focus Groups on how to Better Support Adults with Mild Intellectual Disabilities to Engage in Co-Design

  Ryan Colin Gibson, Mark D. Dunlop, Matt-Mouley Bouamrane (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper proposes and evaluates a two-stage procedure for making co-design workshops accessible to adults with mild intellectual disabilities (ID). The context is the development of a clinical AAC application to help people with mild ID communicate…

  • intellectual disability
  • co-design
  • participatory design
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • healthcare accessibility
  • research methods
  • inclusive design
  • design methodology

• The Reliability of Fitts's Law as a Movement Model for People with and without Limited Fine Motor Function

  Ather Sharif, Victoria Pao, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper investigates a foundational assumption in HCI and assistive technology research: that Fitts's law reliably measures pointing performance. Fitts's law, introduced in 1954, models the relationship between the time to complete a pointing move…

  • motor accessibility
  • input methods
  • research methods
  • pointing devices
  • assistive technology
  • usability testing
  • HCI