Literature Reviews

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

• Accessibility and The Crowded Sidewalk: Micromobility's Impact on Public Space

  Cynthia L. Bennett, Emily Ackerman, Bonnie Fan, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Patrick Carrington, Sarah Fox (2021) — ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

  This paper examines how micromobility devices — e-scooters, dockless bikes, and autonomous personal delivery devices (PDDs) — impact the accessibility of public sidewalks and pathways for people with disabilities. Drawing on 24 semi-structured interv…

  • micromobility
  • public space
  • disability activism
  • urban accessibility
  • e-scooters
  • delivery robots
  • pedestrian accessibility
  • smart cities
  • governance
  • wheelchair accessibility

• A Crowdsourcing Platform for the Construction of Accessibility Maps

  Carlos Cardonha, Diego Gallo, Priscilla Avegliano, Ricardo Herrmann, Fernando Koch, Sergio Borger (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This highly cited paper (69 citations) from IBM Research Brazil presents a comprehensive crowdsourcing platform for constructing outdoor accessibility maps through two complementary data collection approaches. The first, IBM Citizen Sensing, is an ac…

  • crowdsourcing
  • accessibility mapping
  • physical accessibility
  • urban accessibility
  • citizen sensing
  • smart cities
  • mobile accessibility
  • data visualization
  • sensor data

• Citizen Sensing for Collaborative Construction of Accessibility Maps

  Kelly Shigeno, Sergio Borger, Diego Gallo, Ricardo Herrmann, Mateus Molinaro, Carlos Cardonha, Fernando Koch, Priscilla Avegliano (2013) — Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This demo paper presents IBM Sidewalks, a mobile application developed by IBM Research Brazil that enables citizens to collaboratively report physical accessibility issues in urban environments through crowdsourcing. The application is part of IBM's …

  • crowdsourcing
  • accessibility mapping
  • mobile application
  • physical accessibility
  • urban accessibility
  • citizen sensing
  • data visualization
  • smart cities

• Multimodal 3D printed urban maps for blind people. Evaluations and scientific investigations

  Malgorzata Telesinska (2023) — ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This poster paper presents a multimodal 3D printed urban map prototype that embeds capacitive touch sensors directly into the map body to provide location-specific audio descriptions when touched. The research, conducted at Wroclaw University of Scie…

  • tactile maps
  • 3D printing
  • blind and low vision
  • multimodal interaction
  • audio-tactile
  • urban accessibility
  • spatial cognition
  • haptic devices
  • smart cities

• The Future of Urban Accessibility: The Role of AI

  Jon E. Froehlich, Chu Li, Maryam Hosseini, Fabio Miranda, Andres Sevtsuk, Yochai Eisenberg (2024) — Proceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '24)

  This workshop paper examines the emerging role of artificial intelligence in designing equitable and accessible cities, transportation systems, and navigation tools for people with disabilities. The authors — spanning HCI, urban planning, public heal…

  • urban accessibility
  • artificial intelligence
  • smart cities
  • autonomous vehicles
  • pedestrian infrastructure
  • wayfinding
  • built environment
  • computer vision