Literature Reviews
Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.
11 results found tagged smartphone accessibility.
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GuideMe: A VLM-Based System Assisting Independent Smartphone Learning for Older Adults
GuideMe tackles a problem familiar to anyone who has watched an older relative struggle to learn a new smartphone app: the combined weight of declining vision, memory, and motor function plus unfamiliar terminology makes independent learning extremel…
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AIGuide: Augmented Reality Hand Guidance in a Visual Prosthetic
AIGuide is an iOS smartphone application designed as a "visual prosthetic" to help people with visual impairments locate and physically reach objects in their environment. The app addresses what the authors call the "last meter problem"—while existin…
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Ally: Understanding Text Messaging to Build a Better Onscreen Keyboard for Blind People
This research presents Ally, a smartphone onscreen keyboard designed specifically for blind users who need to enter text messages when voice input or external keyboards are unavailable. The authors recognized that blind smartphone users employ hetero…
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Improving Smartphone Accessibility with Personalizable Static Overlays
This paper addresses a fundamental usability problem for blind smartphone users: the loss of interface consistency that occurred when physical keypad phones gave way to touchscreen smartphones. Feature phones had tactually recognizable keys, simpler …
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In-context Q&A to Support Blind People Using Smartphones
This paper addresses a pervasive but understudied problem: the daily challenges blind people face when using smartphone applications go far beyond the touchscreen gesture difficulties that most accessibility research focuses on. The researchers condu…
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Technology, Education and Access: A "Fair Go" for People with Disabilities
This keynote is a personal narrative by Dr. Scott Hollier, a digital access specialist diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at age five, tracing how technology and education have shaped his life and career in accessibility. Hollier frames the talk aro…
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Indoor Localization for Visually Impaired Travelers Using Computer Vision on a Smartphone
This paper presents a computer vision-based indoor localization system that runs as a real-time app on a conventional iPhone, designed to help blind and visually impaired travelers navigate indoor spaces where GPS is unavailable. The system combines …
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FootUI: Designing and Detecting Foot Gestures to Assist People with Upper Body Motor Impairments to Use Smartphones on the Bed
This paper presents FootUI, a vision-based interaction technique that enables people with upper body motor impairments but sound lower limbs to use smartphones through foot gestures while reclining on a bed. The system uses the phone's front-facing c…
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ChartA11y: Designing Accessible Touch Experiences of Visualizations with Blind Smartphone Users
This paper presents ChartA11y, an iOS mobile application that makes 2-D data visualizations accessible to blind and low-vision (BLV) smartphone users through multimodal touch interactions. Developed through an iterative participatory design process i…
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Scaffolding Digital Literacy Through Digital Skills Training for Disabled People in the Global South
This paper presents a digital skills training intervention for 138 blind and partially sighted (BPS) and deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) people across India and Kenya, grounded in Vygotsky's Scaffolding Theory. The study addresses the digital divide f…