Literature Reviews

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

• Bridging the Gap between Automated Intervention and Actual User Experience: A Mixed-Methods Study on Mobile Accessibility Issues for Screen Reader Users

  Syed Fatiul Huq, Ziyao He, Yirui He, Sam Malek (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper by Huq, He, He, and Malek (UC Irvine) argues that existing automated accessibility testing tools for mobile apps do not faithfully represent what blind screen reader users actually experience, and proposes a user-aware categorisat…

  • mobile accessibility
  • screen readers
  • TalkBack
  • automated accessibility testing
  • software accessibility
  • accessibility user testing
  • Android accessibility
  • WCAG
  • systematic literature review
  • blindness and low vision

• Emacspeak — Direct Speech Access

  T. V. Raman (1996) — Proceedings of the Second Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '96)

  This paper by T. V. Raman (then at Adobe Systems, developed while at Digital Equipment Corporation's Cambridge Research Lab) presents Emacspeak, a speech output subsystem for Emacs that provides what the author terms "direct speech access" to UNIX wo…

  • screen reader
  • speech output
  • blindness and low vision
  • UNIX accessibility
  • text-to-speech
  • Emacs
  • Linux accessibility
  • open source
  • software accessibility

• An Accessible Blocks Language: Work in Progress

  Varsha Koushik, Clayton Lewis (2016) — Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This demonstration paper presents Pseudospatial Blocks (PB), a nonvisual blocks programming language designed to make block-based coding environments accessible to blind learners. Block languages like Scratch, Snap, MIT App Inventor, and Microsoft Bl…

  • blindness
  • programming education
  • screen reader
  • education
  • STEM accessibility
  • inclusive design
  • software accessibility

• Ontology-Driven Transformations for PDF Form Accessibility

  Utku Uckun, Ali Selman Aydin, Vikas Ashok, IV Ramakrishnan (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents TransPAc (Transformations for PDF Form Accessibility), an assistive technology that transforms PDF forms into accessible HTML pages so blind screen-reader users can fill them out. PDF forms present multiple accessibi…

  • screen readers
  • document accessibility
  • PDF accessibility
  • blindness and low vision
  • web accessibility
  • assistive technology
  • software accessibility

• Screen Magnification for Office Applications

  Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok, IV Ramakrishnan (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents MagPro, an interface augmentation for office productivity tools (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint) designed to reduce the excessive panning and zooming that screen-magnifier users with low vision must perform. The c…

  • low vision
  • screen magnification
  • assistive technology
  • workplace accessibility
  • user interface design
  • productivity
  • software accessibility

• Performing Qualitative Data Analysis as a Blind Researcher: Challenges, Workarounds and Design Recommendations

  O. Aishwarya (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This short paper provides a first-person account from a blind early-career researcher about the significant accessibility barriers encountered when trying to perform qualitative data analysis (QDA). The author, based at IIIT Bangalore, situates the w…

  • blindness
  • screen readers
  • qualitative research
  • research accessibility
  • academic accessibility
  • software accessibility
  • participatory research
  • disability studies