Literature Reviews

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

• Disability-First AI Dataset Annotation: Co-designing Stuttered Speech Annotation Guidelines with People Who Stutter

  Xinru Tang, Jingjin Li, Shaomei Wu (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Tang, Li, and Wu present the first study to push the 'disability-first' principle beyond dataset collection and into the dataset annotation stage of the AI pipeline. Their case is stuttered speech: despite a growing number of stuttering datasets (Flu…

  • AI dataset annotation
  • stuttering
  • speech recognition
  • disability-first design
  • embodied knowledge
  • data labeling
  • accessibility
  • speech technology
  • co-design
  • epistemic injustice
  • AI ethics
  • AI fairness

• Sasayaki: Augmented Voice Web Browsing Experience

  Daisuke Sato, Shaojian Zhu, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa (2011) — Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11)

  This paper introduces Sasayaki (Japanese for 'whisper'), a prototype that augments the standard screen-reader voice with a second, physically separated synthesised voice that whispers contextually relevant hints — for example 'entering main content',…

  • screen readers
  • auditory interface
  • voice browser
  • web accessibility
  • blindness and low vision
  • non-visual interaction
  • assistive technology
  • multimodal
  • speech technology

• Wizard-of-Oz Test of ARTUR: a Computer-Based Speech Training System with Articulation Correction

  Olle Bälter, Olov Engwall, Anne-Marie Öster, Hedvig Kjellström (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm presents a Wizard-of-Oz evaluation of ARTUR (the ARticulation TUtoR), a computer-based speech training system designed to help children with language disorders improve their articulation.…

  • speech technology
  • speech training
  • articulation
  • language disorder
  • child development
  • assistive technology
  • Wizard-of-Oz
  • computer vision
  • talking head
  • speech and language therapy

• visiBabble Demo

  Harriet Fell, Joel MacAuslan, Jun Gong, Josh Ostrow (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents a demonstration of visiBabble, a computer-based system designed to encourage and reinforce pre-speech vocalizations in infants at risk of being nonspeaking due to neurological or oral/motor impairments. The system consists of a no…

  • early intervention
  • pre-speech vocalizations
  • speech technology
  • visual feedback
  • assistive technology
  • child development
  • AAC
  • acoustic analysis

• The Migratory Cursor: Accurate Speech-Based Cursor Movement by Moving Multiple Ghost Cursors Using Non-Verbal Vocalizations

  Yoshiyuki Mihara, Etsuya Shibayama, Shin Takahashi (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper presents the migratory cursor, a novel voice-controlled cursor movement interface that combines two complementary techniques to achieve both speed and accuracy. The fundamental challenge with speech-based cursor control is that existing ap…

  • cursor control
  • voice interface
  • speech technology
  • motor accessibility
  • alternative input
  • assistive technology
  • non-verbal interaction

• visiBabble for Reinforcement of Early Vocalization

  Harriet Fell, Cynthia Cress, Joel MacAuslan, Linda Ferrier (2003) — Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '04)

  This paper presents visiBabble, a real-time system that detects syllable-like vocalizations in infant babbling and responds with brightly coloured animations as visual reinforcement. The system targets infants at risk for speech impairments due to co…

  • early intervention
  • speech and language
  • child development
  • acoustic analysis
  • developmental disabilities
  • cerebral palsy
  • biofeedback
  • assistive technology
  • speech technology
  • AAC

• Automatic Babble Recognition for Early Detection of Speech Related Disorders

  Harriet J. Fell, Joel MacAuslan, Karen Chenausky, Linda J. Ferrier (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper presents the Early Vocalization Analyzer (EVA), a program that automatically analyzes digitized recordings of infant babbling to detect syllable boundaries, with the goal of screening infants who may be at risk for later communication prob…

  • early intervention
  • speech technology
  • child development
  • speech disorders
  • babbling
  • acoustic analysis
  • developmental disabilities
  • screening

• Comparing Effects of Navigational Interface Modalities on Speaker Prosodics

  Julie Baca (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper investigates whether speech-only (displayless) interfaces impose a measurable cognitive burden on users compared to multimodal interfaces that include visual or tactile components. The research uses an innovative methodology: rather than r…

  • speech technology
  • cognitive load
  • non-visual interaction
  • navigation
  • prosody
  • displayless interface
  • multimodal interaction
  • blind and low vision
  • spatial data

• A Phoneme Probability Display for Individuals with Hearing Disabilities

  Deb Roy, Alex Pentland (1998) — Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This paper from MIT Media Lab presents a speech-to-visual-display system designed to aid individuals with hearing impairments by converting continuous speech into an animated graphical representation of phoneme probabilities. Rather than attempting t…

  • hearing accessibility
  • speech technology
  • speech visualization
  • neural networks
  • phoneme recognition
  • assistive technology
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • wearable technology

• Annotation-based Video Enrichment for Blind People: A Pilot Study on the Use of Earcons and Speech Synthesis

  Benoît Encelle, Magali Ollagnier-Beldame, Stéphanie Pouchot, Yannick Prié (2011) — Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper presents exploratory work from the ACAV (Collaborative Annotation for Video Accessibility) project, investigating how combining earcons (nonverbal audio messages) with speech synthesis can improve video accessibility for blind people. Trad…

  • video accessibility
  • blindness
  • audio description
  • earcons
  • speech technology
  • multimedia accessibility
  • sonification