Literature Reviews

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

• A Preliminary Study of Wearable Olfactory-Thermal Feedback for Immersive VR Cultural Heritage

  Hanbing Wang, Xiang Li, Kexin Nie, Yunfeng Shu, Xizi Liu, Xiwen Liu, Yingying Liu, Zhixin Cai, Mingjie Zhou, Xianqi Wang, Li Zhao, Chunling Wu, Lie Zhang (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract reports a preliminary between-subjects user study (N=52) of NeckScents, a lightweight neck-worn wearable that delivers short, pre-authored pulses of scented warm airflow near the face to augment audiovisual VR. The aut…

  • virtual reality
  • multisensory interaction
  • olfactory display
  • thermal feedback
  • cultural heritage
  • wearable technology
  • immersion
  • aesthetic experience

• Auto-Generating Personas from User Reviews in VR App Stores

  Yi Wang, Kexin Cheng, Xiao Liu, Chetan Arora, John Grundy, Thuong Hoang, Henry Been-Lirn Duh (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstract reports on an auto-generated persona system developed to help undergraduate students surface accessibility requirements in virtual reality design projects. The authors argue that personas are well-established in user-c…

  • virtual reality
  • VR accessibility
  • personas
  • requirements engineering
  • large language models
  • retrieval-augmented generation
  • accessibility education
  • user-centered design
  • empathy

• AI4XR: AI in Extended Reality for 3D Scene Editing and Accessibility Design

  Junlong Chen (2026) — Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) — Doctoral Consortium

  This CHI '26 Doctoral Consortium paper summarises Junlong Chen's PhD research at the University of Cambridge on integrating AI — specifically large language models (LLMs) and vision-language models (VLMs) — into extended reality (XR) workflows. The r…

  • extended reality
  • virtual reality
  • artificial intelligence
  • large language models
  • vision-language models
  • visual accessibility
  • blind and low vision
  • scene description
  • multimodal interaction
  • doctoral consortium

• Touching a Cat Without Touch: Does Mid-Air Ultrasound Haptic Feedback Promote Relaxation in Virtual Cat Interaction?

  Juro Hosoi, Yuki Ban, Shin'ichi Warisawa (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Hosoi and colleagues investigate whether mid-air ultrasound haptics — tactile sensations produced by focused acoustic radiation pressure, with no device worn on the user's skin — can convey the feel of a virtual cat convincingly enough to support rel…

  • mid-air haptics
  • ultrasound haptics
  • virtual reality
  • haptic feedback
  • human-animal interaction
  • relaxation
  • affective computing
  • non-contact interaction
  • multimodal interaction
  • sensory substitution

• Somatic Drawing Tool: 3D Body Sheet as Material for Articulating Synaesthetic Experiences

  Mamoru Watanabe, Oussama Metatla, Atau Tanaka (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper reports a three-year participatory co-design cycle with synaesthetes - people who involuntarily experience cross-sensory perceptions such as seeing colours when hearing music or feeling tactile sensations when reading letters. The…

  • synaesthesia
  • sensory articulation
  • soma design
  • body sheet
  • VR drawing
  • multisensory interaction
  • cross-modal
  • participatory design
  • virtual reality
  • embodied interaction

• When the World Opens Up: Journeys of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Social Virtual Reality

  Alexandra Covaci, Winnie Tsang, Sophia Ppali, Paraskevi Triantafyllopoulou, Monica Perusquia-Hernandez, Oscar Zhou, Fotis Liarokapis, Marios Constantinides, Mohamed Khamis, Shujun Li (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper challenges the dominant remedial paradigm in HCI research on virtual reality and people with intellectual disabilities (ID), which has largely framed VR as a tool for training functional life skills (cooking, shopping, transport) …

  • intellectual disability
  • virtual reality
  • social VR
  • VRChat
  • disability justice
  • participatory design
  • self-determination
  • interdependence
  • digital citizenship
  • crip technoscience
  • reflexive thematic analysis
  • easy read

• VR Calm Plus: Coupling a Squeezable Tangible Interaction with Immersive VR for Stress Regulation

  He Zhang, Xinyang Li, Xingyu Zhou, Xinyi Fu (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Zhang and colleagues build and evaluate VR Calm Plus, a VR stress-regulation system that pairs an immersive Meta Quest 3 experience with a squeezable plush toy instrumented with two force-sensitive resistors (FSRs) and a wireless biosensing wristband…

  • virtual reality
  • stress management
  • haptics
  • affective haptics
  • tangible interaction
  • embodied cognition
  • mental health
  • emotion regulation
  • biofeedback
  • multimodal interaction

• From Selfie Stick to Virtual Cane: Enabling Blind Exploration through Mobile Virtual Reality

  Hao Tang, Hong Zhao, Xinpeng Liu, Zhenchao Xia, William Seiple, Zhigang Zhu (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Consumer VR is a visual-first medium, which in practice shuts out blind and low-vision (BLV) users. Tang and colleagues argue that existing accessible VR systems do help BLV users explore virtual environments (VEs), but they depend on head-mounted di…

  • blind and low vision
  • virtual reality
  • mobile accessibility
  • orientation and mobility
  • white cane
  • spatial audio
  • haptics
  • mental map
  • assistive technology
  • embodied interaction

• Towards Inclusive External Human-Machine Interface: Exploring the Effects of Visual and Auditory eHMI for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People

  Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Kurtis Weir, Chukwuemeka Eze, Mark Colley (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper is a companion to Xu et al. 2026 (10.1145/3772318.3791557) but with a broader, two-stage inclusive-design focus: selecting appropriate visual eHMI concepts for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) pedestrians and then evaluating how vis…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • external human-machine interface
  • automated vehicles
  • pedestrian safety
  • multimodal interaction
  • accessibility
  • virtual reality
  • focus groups
  • inclusive design

• Exploring the Impacts of Background Noise on Auditory Stimuli of Audio-Visual eHMIs for Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing People

  Wenge Xu, Foroogh Hajiseyedjavadi, Debargha Dey, Tram Thi Minh Tran, Mark Colley (2026) — Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper investigates a critical but overlooked accessibility question in the design of external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) for automated vehicles (AVs): how do Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) pedestrians experience audio-visual eHMIs…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • external human-machine interface
  • automated vehicles
  • pedestrian safety
  • multimodal interaction
  • accessibility
  • virtual reality
  • auditory icons