The literature-review database. Every paper Bob has reviewed (he has read many more), with a short summary, key findings, and tags. Browse, filter, search.
Judy Brewer · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
Written by Judy Brewer, Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, this paper provides an authoritative overview of the state of web accessibility standards and their implementation as of 2004. Brewer describes the three complementary WAI guidelines — WCAG 1.0 (for web…
WCAG · WAI · W3C · standards harmonization · accessibility policy
Barbara Leporini, Patrizia Andronico, Marina Buzzi · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This paper examines the fundamental differences between visual and aural perception of search engine interfaces and proposes specific design guidelines to improve usability for blind and visually impaired users interacting via screen readers. The authors from the Italian…
visual impairment · screen readers · search engines · user interface design · web navigation
Vicki L. Hanson · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This keynote-style paper from IBM's Watson Research Center by Vicki Hanson argues that web accessibility standards and guidelines, while necessary, do not guarantee a usable or satisfying experience for people with disabilities. The paper distinguishes between accessibility…
low vision · aging · cognitive accessibility · user experience · personalization
Helen Petrie, Fraser Hamilton, Neil King · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This paper from City University London directly challenges the widespread belief among web designers that accessible websites must be visually plain and boring. The researchers conducted a large-scale evaluation of 100 websites, starting with automated WAI guideline testing of…
visual design · user testing · web accessibility · usability · disability
Valeria Mirabella, Stephen Kimani, Tiziana Catarci · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This paper from Sapienza University of Rome proposes a methodology for creating accessible web-based learning materials that centres the role of the "didactical expert" (instructional designer/subject matter expert) rather than relying solely on technical accessibility…
e-learning · accessible education · learning objects · alternative content · XML
R. G. Stone, J. Dhiensa · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This paper from Loughborough University proposes a formal verification approach to proving that dynamically generated web pages will always produce valid and accessible output, regardless of which code path executes at runtime. The authors draw a direct analogy to program…
automated testing · dynamic web pages · formal verification · PHP · server-side scripting
Lisa Seeman · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
Written by Lisa Seeman of UB Access, this paper argues that Semantic Web technologies — particularly RDF (Resource Description Framework) annotations — can dramatically improve web accessibility beyond what WCAG guidelines alone can achieve, especially for people with learning…
semantic web · RDF · cognitive accessibility · learning disabilities · personalization
Bob Regan · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
Written by Bob Regan of Macromedia (makers of Flash), this paper argues that the poor state of web accessibility represents a "failure of the imagination" — a failure by both the design community to engage with accessibility and by accessibility advocates to inspire designers.…
visual design · accessible design · Flash accessibility · CSS · web standards
Paul Ryan Bohman, Shane Anderson · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)
This paper from WebAIM researchers at Utah State University presents a CSS technique for visually hiding HTML content while keeping it accessible to screen readers — an early formalization of what became the widely adopted "sr-only" or "visually-hidden" pattern. The authors…
CSS · screen readers · visually hidden text · web development · skip navigation
Jacob O. Wobbrock, Brad A. Myers, Htet Htet Aung, Edmund F. LoPresti · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents two adaptations of EdgeWrite, a gestural text entry method originally designed as a stylus-based unistroke technique for people with tremor, reconfigured for use with power wheelchair joysticks and touchpads. The research addresses a significant gap in…
text entry · motor accessibility · power wheelchair · joystick · touchpad
Liwei Dai, Rich Goldman, Andrew Sears, Jeremy Lozier · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper investigates grid-based approaches to speech-controlled cursor positioning, addressing a well-documented weakness of speech recognition technology: while dictation-based text entry has improved dramatically, using speech for precise cursor control remains slow and…
speech recognition · cursor control · motor accessibility · voice interaction · input methods
Shari Trewin · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents the Dynamic Keyboard, a self-adaptive software agent developed at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center that continuously and automatically adjusts keyboard accessibility settings to match the current user's typing patterns. The system addresses a bootstrapping…
keyboard accessibility · adaptive systems · motor accessibility · input methods · self-adaptive system
Vicki L. Hanson, John T. Richards · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper reports on the evolution of IBM's Web Accessibility Service from a proxy server prototype (presented at Assets 2002) to a client-side architecture that transforms web pages on the fly to meet the needs of older adults and people with disabilities. The original proxy…
web accessibility · web adaptation · aging · assistive technology · personalization
Anthony Hornof, Anna Cavender, Rob Hoselton · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents EyeDraw, a software program that enables children with severe mobility impairments to draw pictures using only their eye movements tracked by an LC Technologies Eyegaze eye tracker. The system is designed to provide creative developmental experiences…
eye tracking · gaze input · motor accessibility · children · creative arts
Jessica Paradise, Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Cliff Williams, John Goldthwaite · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper describes the design of a computational pacing aid for a woman ("C") with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) who struggles with chronic tardiness during her morning routine at a residential program. The researchers from Georgia Tech and Drexel University used an…
cognitive accessibility · traumatic brain injury · cognitive aid · smart home · independent living
Simon Harper, Carole Goble, Robert Stevens, Yeliz Yesilada · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents a middleware tool that automatically annotates web pages with expanded context and preview information for hypertext links, addressing a core navigation problem for visually impaired web users. The authors draw an analogy between physical mobility and web…
web accessibility · visual impairment · web navigation · web transcoding · link context
A. I. Karshmer, G. Gupta, E. Pontelli, K. Miesenberger, N. Ammalai, D. Gopal, M. Batusic, B. Stöger, B. Palmer, H-F. Guo · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents the Universal Mathematics Accessibility (UMA) system, a multi-institution collaboration to make mathematical content interoperable between the notation systems used by blind and sighted individuals. The fundamental problem is that blind mathematicians use…
mathematical accessibility · braille · visual impairment · STEM accessibility · MathML
Stephanie Hackett, Bambang Parmanto, Xiaoming Zeng · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of web accessibility from 1997 to 2002 using archived snapshots from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The researchers evaluated 240 archived instances of random websites (40 per year from the Alexa top 500) alongside 22…
web accessibility · accessibility evaluation · longitudinal study · WCAG · Section 508
Jaime Sánchez, Héctor Flores · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents AudioMemory, a virtual environment based on audio designed to develop and enhance short-term memory in blind children, along with AudioMath, an extension that applies the same model to mathematics learning. Developed at the University of Chile, the software…
blindness and low vision · children · audio · cognitive development · education
Ann C. Smith, Justin S. Cook, Joan M. Francioni, Asif Hossain, Mohd Anwar, M. Fayezur Rahman · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents the Aural Tree Navigator, an Eclipse IDE plug-in that enables blind programmers to navigate hierarchical program structures (such as package explorers, class hierarchies, and file systems) using keyboard commands and speech/sound output. The research emerged…
IDE accessibility · visual impairment · programming · screen reader · tree navigation
Rhian Davies, Skip Marcella, Joanna McGrenere, Barbara Purves · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper describes an ethnographically informed participatory design process for creating a PDA-based file management system to support communication for a person with aphasia. The research was conducted at the University of British Columbia with one primary participant, SM, a…
aphasia · augmentative and alternative communication · participatory design · ethnography · mobile technology
Saikat Mukherjee, I. V. Ramakrishnan, Michael Kifer · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper introduces semantic bookmarking, a technique for non-visual web access that allows blind users to bookmark meaningful content segments on web pages using domain ontologies rather than structural HTML positions. The research is built on HearSay, a speech-driven…
web accessibility · visual impairment · screen reader · semantic web · web navigation
Yeliz Yesilada, Robert Stevens, Carole Goble, Shazad Hussein · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of why HTML tables are problematic for screen reader users and proposes two complementary approaches for non-visual table access. The authors from the University of Manchester first characterize what makes tables useful in print —…
table accessibility · visual impairment · screen reader · web accessibility · table linearization
Melody M. Moore, Umang Dua · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper explores the use of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) — changes in the electrical conductivity of the skin caused by sweat gland activity linked to the sympathetic nervous system — as a non-muscular input channel for people with locked-in syndrome. The research was…
locked-in syndrome · galvanic skin response · brain-computer interface · biometric control · ALS
Peter Parente · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)
This paper presents Audio Enriched Links (AEL), a JAWS screen reader extension for Internet Explorer that provides spoken previews of linked web pages before blind users follow a hyperlink. The system addresses a fundamental asymmetry in web browsing: sighted users can quickly…
web accessibility · visual impairment · screen reader · web navigation · link preview