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• Evaluating Prosodic Cues as a Means to Disambiguate Algebraic Expressions: An Empirical Study

  Ed Gellenbeck, Andreas Stefik · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper investigates whether inserting pauses into text-to-speech renderings of mathematical expressions can help listeners distinguish between structurally different but verbally similar algebraic expressions. The core problem is that written mathematics relies on…

  mathematical accessibility · text-to-speech · screen readers · MathML · SSML

• Collaborative Web Accessibility Improvement: Challenges and Possibilities

  Hironobu Takagi, Shinya Kawanaka, Masatomo Kobayashi, Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper reports on the Social Accessibility Project, an experimental service developed by IBM Research in Tokyo that uses collaborative metadata authoring to improve web accessibility. The system works through a three-part architecture: end users (primarily screen reader…

  web accessibility · collaborative accessibility · crowdsourcing · metadata · screen readers

• TextSL: A Command-Based Virtual World Interface for the Visually Impaired

  Eelke Folmer, Bei Yuan, Dave Carr, Manjari Sapre · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper presents TextSL, a text-based client for the virtual world Second Life that enables access via screen readers. Second Life is a non-game virtual world where users control avatars to explore 3D environments, socialise with others, and interact with user-created objects…

  virtual worlds · visual impairment · screen readers · game accessibility · social interaction

• Enriching Web Information Scent for Blind Users

  Markel Vigo, Barbara Leporini, Fabio Paternò · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper investigates whether annotating web links with accessibility scores of their target pages can improve navigation efficiency for blind screen reader users. The core idea draws on information foraging theory: just as sighted users follow visual cues ("information…

  web accessibility · blind users · screen readers · information scent · information foraging

• Accessibility Commons: A Metadata Repository for Web Accessibility

  Shinya Kawanaka, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2009 · ACM SIGWEB Newsletter, Summer 2009

  This short SIGWEB Newsletter article proposes Accessibility Commons (AC), a shared federated repository for externally authored web-accessibility metadata. The authors argue that accessibility cannot scale as long as fixes depend on the original site owner inlining alt text,…

  web accessibility · metadata · semantic transcoding · social accessibility · crowdsourcing

• Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web: Hindrance or Opportunity? W4A -- International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility 2007

  Yeliz Yesilada, Simon Harper · 2008 · SIGACCESS Access. Comput.

  This is the conference report for the 4th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A) 2007, held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, co-located with the World Wide Web (WWW) conference. The report summarizes the proceedings of a…

  Web 2.0 · semantic web · conference report · ARIA · assistive technology

• WebAnywhere: A Screen Reading Interface for the Web on Any Computer

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince, Sangyun Hahn, Richard E. Ladner · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper introduces WebAnywhere, a free web-based screen reader from the University of Washington that enables blind users to access the web from any computer with a standard browser and sound capability, without installing any software. The system addresses a critical…

  screen readers · blindness · web-based assistive technology · text-to-speech · digital equity

• A Web Design Framework for Improved Accessibility for People with Disabilities (WDFAD)

  Rehema Baguma, Jude T. Lubega · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Makerere University in Uganda proposes WDFAD (Web Design Framework for Improved Accessibility for People with Disabilities), a developer-oriented framework that repackages web accessibility requirements according to the three components of web applications:…

  web accessibility · accessibility framework · blind users · screen readers · web design

• Is Wikipedia Usable for the Blind?

  Marina Buzzi, Barbara Leporini · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper evaluates the accessibility and usability of Wikipedia for blind screen reader users by analyzing three key interaction modes: browsing the home page, searching and viewing results, and editing content. The authors tested both the English and Italian Wikipedia using…

  screen readers · blind users · wiki accessibility · usability · Wikipedia

• Enabling Access to Geo-referenced Information: Atlas.txt

  Kavita E. Thomas, Livia Sumegi, Leo Ferres, Somayajulu Sripada · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Aberdeen and Carleton University presents Atlas.txt, a data-to-text natural language generation (NLG) system designed to make geo-referenced data — such as census maps and thematic choropleth maps — accessible to visually impaired users. The…

  natural language generation · visual impairment · data accessibility · geographic information · data visualization

• WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader On-the-Go

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince, Richard E. Ladner · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A 2008)

  This paper introduces WebAnywhere, a web-based, self-voicing screen reader that enables blind users to access the web from virtually any computer with an Internet connection and sound output, without installing any software. The system addresses a fundamental equity problem:…

  screen readers · blind users · assistive technology · web-based · text-to-speech

• Towards One World Web with HearSay3

  Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Amanda Stent, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper presents HearSay 3, a self-voicing non-visual web browser developed at Stony Brook University and the University of Washington, designed to address accessibility challenges introduced by Web 2.0. Building on two previous versions — the original HearSay that…

  screen readers · non-visual web browser · blind users · collaborative accessibility · multilingual accessibility

• Grouping Hyperlinks for Improved Voice/Mobile Accessibility

  Alex Penev, Raymond K. Wong · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from UNSW Sydney proposes an automatic technique for clustering a web page's hyperlinks into topical groups to help blind screen reader users and mobile device users locate desired links more quickly. The core problem is that sighted users can visually scan a page in…

  web accessibility · screen readers · blind users · navigation · mobile accessibility

• The SADIe Transcoding Platform

  Darren Lunn, Sean Bechhofer, Simon Harper · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This short paper presents the SADIe (Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence) transcoding platform, developed at the University of Manchester. SADIe addresses a fundamental challenge for visually impaired screen reader users: web pages are designed…

  web accessibility · transcoding · screen readers · visual impairment · semantic web

• AxsJAX: A Talking Translation Bot Using Google IM: Bringing Web-2.0 Applications to Life

  Charles L. Chen, T. V. Raman · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Google describes how the AxsJAX framework uses WAI-ARIA live regions to make Google Talk — an instant messaging client integrated into GMail — fully accessible to screen reader and self-voicing browser users, and demonstrates a compelling mashup application: a…

  ARIA · web accessibility · screen readers · live regions · Web 2.0

• Keeping Up with Technology: Commentary on "Computers and People with Disabilities"

  Alistair D. N. Edwards · 2008 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This reflective commentary by Alistair Edwards examines what has—and crucially, what has not—changed in accessible computing since Glinert and York's influential 1992 paper. Edwards frames his analysis through a fashion-versus-style metaphor: while technology "fashions"…

  accessibility history · screen readers · GUI accessibility · assistive technology · web accessibility

• Slide Rule: Making Mobile Touch Screens Accessible to Blind People Using Multi-Touch Interaction Techniques

  Shaun K. Kane, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2008 · Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces Slide Rule, a set of audio-based multi-touch interaction techniques that make touch screen devices accessible to blind users without requiring any additional hardware. Published in 2008 — just one year after the iPhone launched and before VoiceOver was…

  blind users · touch screens · mobile accessibility · multi-touch interaction · gestures

• What's New? Making Web Page Updates Accessible

  Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Rohit Raman, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2008 · Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces Dynamo, a system that makes dynamic web page content accessible to blind screen reader users by automatically detecting changes across all types of web page updates and providing a unified interface for reviewing them. The paper addresses a critical problem…

  screen readers · web accessibility · dynamic content · AJAX · ARIA

• Hunting for Headings: Sighted Labeling vs. Automatic Classification of Headings

  Jeremy T. Brudvik, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Anna C. Cavender, Richard E. Ladner · 2008 · Assets '08: Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the problem of missing heading markup in web pages — a significant accessibility barrier for blind screen reader users who rely on heading navigation (h1-h6 tags) to quickly skip through page content rather than reading linearly. While headings are one of…

  web accessibility · headings · screen readers · machine learning · semantic HTML

• Accessibility Commons: A Metadata Infrastructure for Web Accessibility

  Shinya Kawanaka, Yevgen Borodin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Darren Lunn, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper introduces Accessibility Commons (AC), a shared metadata infrastructure designed to integrate, store, and share accessibility metadata produced by diverse research projects, assistive technologies, and individual users. The authors identify a core problem: numerous…

  web accessibility · metadata · assistive technology · screen readers · social accessibility

• Inspiring Blind High School Students to Pursue Computer Science with Instant Messaging Chatbots

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Maxwell B. Aller, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Jessica O. Leung, Lindsay A. Yazzolino, Richard E. Ladner · 2008 · Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '08)

  This paper describes the design and delivery of a four-day computer science workshop for fifteen blind high school students at the National Federation of the Blind Youth Slam, where two hundred blind and low vision students explored disciplines often perceived as inaccessible to…

  accessible education · blind students · screen readers · computer science education · inclusive design

• MySpeechWeb: software to facilitate the construction and deployment of speech applications on the web

  Richard A. Frost, Ali Karaki, David A. Dufour, Josh Greig, Rahmatullah Hafiz, Yue Shi, Shawn Daichendt, Shahriar Chandon, Justin Barolak, Randy J. Fortier · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This short paper presents MySpeechWeb, an open-source platform for creating and deploying voice-in/voice-out speech applications on the web. The authors identify a significant gap: despite the potential of speech interfaces to improve web access for people with visual,…

  speech interfaces · voice interaction · web accessibility · open source · assistive technology

• TAIG: textually accessible information graphics

  Seniz Demir · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This short paper presents TAIG (Textually Accessible Information Graphics), a system designed to make bar charts and other information graphics accessible to people with visual impairments by generating coherent natural language summaries. TAIG extends the SIGHT system, which is…

  data visualization · graph summarization · screen readers · visual impairment · natural language generation

• A user evaluation of the SADIe transcoder

  Darren Lunn, Sean Bechhofer, Simon Harper · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper presents a user evaluation of SADIe (Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence), a system that uses Semantic Web technologies to make web pages more accessible to screen reader users. The core problem SADIe addresses is that web pages convey…

  web accessibility · screen readers · semantic web · transcoding · visual impairment

• Investigating Sighted Users' Browsing Behaviour to Assist Web Accessibility

  Eleni Michailidou, Simon Harper, Sean Bechhofer · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper presents an eye tracking study investigating how sighted users browse web pages, with the goal of using these insights to improve web accessibility for visually impaired users. The core argument is that understanding sighted users' visual browsing patterns can inform…

  eye tracking · web accessibility · visual impairment · web design · visual complexity