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• Accessibility for the HTML5 <video> element

  Silvia Pfeiffer, Conrad Parker · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper documents early efforts to standardize how subtitles, captions, and other accessibility data should be associated with the then-new HTML5 <video> element. Written in 2009 when Firefox, Opera, and Safari were just beginning to implement <video> support, the paper…

  video accessibility · HTML5 · captioning · subtitles · web standards

• Adapting learning environments with AccessForAll

  Greg Gay, Silvia Mirri, Marco Roccetti, Paola Salomoni · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper describes the first implementation of the ISO FDIS 24751 accessibility standards (and the closely related IMS AccessForAll specifications) in ATutor, an open-source Learning Management System (LMS) developed at the University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource…

  e-learning accessibility · learning management systems · content adaptation · personalization · ISO 24751

• The Accessibility Kit for SharePoint: A Community-Based Approach to Web Accessibility

  Robert B. Yonaitis, Dana Louise Simberkoff, Kurt A. Mueffelmann, Cynthia Shelly · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper describes the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS), an open-source add-on developed by HiSoftware in collaboration with Microsoft to bring WCAG 1.0 AA conformance to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). SharePoint was at the time Microsoft's…

  web accessibility · content management systems · organizational accessibility · WCAG compliance · open source

• 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

• Ubiquitous Accessibility, Common Technology Core, and Micro Assistive Technology: Commentary on "Computers and People with Disabilities"

  Gregg C. Vanderheiden · 2008 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This influential commentary reflects on the evolution of digital accessibility from 1992 to 2008 and proposes a vision for addressing emerging challenges. Vanderheiden, director of the Trace R&D Center, traces progress from an era when only Apple had built-in accessibility…

  ubiquitous accessibility · assistive technology · accessibility policy · digital divide · universal 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

• Naming Practice on an Open Platform for People with Aphasia

  Chris Benjamin, Jesse Harris, Alex Moncrief, Gail Ramsberger, Clayton Lewis · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper presents Banga, a prototype software system built on the Android open-source mobile platform to deliver word finding practice — a form of speech-language therapy — to people with aphasia. Aphasia, a language disorder typically caused by stroke, affects approximately…

  aphasia · naming practice · word finding · mobile health · Android

• Web Browser Accessibility Using Open Source Software

  Željko Obrenović, Jacco van Ossenbruggen · 2007 · Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents AMICO:WEB, a middleware infrastructure designed to integrate open source and free software components into mainstream web browsers to improve accessibility. The authors from CWI Amsterdam identify a core problem: while the open source community has produced…

  open source · middleware · multimodal interaction · browser extensions · assistive technology

• Ajax Live Regions: ReefChat Using the Fire Vox Screen Reader as a Case Example

  Peter Thiessen, Charles Chen · 2007 · Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents ReefChat, an accessible Ajax chat application, and Fire Vox, an open-source screen reader extension for Firefox, as a proof-of-concept for WAI-ARIA live regions — one of the earliest practical demonstrations of this then-nascent specification. The authors…

  ARIA · live regions · web accessibility · AJAX · Web 2.0

• The HearSay Non-Visual Web Browser

  Yevgen Borodin, Jalal Mahmud, I. V. Ramakrishnan, Amanda Stent · 2007 · Proceedings of the 2007 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the original HearSay non-visual web browser (version 1/2), developed at Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Helen Keller Services for the Blind. HearSay is a free, open-source, cross-platform browser written in Java that uses Mozilla for web…

  non-visual web browser · screen readers · blind users · web accessibility · natural language processing

• A Flexible VXML Interpreter for Non-Visual Web Access

  Yevgen Borodin · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This doctoral consortium paper from Stony Brook University presents VXMLSurf, an open-source VoiceXML interpreter being developed as part of the HearSay project for non-visual web browsing. VoiceXML is the W3C standard for specifying interactive voice dialogs, widely used in…

  VoiceXML · non-visual browsing · voice browser · blind users · screen readers

• Linux Screen Reader: Extensible Assistive Technology

  Peter Parente, Brett Clippingdale · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This paper presents the Linux Screen Reader (LSR), an open source project from IBM that aimed to create a reusable, extensible development platform for building alternative and supplemental user interfaces on the GNOME desktop environment. Unlike conventional screen readers that…

  screen reader · Linux · open source · assistive technology · accessibility API

• Mozilla Accessibility on Unix/Linux

  Louie Zhao, Jay Yan, Kyle Yuan · 2005 · Proceedings of the 2005 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper by Sun Microsystems engineers documents the first implementation of accessibility support in Mozilla on Unix/Linux, addressing a significant gap that left disabled users of free operating systems without an accessible web browser. At the time (2005), Mozilla had…

  screen readers · keyboard navigation · open source · Linux accessibility · accessibility API

• 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 workstations. Raman draws a…

  screen reader · speech output · blindness and low vision · UNIX accessibility · text-to-speech