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.
Emily Shea Tanis, Clayton Lewis · 2020 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing
This paper examines the dual risks and opportunities that AI-based systems pose for people with cognitive disabilities, framed around the concept of the "dignity of risk" — the right to make self-directed choices about tradeoffs between risks and benefits, including the freedom…
AI fairness · cognitive disability · dignity of risk · privacy · algorithmic bias
Foad Hamidi, Kellie Poneres, Aaron Massey, Amy Hurst · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)
This paper addresses a critical but often overlooked tension in assistive technology design: the privacy tradeoff inherent in adaptive assistive technologies (AATs) that must collect and analyze user performance data to function effectively. The authors developed a participatory…
privacy · assistive technology · adaptive systems · participatory design · essential tremor
Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Naomi Caselli, William Thies · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)
This paper tackles a fundamental tension in building machine learning systems for marginalized communities: the need for large training datasets versus the privacy risks of collecting data from small, identifiable populations. The authors focus on sign language video collection,…
sign language · privacy · machine learning · data collection · Deaf culture
Abigale Stangl, Kristina Shiroma, Bo Xie, Kenneth R. Fleischmann, Danna Gurari · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)
This paper presents the first empirical study investigating what types of visual content people who are blind consider private, in the context of their use of Visual Interpreters or Description Services (VIDS) — services like Seeing AI, Aira, Be My Eyes, and TapTapSee that…
visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · privacy · computer vision · artificial intelligence
Taslima Akter, Tousif Ahmed, Apu Kapadia, Swami Manohar Swaminathan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)
This paper investigates the privacy concerns of both visually impaired people (PVIs) and sighted bystanders regarding camera-based assistive technologies like smart glasses (Orcam, Aira, eSight) that can identify people and provide demographic and behavioral information about…
visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · privacy · AI bias · AI fairness
Kyungjun Lee, Daisuke Sato, Saki Asakawa, Hernisa Kacorri, Chieko Asakawa · 2020 · Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Wearable cameras — embedded in commercial products like OrCam, Aira, and eSight — promise blind users equitable access to visual information about the people around them: who is approaching, where they are looking, whether eye contact is possible. But the always-on nature of…
wearable camera · pedestrian detection · social acceptance · face recognition · privacy
Naveen M. Ravindran, Seyed Ali Cheraghi, Vinod Namboodiri, Rakesh Babu · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)
This demonstration paper presents GuideCall, a free Android application that enables blind or visually impaired (BVI) individuals to get remote visual assistance through video calls with trusted personal contacts. The system addresses two key limitations of existing remote…
visual impairment · blindness · remote assistance · video calling · assistive technology
Ine D’Haeseleer, Kathrin Gerling, Dominique Schreurs, Bart Vanrumste, Vero Vanden Abeele · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)
This paper reports on a qualitative study with 20 older adults (mean age 80, range 65-92) in Belgium, investigating their attitudes towards self-management health systems (SMHS) — integrated solutions that combine data from sensors and self-reports with risk assessment and…
aging · older adults · health monitoring · self-management · digital inclusion
Jian Xu, Syed Masum Billah, Roy Shilkrot, Aruna Balasubramanian · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)
This paper presents DarkReader, a modified Android screen reader that truly turns off the smartphone screen while preserving full touchscreen interaction for blind users, saving 24-52% of power compared to the default TalkBack screen reader. The work addresses two problems blind…
blind · screen readers · TalkBack · VoiceOver · Android
Scott Hollier, Shadi Abou-Zahra · 2018 · Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)
This short paper explores how consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices could serve as assistive technology for students with disabilities in tertiary education, based on qualitative interviews with five students representing hearing, mobility, print, low vision, and…
Internet of Things · assistive technology · higher education · W3C · voice assistant
Daniella Briotto Faustino, Audrey Girouard · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)
This Carleton University study presents the largest survey to date on how people with vision impairments use passwords and authentication methods on mobile devices. The researchers collected responses from 325 participants (225 blind, 100 low vision) across 12 countries,…
blindness · low vision · mobile accessibility · authentication · security
Foad Hamidi, Kellie Poneres, Aaron Massey, Amy Hurst · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)
This UMBC study examines the often-overlooked privacy tradeoffs inherent in Adaptive Assistive Technologies (AATs) — software systems that monitor user performance data to automatically adapt their functionality. While AATs offer significant usability benefits for people whose…
privacy · security · adaptive systems · assistive technology · essential tremor
Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber, Stacy M. Branham · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2018)
This UMBC and UC Irvine study is one of the first to examine how individuals who are blind use voice-activated personal assistants (VAPAs) like Siri, Amazon Echo, and Google Home, and what barriers they encounter. The researchers interviewed 14 legally-blind adults (ages 21-66,…
blindness · voice interface · voice assistant · Siri · Amazon Echo
Saiganesh Swaminathan, Raymond Fok, Fanglin Chen, Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, Irene Lin, Rohan Jadvani, Walter S. Lasecki, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2017 · Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2017)
WearMail is a conversational system that extracts specific information from a user's email via voice queries on wearable devices (such as smartwatches), using a novel privacy-preserving human computation workflow. The system addresses the challenge that email functions as…
crowdsourcing · human computation · privacy · wearable technology · information extraction
Meredith Ringel Morris, Annuska Zolyomi, Catherine Yao, Sina Bahram, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Shaun K. Kane · 2016 · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016)
This multi-method study examines how blind people use Twitter and the accessibility barriers they face as the platform shifts from text-based to increasingly image-heavy content. The researchers combined an online survey of 132 blind Twitter users, large-scale analysis of six…
social media accessibility · blind users · alternative text · image description · Twitter
Natã M. Barbosa · 2014 · ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility
This short paper proposes an interaction workflow for accessible web authentication designed to reduce the difficulties people with disabilities face when logging into websites. The framework aims to be secure, scalable, deployable, privacy-preserving, and usable for…
authentication · web accessibility · privacy · security · inclusive design
Walter S. Lasecki, Young Chol Song, Henry Kautz, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2013 · Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2013)
Legion:AR is a system that provides deployable activity recognition by combining real-time crowd labeling with automatic recognition using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). The system addresses a critical limitation of current activity recognition: automated systems must be trained…
activity recognition · crowdsourcing · human computation · machine learning · aging in place
Hugo Nicolau, João Guerreiro, Tiago Guerreiro, Luís Carriço · 2013 · Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '13)
This paper presents UbiBraille, a wearable vibrotactile device that enables blind users to read textual information privately and inconspicuously by leveraging their existing knowledge of Braille. The device consists of six small vibration motors attached to adjustable aluminum…
braille · vibrotactile · wearable technology · blind users · haptic feedback
Shiri Azenkot, Kyle Rector, Richard Ladner, Jacob Wobbrock · 2012 · Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)
This paper presents PassChords, a non-visual multi-touch authentication method for blind mobile device users that is resistant to both aural and visual eavesdropping. The research begins with interviews of 13 blind smartphone users (average age 51, range 26-64) that revealed…
accessible authentication · blind users · mobile security · touch screen · VoiceOver
Jeffrey P. Bigham, Richard E. Ladner · 2011 · Interactions
This short forum article argues that the disability community has been practicing interactive crowdsourcing long before the term became mainstream in computing, and that mainstream crowdsourcing systems have much to learn from these experiences. The authors trace how people with…
crowdsourcing · assistive technology · disability community · visual question answering · sign language interpreting
Scott Beach, Richard Schulz, Julie Downs, Judith Matthews, Bruce Barron, Katherine Seelman · 2009 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing
This landmark study examines privacy attitudes toward assistive and health monitoring technologies among 1,518 U.S. adults, focusing on how disability and age influence willingness to share personal health information. Conducted under the NSF Quality of Life Technology…
privacy · quality of life technology · smart home · aging · surveillance
Nova Ahmed · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)
This short paper proposes a two-layer system architecture for monitoring and guiding elderly residents in an indoor assistive living centre using passive RFID technology. The system addresses the tension between providing adequate monitoring for safety and preserving residents'…
aging · ambient assisted living · RFID · indoor positioning · privacy
Nubia M. Gil, Nicolas A. Hine, John L. Arnott, Julienne Hanson, Richard G. Curry, Telmo Amaral, Dorota Osipovič · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)
This Assets '07 paper from a UK consortium (Dundee, UCL, Imperial College) reports on a telecare pilot study that instrumented the flats of older residents with a modest set of unobtrusive sensors — passive infrared motion detectors, pressure sensors, door contacts,…
aging · older adults · independent living · telecare · ambient sensing