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• Feel-It: Personalized Audio-Tactile Web Browsing

  Anatoliy Borodin, Yevgen Borodin, Andrii Soviak, Vikas Ashok, Shirin Disfani, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Feel-It, a hardware-software system for audio-tactile web browsing that enables blind users to explore the two-dimensional spatial layout of web pages through touch. The core problem addressed is that screen readers reduce web pages to a…

  blindness · haptic feedback · tactile display · web browsing · screen reader

• GuideCall: Affordable and Trustworthy Video Call-Based Remote Assistance for People with Visual Impairments

  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

• Web Development Training for Students That Are Blind

  Claire Ferrari · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper outlines a mixed-methods dissertation research plan for developing and evaluating a 10-day web development course specifically designed for students who are blind or have low vision. The author contextualizes the work within the employment…

  STEM accessibility · blindness · low vision · web development · coding education

• Automatic Identification of Widgets and their Subcomponents Based on a Classification Pipeline for DOM Mutation Records

  Eduardo Henrique Rizo, Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes, Humberto Lidio Antonelli, Willian Massami Watanabe · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a machine learning pipeline for automatically classifying web widgets (specifically dropdown menus) and their subcomponents by analyzing DOM mutation records — the dynamic changes that occur in a web page's HTML structure when users interact with it or visual…

  WAI-ARIA · machine learning · web accessibility · automated testing · widgets

• Designing Personalized Therapy Tools for People with Dementia

  Sérgio Alves, Filipa Brito, Andreia Cordeiro, Luís Carriço, Tiago Guerreiro · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the iterative design and clinical deployment of Scrapbook, a web platform that supports psychologists in conducting personalized reminiscence therapy and cognitive stimulation sessions for people with dementia using biographical materials. The work is…

  dementia · cognitive stimulation · reminiscence therapy · personalization · caregivers

• Synesthesia Vision integration with Recife's Public Transport

  Aida A. Ferreira, Gilmar Brito, Lydia Nascimento da Silva, João Victor Mouzinho, Ryan Morais, Jonathan Romualdo Pereira · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Synesthesia Vision, a two-component assistive technology system for blind people in Recife, Brazil, and its integration with the metropolitan public transport monitoring system. The system consists of sensory glasses (3D-printed frames…

  visual impairment · blindness · public transportation · smart city · obstacle detection

• Personalized and Accessible TV Interaction for People with Visual Impairments

  Daniel Costa, Carlos Duarte · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the design and implementation of a system that makes Connected TV applications accessible to people with visual impairments by using a smartphone as an accessible second-screen controller. Connected TVs and set-top boxes now offer interactive features beyond…

  visual impairment · connected TV · personalization · adaptive interface · multimodal interaction

• Making Legacy Digital Content Accessible at Source

  Sankalan Pal Chowdhary, Dipendra Manocha, M. Balakrishnan, Akashdeep Bansal, Himanshu Garg · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents a toolset for converting legacy-encoded Devanagari text to Unicode within Adobe InDesign, addressing a significant accessibility barrier for Indian language content. Despite Unicode being published in 1991, vast amounts of digitally created…

  Unicode · legacy encoding · accessible publishing · Devanagari · India

• Continuous Web Personalization using Selector-template Pairs

  Vagner Figueredo de Santana, M. Cecilia C. Baranauskas · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a continuous web personalization approach that automatically adjusts website user interfaces based on observed usage patterns to reduce accessibility barriers and usability problems. Built on the WELFIT (Web Event Logger and Flow Identification Tool)…

  web personalization · accessibility · usability · interaction logging · data mining

• Handsfree for Web: A Google Chrome extension to browse the web via voice commands

  Javier Pérez · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Handsfree for Web, a free Google Chrome browser extension that enables users to browse the web entirely through voice commands. The tool addresses a fundamental accessibility barrier: nearly all websites require manual interaction via keyboard,…

  voice control · speech recognition · motor disability · browser extension · web accessibility

• Adults with High-functioning Autism Process Web Pages With Similar Accuracy but Higher Cognitive Effort Compared to Controls

  Victoria Yaneva, Le An Ha, Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates the accuracy and efficiency with which adults with high-functioning autism process web pages compared to neurotypical controls, using eye-tracking to reveal hidden cognitive effort differences. The study addresses a critical gap: existing web…

  autism spectrum disorder · eye tracking · cognitive accessibility · web accessibility · neurodivergence

• Combining Semantic Tools for Automatic Evaluation of Alternative Texts

  Carlos Duarte, Carlos M. Duarte, Luís Carriço · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents SCREW v2, an updated algorithm for automatically assessing the quality of alternative texts for images on web pages from an accessibility perspective. The work is motivated by the EU Directive 2016/2102, which requires monitoring the accessibility of public…

  alternative text · automated accessibility testing · image accessibility · semantic analysis · computer vision

• Addressing the Situational Impairments Encountered by Firefighters through the Design of Alerts

  Flynn Wolf, Priyanka Soni, Ravi Kuber, Dianne Pawluk, Brian Turnage · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper describes a structured multi-step approach to designing multimodal alerts for firefighters who experience severe situationally-induced impairments and disabilities (SIIDs) at fire scenes — thick smoke restricting vision, loud noise from combustion, sirens, and power…

  situational impairment · situational disability · haptic feedback · multimodal interaction · participatory design

• It's All About the Message: Visual Experience is a Precursor to Accurate Auditory Interaction

  Simon Harper, Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper argues that understanding how sighted users visually experience web pages is a necessary precursor to designing effective auditory (screen reader) experiences for visually disabled users. The authors challenge the assumption that the experiences of sighted and blind…

  eye tracking · screen reader · page linearization · experiential transcoding · visual impairment

• Comprehensive Accessibility of Equations by Visually Impaired

  Akashdeep Bansal · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper proposes an approach to improving the audio rendering of mathematical equations for people with visual impairments by introducing a complexity metric that adapts how equations are spoken based on their structural complexity and individual user…

  mathematics accessibility · STEM accessibility · visual impairment · screen reader · speech synthesis

• An Independent and Interactive Museum Experience for Blind People

  Saki Asakawa, João Guerreiro, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Dragan Ahmetovic, Desi Gonzalez, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a prototype system for supporting independent, interactive museum visits by blind people, deployed and evaluated at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The system combines indoor navigation with context-aware art appreciation through continuous tracking of…

  museum accessibility · blindness · indoor navigation · BLE beacon · audio description

• AfricaSign -- A Crowd-sourcing Platform for the Documentation of STEM Vocabulary in African Sign Languages

  Abdelhadi Soudi, Kristof Van Laerhoven, Elmostafa Bou-Souf · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents AfricaSign, a web-based crowdsourcing platform designed to enable African Deaf communities to document their endangered sign languages, with a focus on early-grade and STEM vocabulary. Most African sign languages are severely under-studied and…

  sign language · Africa · endangered languages · crowdsourcing · signing avatar

• Demonstration of GestureCalc: An Eyes-Free Calculator for Touch Screens

  Leah Perlmutter, Bindita Chaudhuri, Justin Petelka, Philip Garrison, James Fogarty, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Richard E. Ladner · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents GestureCalc, an eyes-free, target-less digital calculator for touch screen devices that replaces traditional button-based input with intuitive gesture-based input. The core problem is that existing calculator apps require precise tapping on…

  gesture-based interaction · touchscreen accessibility · blindness · visual impairment · screen reader

• WordMelodies: Supporting Children with Visual Impairment in Learning Literacy

  Sergio Mascetti, Giovanni Leontini, Cristian Bernareggi, Dragan Ahmetovic · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents WordMelodies, an inclusive cross-platform mobile application designed to support children with visual impairments in acquiring basic literacy skills. The app provides eight different exercises targeting foundational reading and writing…

  visual impairment · children · literacy · education · mobile application

• See-Thru: Towards Minimally Obstructive Eye-Controlled Wheelchair Interfaces

  Corten Clemente Singer, Björn Hartmann · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents See-Thru, an eye-tracking interface for controlling power wheelchairs that replaces the conventional obstructive computer screen with a transparent wire-frame device containing spatially arranged LEDs. The fundamental problem with existing eye-controlled…

  eye tracking · eye-gaze control · power wheelchair · motor disability · assistive technology

• Revisiting Blind Photography in the Context of Teachable Object Recognizers

  Kyungjun Lee, Jonggi Hong, Simone Pimento, Ebrima Jarjue, Hernisa Kacorri · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper introduces a real-time audio-haptic feedback system to help people with visual impairments frame objects in their smartphone camera when training teachable object recognizers. The challenge is that teachable recognizers — which let users train personalized models to…

  blind photography · teachable object recognizer · computer vision · deep learning · visual impairment

• A Community-Centered Design Framework for Robot-Assisted Feeding Systems

  Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee, Maria E. Cabrera, Anat Caspi, Maya Cakmak, Siddhartha S. Srinivasa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper develops a community-centered design framework for evaluating robot-assisted feeding (RAF) systems, shifting the perspective from purely transactional (robot picks up food, delivers to mouth) to relational (feeding as a social, cultural, and identity-laden activity…

  assistive robotics · activities of daily living · motor disability · feeding assistance · community-centered design

• Typing Slowly but Screen-Free: Exploring Navigation over Entirely Auditory Keyboards

  Reeti Mathur, Aishwarya Sheth, Parimal Vyas, Davide Bolchini · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper introduces the concept of "keyflows" — entirely auditory keyboards that operate without a reference screen, enabling blind users to type while untethered from their mobile device. The core problem is that current accessible keyboards require blind users to constantly…

  text entry · blindness · visual impairment · screen reader · auditory interface

• Turning Heads: Designing Engaging Immersive Video Experiences to Support People with Intellectual Disability when Learning Everyday Living Skills

  Laurianne Sitbon, Ross Brown, Lauren Fell · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents findings from a participatory design process exploring how 360-degree video viewed through head-mounted displays can support people with intellectual disabilities in learning everyday living skills. The research was conducted over four iterative design cycles…

  intellectual disability · 360-degree video · virtual reality · life skills training · immersive learning

• CHIMELIGHT: Augmenting Instruments in Interactive Music Therapy for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

  Joana Lobo, Soichiro Matsuda, Izumi Futamata, Ryoichi Sakuta, Kenji Suzuki · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents CHIMELIGHT, an IoT-based system that augments handchime musical instruments with real-time visual feedback to support music therapists working with children who have neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and ADHD. The…

  music therapy · neurodevelopmental disorder · autism spectrum disorder · ADHD · children