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• Touchpad Mapper: Exploring Non-Visual Touchpad Interactions for Screen-Reader Users

  Ather Sharif, Venkatesh Potluri, Jazz R. X. Ang, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Jennifer Mankoff · 2024 · Proceedings of the 21st International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This technical note introduces Touchpad Mapper, a system that repurposes the laptop touchpad — a widely available but underutilized input device for screen-reader users — as a spatial interface for exploring 2D digital content non-visually. The authors argue that while touchpads…

  screen readers · blindness · touchpad · interaction design · input devices

• ImageExplorer Deployment: Understanding Text-Based and Touch-Based Image Exploration in the Wild

  Ruolin Xu, Yuxuan Cai, Shuying Hou, Yu-Jung Chang, Anhong Guo · 2024 · Proceedings of the 21st International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the real-world deployment and evaluation of ImageExplorer, an iOS application that enables blind and low-vision users to explore images through two complementary modalities: text-based sequential exploration and touch-based spatial exploration. The app was…

  image accessibility · screen readers · touch exploration · blind users · image description

• Exploring Blind and Low-Vision Youth's Digital Access Needs in School: Toward Accessible Instructional Technologies

  Natalie L. Shaheen · 2024 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This mixed methods study investigates how blind and low-vision (BLV) youth ages 13-22 experience technology-mediated learning in US K-12 schools. The author, herself congenitally blind and a former teacher of blind students, conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 BLV youth…

  blind and low vision · K-12 education · instructional technology · access technology · screen readers

• In-Page Navigation Aids for Screen-Reader Users with Automatic Topicalisation and Labelling

  Jorge Sassaki Resende Silva, Paula Christina Figueira Cardoso, Raphael Winckler De Bettio, Daniela Cardoso Tavares, Carlos Alberto Silva, Willian Massami Watanabe, Andre Pimenta Freire · 2024 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper addresses a fundamental challenge for screen reader users: navigating lengthy web documents that lack proper heading structure. When web pages do not include semantic headings or internal navigation links, users must read content linearly, which increases cognitive…

  screen readers · navigation · natural language processing · topic segmentation · large language models

• Invisible, Unreadable, and Inaudible Cookie Notices: An Evaluation of Cookie Notices for Users with Visual Impairments

  Janice M. Clarke, Maryam Mehrnezhad, Ehsan Toreini · 2024 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study investigates the accessibility of cookie notices for users with visual impairments (VI), combining automated testing of 46 top UK websites with a user study of 100 participants who use assistive technology. The researchers employed multiple testing approaches: WAVE…

  screen readers · visual impairments · privacy · web accessibility · cookie consent

• System-class Accessibility: The Architectural Support for Making a Whole System Usable by People with Disabilities

  Chris Fleizach, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2024 · ACM Queue

  This article introduces the concept of "system-class accessibility" — the architectural support built into an operating system to make the entire platform usable by people with disabilities. Written by Chris Fleizach (who led the development of VoiceOver on iOS at Apple) and…

  accessibility API · screen readers · VoiceOver · iOS accessibility · operating systems

• Towards Automated Accessibility Report Generation for Mobile Apps

  Amanda Swearngin, Jason Wu, Xiaoyi Zhang, Esteban Gomez, Jen Coughenour, Rachel Stukenborg, Bhavya Garg, Greg Hughes, Adriana Hilliard, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeffrey Nichols · 2024 · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

  This paper presents a system for automatically generating whole-app accessibility reports for mobile apps, addressing key limitations of existing accessibility scanning tools. The work begins with formative interviews with eight accessibility QA professionals at a large…

  automated testing · accessibility testing · mobile accessibility · app crawling · machine learning

• Authoring Web-accessible Mathematical Diagrams

  David Austin, Volker Sorge · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This extended abstract presents an XML-based authoring language for creating web-accessible mathematical diagrams, designed to integrate with PreTeXt, a tool for producing accessible scholarly documents. While text and mathematical formulas in LaTeX can be made web-accessible…

  STEM accessibility · mathematical diagrams · SVG accessibility · screen readers · sonification

• Authoring Web-accessible Mathematical Diagrams (Short Paper)

  David Austin, Volker Sorge · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This short paper presents a novel XML-based language for authoring accessible mathematical diagrams, targeting both visually impaired (VI) and sighted authors. Mathematical diagrams are essential for STEM subjects yet remain overwhelmingly inaccessible in electronic documents —…

  STEM accessibility · mathematical diagrams · SVG accessibility · blind and low vision · sonification

• Understanding and Improving Drilled-Down Information Extraction from Online Data Visualizations for Screen-Reader Users

  Ather Sharif, Andrew M. Zhang, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A '23)

  This extended abstract presents enhancements to VoxLens, an open-source JavaScript plug-in that improves the accessibility of online data visualizations for screen-reader users (SRUs) through a multimodal approach. Over 7.6 million people in the United States use screen readers,…

  screen readers · data visualization accessibility · alternative text · sonification · blind and low vision

• Understanding and Improving Drilled-Down Information Extraction from Online Data Visualizations for Screen-Reader Users

  Ather Sharif, Olivia H. Wang, Alida T. Muongchan, Katharina Reinecke, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This full research paper presents a comprehensive investigation into how screen-reader users (SRUs) extract drilled-down information from online data visualizations, and how the VoxLens tool can be improved to support this process. While prior work on VoxLens focused on holistic…

  screen readers · data visualization · voice interface · information extraction · natural language processing

• Notably Inaccessible — Data Driven Understanding of Data Science Notebook (In)Accessibility

  Venkatesh Potluri, Sudheesh Singanamalla, Nussara Tieanklin, Jennifer Mankoff · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)

  This paper presents the first large-scale analysis of the accessibility of computational notebooks — interactive documents combining code, text, and data visualizations that have become the standard tool for data science work. The researchers analyzed 100,000 Jupyter notebooks…

  computational notebooks · data science · screen readers · blind and visually impaired · data visualization

• Exploring Community-Driven Descriptions for Making Livestreams Accessible

  Daniel Killough, Amy Pavel · 2023 · ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates the feasibility of using livestream community members — sighted viewers who are domain experts in the content being streamed — to provide real-time descriptions that make livestreams accessible to viewers with visual impairments. Livestreams present…

  audio description · livestreaming · blind and low vision · crowdsourcing · video accessibility

• "If I'm supposed to be the facilitator, I should be the host": Understanding the Accessibility of Videoconferencing for Blind and Low Vision Meeting Facilitators

  Taslima Akter, Yoonha Cha, Isabela Figueira, Stacy M. Branham, Anne Marie Piper · 2023 · ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper investigates how blind and low vision (BLV) professionals facilitate meetings using videoconferencing tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, and the unique accessibility challenges they face in leadership roles. While prior research has examined…

  blind and low vision · videoconferencing · remote work · screen readers · workplace accessibility

• Understanding Digital Content Creation Needs of Blind and Low Vision People

  Lotus Zhang, Simon Sun, Leah Findlater · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This mixed-method study investigates the digital content creation needs, interests, and experiences of blind and low vision (BLV) people through a large-scale survey (N=165) and follow-up interviews (N=15). The research addresses a gap in accessibility research, which has…

  blind and low vision · content creation · creativity · digital accessibility · screen readers

• AudioQ: A Debugging Extension for Visually Impaired Developers

  Sehej Kumar, Shreyas Kotla · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This extended abstract presents AudioQ, a Visual Studio Code extension designed to improve the debugging experience for visually impaired software developers. The extension addresses a specific gap in current accessibility tools: while screen readers can read code and error…

  software development · blind and low vision · screen readers · debugging · IDE accessibility

• Azimuth: Designing Accessible Dashboards for Screen Reader Users

  Srinivasan, Arjun, Harshbarger, Tim, Hilliker, Darrell, Mankoff, Jennifer · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents Azimuth, a prototype system that converts JSON-based dashboard specifications into web-based dashboards optimized for screen reader navigation, accompanied by automatically generated textual descriptions to support comprehension and interaction. Dashboards —…

  data visualization · screen readers · dashboards · blind and low vision · co-design

• Coding Non-Visually in Visual Studio Code: Collaboration Towards Accessible Development Environment for Blind Programmers

  JooYoung Seo, Megan Rogge · 2023 · ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper documents a sustained collaboration between JooYoung Seo, a blind assistant professor and lifelong non-visual programmer, and Megan Rogge, a sighted software engineer on the Visual Studio Code team at Microsoft, aimed at improving VSCode accessibility for blind…

  nonvisual programming · integrated development environment · visual studio code · screen readers · blind programmers

• Speaking with My Screen Reader: Using Audio Fictions to Explore Conversational Access to Interfaces

  Mahika Phutane, Crescentia Jung, Niu Chen, Shiri Azenkot · 2023 · ASSETS 2023: The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper explores whether and how human-like conversational assistants could extend the screen reader experience for blind and low vision (BLV) users. Current screen readers provide linear, impersonal access to interfaces through keyboard-driven cursor navigation and…

  screen readers · conversational agents · blind and low vision · design fiction · voice assistants

• Understanding Strategies and Challenges of Conducting Daily Data Analysis (DDA) Among Blind and Low-vision People

  Chutian Jiang, Wentao Lei, Emily Kuang, Teng Han, Mingming Fan · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper investigates how blind and low-vision (BLV) people perform what the authors term Daily Data Analysis (DDA) — the common, everyday tasks of analyzing and deriving insights from data such as splitting expenses, computing stock portfolio changes, and calculating…

  blind and low vision · data accessibility · screen readers · spreadsheets · data analysis

• Understanding Peer-to-Peer Instructional Support in an Online Community for Blind Audio Producers

  Abir Saha, Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper examines how blind and low-vision audio producers seek and provide instructional support through an online text-based Q&A mailing list community centered around using Logic Pro, a professional digital audio workstation (DAW), with the VoiceOver screen reader. The…

  screen readers · blind and low vision · audio production · peer support · online communities

• The Accessibility of Data Visualizations on the Web for Screen Reader Users: Practices and Experiences During COVID-19

  Danyang Fan, Alexa Fay Siu, Hrishikesh Rao, Gene Sung-Ho Kim, Xavier Vazquez, Lucy Greco, Sile O'Modhrain, Sean Follmer · 2023 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This comprehensive mixed-methods study examines data visualization accessibility through three complementary investigations: an accessibility audit of 87 COVID-19 visualizations, an online survey of 127 screen reader users, and contextual inquiry with 12 participants. The…

  data visualization · screen readers · visual impairment · web accessibility · accessibility audit

• Understanding the Usages, Lifecycle, and Opportunities of Screen Readers' Plugins

  Farhani Momotaz, Md Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Syed Masum Billah · 2023 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study investigates why blind users rely on screen reader plugins and how these plugins are developed, distributed, and maintained. The researchers combined two methodological approaches: semi-structured interviews with 14 blind participants (ages 24-52, expert to beginner…

  screen readers · NVDA · JAWS · plugins · extensions

• AccessComics2: Understanding the User Experience of an Accessible Comic Book Reader for Blind People with Textual Sound Effects

  Yun Jung Lee, Hwayeon Joh, Suhyeon Yoo, Uran Oh · 2023 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This research investigates how to make digital comic books accessible to people with visual impairments through AccessComics, a web-based comic reader that provides scene descriptions, synthesized character voices, and sound effects. The study addresses a gap in accessibility…

  comics · audiobooks · eBooks · screen readers · blind users

• Mathematical Content Browsing for Print-disabled Readers Based on Virtual-world Exploration and Audio-visual Sensory Substitution

  Rynhardt Kruger, Febe De Wet, Thomas Niesler · 2023 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This research addresses a critical accessibility gap: mathematical equations in PDF documents are largely inaccessible to blind and visually impaired readers. While standards like MathML exist for encoding accessible mathematics, most scientific and technical papers are…

  mathematical accessibility · sensory substitution · PDF accessibility · blind users · sonification