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• Teaching Accessibility Awareness with Games

  Greg Gay · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the Accessibility Maze, a web-based serious game developed at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) to teach web accessibility basics through experiential learning. The game was designed with three goals: provide a high-impact introduction…

  education accessibility · game accessibility · web accessibility · screen readers · keyboard accessibility

• COVID-19 Highlights the Issues Facing Blind and Visually Impaired People in Accessing Data on the Web

  Alexa F. Siu, Danyang Fan, Gene S-H Kim, Hrishikesh V. Rao, Xavier Vazquez, Sile O'Modhrain, Sean Follmer · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This mixed-methods study examines how blind and visually impaired (BVI) people experienced accessing data-driven information on the web during the COVID-19 pandemic — a period when data visualizations such as infection curves, maps of hotspots, and trend charts became central to…

  data visualization · blind and low vision · web accessibility · COVID-19 · screen readers

• A Case for Making Web Accessibility Guidelines Accessible: Older Adult Content Creators and Web Accessibility Planning

  Aqueasha Martin-Hammond, Ulka Patil, Barsa Tandukar · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This short paper presents an experience report on partnering with older adult content creators at an independent living community to support web accessibility planning for their internal resident website. The website served as a civic participation tool where resident committees…

  web accessibility · older adults · content creators · WCAG · participatory research

• Understanding Screen-Reader Users' Experiences with Online Data Visualizations

  Ather Sharif, Sanjana Shivani Chintalapati, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Katharina Reinecke · 2021 · ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  Data visualizations are ubiquitous on the web, communicating everything from health statistics to financial trends, yet their inherently visual nature creates profound barriers for the approximately 7.6 million screen-reader users in the United States. Sharif et al. conducted…

  screen readers · data visualization · web accessibility · blind users · low vision

• Autism Detection Based on Eye Movement Sequences on the Web: A Scanpath Trend Analysis Approach

  Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada, Victoria Yaneva, Simon Harper · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates whether sequential eye-movement data — the order in which people look at elements on web pages — can be used to detect autism, improving upon the authors' previous non-sequential approach that achieved 75% accuracy but was unstable across different web…

  autism · eye tracking · machine learning · web accessibility · scanpath analysis

• Web Accessibility Testing for Singapore Government e-Services

  Zui Young Lim, Jia Min Chua, Kaiting Yang, Wei Shin Tan, Yinn Chai · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from Singapore's Government Technology Agency presents a customized automated accessibility testing tool designed specifically for government e-service developers. The authors identified two core problems: Singapore's low accessibility maturity despite being a…

  automated testing · web accessibility · government services · accessibility evaluation · CI/CD

• Measuring complexity of e-government services for people with low vision

  Aritz Sala, Myriam Arrue, J. Eduardo Pérez, Sandra M. Espín-Tello · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates how to measure the complexity of online government forms for people with low vision. The authors recognize that e-government services — accessed primarily through web-based forms — have the potential to greatly benefit people with low vision by allowing…

  low vision · e-government · form accessibility · complexity metrics · user testing

• Tables on the web accessible? unfortunately not!

  Waqar Haider, Yeliz Yesilada · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the first large-scale systematic study specifically focused on the accessibility of HTML tables on the web. The authors crawled approximately 30,000 web pages sourced from Google, Google Tables, and the Alexa top 10,000 sites, ultimately analyzing over 16,000…

  web accessibility · HTML tables · automated testing · WCAG compliance · screen readers

• TableView: Enabling Efficient Access to Web Data Records for Screen-Magnifier Users

  Hae-Na Lee, Sami Uddin, Vikas Ashok · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper addresses a significant usability challenge faced by people with low vision who use screen magnifiers to browse the web: the difficulty of comparing data records on websites such as job listings, flight search results, shopping products, and restaurant listings.…

  low vision · screen magnifier · web accessibility · usability · browser extension

• The Compliance Mindset: Exploring Accessibility Adoption in Client-Based Settings

  Emma L. Holliday · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This short paper investigates how web accessibility is adopted in client-based settings such as consultancies and freelance work, where practitioners must navigate the tension between their own accessibility knowledge and client priorities. The study was motivated by the…

  web accessibility · organizational accessibility · compliance · WCAG · automated testing

• Ontology-Driven Transformations for PDF Form Accessibility

  Utku Uckun, Ali Selman Aydin, Vikas Ashok, IV Ramakrishnan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents TransPAc (Transformations for PDF Form Accessibility), an assistive technology that transforms PDF forms into accessible HTML pages so blind screen-reader users can fill them out. PDF forms present multiple accessibility barriers: many are…

  screen readers · document accessibility · PDF accessibility · blindness and low vision · web accessibility

• Automated Generation of Accessible PDF

  Shaban Zulfiqar, Safa Arooj, Umar Hayat, Suleman Shahid, Asim Karim · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents AGAP (Automated Generation of Accessible PDF), an open-source tool that automates the generation of accessible PDFs from LaTeX source files while making the authoring process itself accessible to people with vision impairments. LaTeX is the…

  PDF accessibility · document accessibility · screen readers · STEM accessibility · automated testing

• Web-ALAP: A Web-based LaTeX Editor for Blind Individuals

  Safa Arooj, Shaban Zulfiqar, Muhammad Qasim Hunain, Suleman Shahid, Asim Karim · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20)

  This paper presents Web-ALAP (Web-Accessible LaTeX-based Authoring and Presentation), an open-source, web-based LaTeX editor designed specifically for blind and visually impaired users. The system addresses a critical gap in STEM accessibility: while LaTeX is widely used in…

  blindness · STEM accessibility · mathematics accessibility · screen readers · web accessibility

• Comparing Accessibility Evaluation Plug-ins

  Tânia Frazão, Carlos Duarte · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Lisbon systematically compares eight free Chrome browser extensions for automated accessibility evaluation: Microsoft Accessibility Insights, ACCESS Assistant Community, ARC Toolkit, aXe Chrome Plugin, Lighthouse, Tenon Check, TotalValidator,…

  automated testing · accessibility testing · WCAG · web accessibility · evaluation tools

• Empirical Investigation of Users' Preferred Timing Parameters for American Sign Language Animations

  Sedeeq Al-khazraji, Becca Dingman, Matt Huenerfauth · 2020 · Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '20)

  This CHI 2020 Late-Breaking Work (7 pages) investigates a narrow but consequential HCI question: what timing values should be used when generating American Sign Language (ASL) animations from a script, so that Deaf viewers find them comfortable to watch? ASL is a primary…

  american sign language · sign language animation · signing avatar · deaf and hard of hearing · web accessibility

• Find and Seek: Assessing the Impact of Table Navigation on Information Look-up with a Screen Reader

  Kristin Williams, Taylor Clarke, Steve Gardiner, John Zimmerman, Anthony Tomasic · 2019 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper challenges the widely held assumption that HTML tables are inherently inaccessible to screen reader users. Web designers use visual cues like layout, typography, and spatial grouping to help sighted users navigate and understand page content, but screen readers…

  screen readers · web accessibility · table navigation · spatial layout · cognitive load

• Multimodal Exploration of Mathematical Function Graphs with AudioFunctions.web

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Niccolò Cantù, Cristian Bernareggi, João Guerreiro, Sergio Mascetti, Anna Capietto · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents AudioFunctions.web, a web-based system designed to make mathematical function graphs accessible to people who are blind or have visual impairments. Function graphs are a fundamental tool in mathematics education and STEM fields, yet they remain…

  sonification · mathematics accessibility · visual impairment · blindness · STEM accessibility

• An Easy to Use Data Logger for Local User Studies

  Vagner Figueredo de Santana, Felipe Eduardo Ferreira Silva · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper introduces User Test Logger, an open-source Firefox browser add-on designed to capture detailed user interaction data during local usability and accessibility studies. The authors identify a gap in available tooling: existing interaction logging tools…

  usability testing · accessibility evaluation · interaction logging · data collection · open source tools

• AudioFunctions.web: Multimodal Exploration of Mathematical Function Graphs

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, João Guerreiro, Sergio Mascetti, Anna Capietto · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This full research paper presents AudioFunctions.web, a web application that enables blind and visually impaired people to explore mathematical function graphs through a combination of sonification, earcons, and speech synthesis. The system is the platform-independent successor…

  sonification · mathematics accessibility · visual impairment · blindness · STEM accessibility

• Adaptable Accessibility Features for Mathematics on the Web

  Davide Cervone, Volker Sorge · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the accessibility features in MathJax version 3, the widely-used JavaScript library for rendering mathematics on the web. The fundamental challenge is that standard mathematical markup formats (LaTeX, ASCIIMath, presentation MathML) lack the semantic…

  mathematics accessibility · MathJax · STEM accessibility · screen reader · Braille

• 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

• 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

• 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