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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

• Making the Elusive More Tangible: Remote Tools & Techniques for Teaching Web Development to Screen Reader Users

  Claire Ferrari, Chancey Fleet, Keita Ohshiro, Veronica Alfaro Arias, Amy Hurst · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a free, remote web development workshop for 12 screen reader users, conducted over nine Saturday sessions between August and October 2020. The workshop was a collaboration between New York University and the New…

  education accessibility · screen readers · web development · STEM accessibility · blindness

• Distance Meetings During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Are Video Conferencing Tools Accessible for Blind People?

  Barbara Leporini, Marina Buzzi, Marion Hersh · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper evaluates the accessibility of three major video conferencing platforms — Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams — for blind users who rely on screen readers and keyboard navigation. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic when video conferencing became essential for…

  screen readers · video conferencing · blind and low vision · keyboard accessibility · COVID-19

• 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

• How Teachers of the Visually Impaired Compensate with the Absence of Accessible Block-Based Languages

  Aboubakar Mountapmbeme, Stephanie Ludi · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This paper reports on an interview study with twelve teachers of K-12 students with visual impairments (TVIs) across the United States, investigating how they navigate the lack of fully accessible block-based programming environments. Block-based programming languages like…

  visual impairment · block-based programming · K-12 education · computer science education · accessible programming

• Designing Tools for High-Quality Alt Text Authoring

  Kelly Mack, Edward Cutrell, Bongshin Lee, Meredith Ringel Morris · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This paper investigates how to improve the quality of alternative text through better authoring interfaces and feedback mechanisms for automatic alt text, focusing on Microsoft PowerPoint as the application context. The researchers built and tested four prototype interfaces: two…

  alt text · image accessibility · screen readers · authoring tools · automatic alt text

• 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

• Understanding Screen Readers' Plugins

  Farhani Momotaz, Md Touhidul Islam, Md Ehtesham-Ul-Haque, Syed Masum Billah · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents the first empirical study focused specifically on understanding the ecosystem of screen reader plugins — small pieces of code that extend screen reader functionality. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 blind screen reader users (ages…

  screen readers · plugins · blind users · assistive technology · NVDA

• Developing Accessible Mobile Applications with Cross-Platform Development Frameworks

  Sergio Mascetti, Mattia Ducci, Niccolò Cantù, Paolo Pecis, Dragan Ahmetovic · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This experience report from the EveryWare Lab at the University of Milan systematically analyzes how well cross-platform development frameworks (CPDFs) support screen reader accessibility APIs compared to native iOS and Android development. The team, which has been developing…

  mobile accessibility · cross-platform development · screen readers · React Native · Xamarin

• Expanding a Large Inclusive Study of Human Listening Rates

  Danielle Bragg, Katharina Reinecke, Richard E. Ladner · 2021 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study presents the first large-scale, inclusive online investigation of human listening rates for fast synthetic speech, conducted via the LabintheWild crowdsourcing platform over 12 months with 1,409 participants. The research aimed to understand how fast people can…

  screen readers · synthetic speech · text-to-speech · listening rates · auditory processing

• Accessible Web Development: Opportunities to Improve the Education and Practice of web Development with a Screen Reader

  Claire Ferrari, Amy Hurst · 2021 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper investigates accessibility barriers faced by blind web developers in both educational and professional contexts. The researchers employed a Comprehensive Literature Review (CLR) methodology—synthesizing academic literature, blog posts by blind programmers, email list…

  blind programmers · screen readers · web development · CSS · accessible education

• Screen Parsing: Towards Reverse Engineering of UI Models from Screenshots

  Jason Wu, Xiaoyi Zhang, Jeff Nichols, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2021 · The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)

  This paper introduces screen parsing, the task of predicting UI elements and their hierarchical relationships from a screenshot alone. While prior work could detect individual UI elements on a screen (element detection), those approaches produced flat lists of elements with no…

  screen readers · mobile accessibility · computer vision · UI semantics · machine learning

• "It's Complicated": Negotiating Accessibility and (Mis)Representation in Image Descriptions of Race, Gender, and Disability

  Cynthia L. Bennett, Cole Gleason, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Anhong Guo, Alexandra To · 2021 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This qualitative study investigates how screen reader users who are also Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), non-binary, and/or transgender navigate the complex landscape of image descriptions, particularly regarding how appearance characteristics like race, gender, and…

  image descriptions · alt text · screen readers · visual impairments · race

• Screen Recognition: Creating Accessibility Metadata for Mobile Applications from Pixels

  Xiaoyi Zhang, Lilian de Greef, Amanda Swearngin, Samuel White, Kyle Murray, Lisa Yu, Qi Shan, Jeffrey Nichols, Jason Wu, Chris Fleizach, Aaron Everitt, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2021 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper from Apple introduces Screen Recognition, a system that automatically generates accessibility metadata for mobile apps by analyzing their visual pixels, enabling screen readers to work with apps that lack proper developer-provided accessibility information. The…

  mobile accessibility · screen readers · machine learning · object detection · VoiceOver

• 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

• Understanding Audio Production Practices of People with Vision Impairments

  Abir Saha, Anne Marie Piper · 2020 · ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents the first detailed empirical study of how people with vision impairments use digital audio production tools in their personal and professional work. Through semi-structured interviews with 18 blind and visually impaired audio professionals and hobbyists —…

  visual impairments · audio production · creative content production · screen readers · assistive technology

• Making Mobile Augmented Reality Applications Accessible

  Jaylin Herskovitz, Jason Wu, Samuel White, Amy Pavel, Gabriel Reyes, Anhong Guo, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper tackles a fundamental accessibility gap in augmented reality: AR applications are overwhelmingly visual, mixing virtual 3D objects with the real world in ways that existing screen readers and accessibility services cannot interpret. The researchers analyzed 105…

  augmented reality · visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · mobile accessibility · screen readers

• Access Differential and Inequitable Access: Inaccessibility for Doctoral Students in Computing

  Kristen Shinohara, Michael McQuaid, Nayeri Jacobo · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper investigates why the pipeline of students with disabilities pursuing doctoral degrees in computing remains so thin, despite increased support at the undergraduate level. In 2018, the NSF reported that only about 3% of math and computer science PhD recipients…

  education accessibility · disability rights · deaf and hard of hearing · blindness and low vision · digital accessibility

• 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

• How Blind and Visually Impaired Composers, Producers, and Songwriters Leverage and Adapt Music Technology

  William Christopher Payne, Alex Yixuan Xu, Fabiha Ahmed, Lisa Ye, Amy Hurst · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20)

  This qualitative interview study explores how 11 blind and visually impaired music creators — composers, producers, and songwriters — use and adapt mainstream and assistive music technologies to achieve their creative goals. The researchers recruited participants through the…

  blindness · music accessibility · assistive technology · screen readers · creative accessibility

• 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

• Reviewing Speech Input with Audio: Differences between Blind and Sighted Users

  Jonggi Hong, Christine Vaing, Hernisa Kacorri, Leah Findlater · 2020 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper investigates how blind users identify automatic speech recognition (ASR) errors when reviewing dictated text through audio only—a critical yet understudied aspect of speech-based text entry. While speech input is a primary interaction method for blind mobile users…

  speech recognition · ASR errors · screen readers · text entry · blind users

• An Epidemiology-inspired Large-scale Analysis of Android App Accessibility

  Anne Spencer Ross, Xiaoyi Zhang, James Fogarty, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2020 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents the largest analysis of Android app accessibility to date, testing 9,999 free apps from the Rico repository for seven distinct accessibility barriers. Drawing on epidemiological methods, the authors frame accessibility barriers as "diseases" affecting the app…

  mobile accessibility · Android · TalkBack · screen readers · automated testing

• Twitter A11y: A Browser Extension to Make Twitter Images Accessible

  Cole Gleason, Amy Pavel, Emma McCamey, Christina Low, Patrick Carrington, Kris M. Kitani, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2020 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper presents Twitter A11y, a browser extension designed to address the widespread lack of alternative text on images posted to Twitter. The authors note that while around 12% of Twitter content consists of images, only 0.1% of those images include user-provided alt text,…

  social media accessibility · alternative text · screen readers · image accessibility · optical character recognition