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• Cross-Cultural Web Design Guidelines

  Rukshan Alexander, David Murray, Nik Thompson · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper develops evidence-based cross-cultural web design guidelines that go beyond simple language translation to address culturally specific design preferences in layout, navigation, links, multimedia, visual representation, colour, and text. The authors argue that cultural…

  cross-cultural design · web design guidelines · cultural factors · internationalization · localization

• Evaluating the Accessibility of the Job Search and Interview Process for People who are Blind and Visually Impaired

  William Grussenmeyer, Jesel Garcia, Eelke Folmer, Fang Jiang · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This study investigates the accessibility barriers that people who are blind and visually impaired encounter throughout the job search and interview process in the United States, where the unemployment rate for this population stands at approximately 70%. The researchers…

  blindness · low vision · employment accessibility · job search · onboarding

• Employment in the Digital Age for People with Impairments

  Kevin Carey · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This position paper from Kevin Carey of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) offers a provocative critique of existing disability employment strategies in the context of digital transformation. Carey argues that while no technological revolution in history has…

  employment accessibility · disability employment · digital economy · automation · web accessibility

• Predictive Link Following Plug-In For Web Browsers

  Lyle Pierson Stachecki, John Magee · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents the first public release of a target-aware pointing assistance plug-in for web browsers that uses Predictive Link Following to help people with motor impairments select links on web pages. Web browsing is challenging for users of mouse…

  motor accessibility · web accessibility · mouse replacement interface · eye tracking · assistive technology

• Good Background Colors for Readers: A Study of People with and without Dyslexia

  Luz Rello, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper presents the first large-scale user study measuring the effect of background colors on screen readability for people with and without dyslexia, providing empirical evidence for the widely recommended but previously unvalidated practice of using colored backgrounds to…

  dyslexia · readability · color contrast · reading accessibility · visual design

• The Effects of "Not Knowing What You Don't Know" on Web Accessibility for Blind Web Users

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Irene Lin, Saiph Savage · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper introduces and empirically investigates the concept of "Not Knowing What You Don't Know" (NKWYDK) in the context of blind web users. When a blind person encounters difficulty finding information on a web page, they face a fundamental uncertainty that sighted users…

  web accessibility · screen readers · blindness · usability · information foraging

• Speed-Dial: A Surrogate Mouse for Non-Visual Web Browsing

  Syed Masum Billah, Vikas Ashok, Donald E. Porter, IV Ramakrishnan · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper presents Speed-Dial, a system that uses an off-the-shelf Microsoft Surface Dial as a surrogate mouse for non-visual web browsing. The core problem it addresses is the fundamental mismatch between how sighted and blind users interact with the web: sighted users can…

  screen readers · web accessibility · blindness · haptic technology · input devices

• Lake Devo: accessible online role-play

  Greg Gay, Maureen Glynn, Naza Djafarova · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This extended abstract describes Lake Devo, a web-based role-playing environment developed at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) for collaborative learning, and the strategies used to make it accessible to blind students using screen readers. Lake Devo…

  WAI-ARIA · screen reader accessibility · e-learning accessibility · web accessibility · collaborative learning

• Development technologies impact in web accessibility

  Carlos Duarte, Inês Matos, João Vicente, Ana Salvado, Carlos M. Duarte, Luís Carriço · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This study investigates whether the choice of web development technologies—programming languages, web frameworks, JavaScript frameworks, and content management systems—has a measurable impact on the accessibility of resulting web pages. The researchers crawled 1,669 pages from…

  web accessibility · automated testing · web development · content management systems · JavaScript frameworks

• WebReader: a screen reader for everyone, everywhere

  Aurelio De Rosa, Donovan Justice · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This extended abstract presents WebReader, a free and open source JavaScript library that implements a subset of screen reader features directly within web pages, requiring no software installation beyond a web browser. The project addresses two key limitations of traditional…

  screen readers · web accessibility · JavaScript · Web Speech API · open source

• Towards Universal Rendering in MathJax

  Davide Cervone, Peter Krautzberger, Volker Sorge · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the MathJax Consortium's effort to transform MathJax from a purely visual mathematics rendering library into a universal rendering solution that supports readers with visual, print, and motor impairments. The authors describe how mathematical content on the…

  STEM accessibility · mathematics accessibility · MathML · screen readers · universal design

• Web Accessibility Guidelines for the 2020s

  Michael Cooper · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  Written by W3C/WAI staff member Michael Cooper, this paper provides an insider perspective on the strategic direction of web accessibility guidelines following the completion of the 2.0 suite — WCAG 2.0 (finalized 2008), ATAG 2.0 (2015), and UAAG 2.0 (2015). Cooper describes the…

  web accessibility · WCAG · WAI-ARIA · standards · guidelines

• A Usability Evaluation of Two Virtual Aids to Enhance Cursor Accessibility for People with Motor Impairments

  J. Eduardo Pérez, Xabier Valencia, Myriam Arrue, Julio Abascal · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of the Basque Country presents and evaluates two virtual cursor enhancements designed to help people with motor impairments perform pointing and clicking tasks during web browsing. The "circular cursor" creates a translucent circular active area…

  motor accessibility · assistive technology · input devices · pointing devices · web accessibility

• Accessible Map Visualization Prototype

  Tania Calle-Jimenez, Sergio Luján-Mora · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from Ecuador's National Polytechnic School and the University of Alicante presents a prototype for making online geographic maps accessible to people with visual disabilities. The authors identify four key accessibility barriers in web-based maps: maps rendered as…

  data visualization · visual impairment · color blindness · SVG · web accessibility

• Eye Tracking Scanpath Analysis on Web Pages: How Many Users?

  Sukru Eraslan, Yeliz Yesilada, Simon Harper · 2016 · Proceedings of the Ninth Biennial ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA)

  This paper investigates how many participants are needed for reliable eye tracking scanpath analysis on web pages — a question that has been debated in usability research for over 30 years but never specifically addressed for scanpath studies. While the classic "magic number" of…

  eye tracking · scanpath analysis · usability testing · sample size · web accessibility

• Should I Trust It When I Cannot See It? Credibility Assessment for Blind Web Users

  Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper examines how blind screen reader users assess the credibility of web content compared to sighted users, revealing fundamental differences in credibility assessment strategies between the two groups. Web credibility — the believability of information and its source —…

  blindness · screen reader · web accessibility · web design · usability

• Tag Thunder: Towards Non-Visual Web Page Skimming

  Elena Manishina, Jean-Marc Lecarpentier, Fabrice Maurel, Stéphane Ferrari, Maxence Busson · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This demonstration paper presents Tag Thunder, an audio equivalent of visual tag clouds designed to bring skimming capabilities to blind web users. When sighted people access a web page, they first skim the content — rapidly scanning layout, typography, and visual emphasis to…

  blindness · screen reader · web accessibility · speech · natural language processing

• Towards a unified definition of web accessibility

  Helen Petrie, Andreas Savva, Christopher Power · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper conducts a systematic conceptual analysis of 50 definitions of web accessibility drawn from books, academic papers, standards documents, guidelines, and online sources spanning 1996 to 2014, authored by researchers and practitioners from 21 countries across all…

  web accessibility · accessibility definitions · usability · assistive technology · older users

• "Old Habits Die Hard!": Eyetracking Based Experiential Transcoding: A Study with Mobile Users

  Elgin Akpınar, Yeliz Yeşilada · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents an eyetracking-based approach to experiential transcoding — the practice of reformatting web pages into more accessible forms based on understanding how users actually experience and navigate content. The authors built on their earlier eMine project, which…

  transcoding · eyetracking · mobile web · situational impairment · user experience

• CAN: Composable Accessibility Infrastructure via Data-Driven Crowdsourcing

  Yun Huang, Brian Dobreski, Bijay Bhaskar Deo, Jiahang Xin, Natã Miccael Barbosa, Yang Wang, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents CAN (Composable Accessibility Infrastructure), a crowdsourcing platform that collects web accessibility issues from real websites and their open-source fixes, dynamically composes solutions on-the-fly, and delivers the crowdsourced content as both immediate…

  crowdsourcing · web accessibility · accessibility education · automated testing · screen readers

• W4A Camp Report 2014 Edition

  Giorgio Brajnik · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This report summarizes the discussions from the 2014 W4A Camp, an unconference session held at the end of the W4A conference where accessibility researchers informally debated topics they considered important for the field. Chaired by Giorgio Brajnik, the session involved 17…

  web accessibility · accessibility definitions · older adults · emotional barriers · EPUB

• Acrolinx: A Controlled-Language Checker Turned into an Accessibility Evaluation Tool for Image Text Alternatives

  Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez, Sabine Lehmann · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a novel application of controlled-language checking technology to a persistent accessibility problem: evaluating the quality of image text alternatives, not just their presence. The authors observe that while most web accessibility evaluation tools can detect…

  alt text · image accessibility · automated testing · controlled language · natural language processing

• A Web Based Multi-Linguists Symbol-to-Text AAC Application

  Chaohai Ding, Nawar Halabi, Lama Al-Zaben, Yunjia Li, E. A. Draffan, Mike Wald · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents Symbol Dragoman, a web-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) application that enables users who have no spoken language to communicate in both Arabic and English using pictographic symbols. The core problem addressed is that existing AAC…

  AAC · augmentative and alternative communication · symbol communication · multilingual accessibility · Arabic

• Haptic Gloves for Audio-Tactile Web Accessibility

  Andrii Soviak · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper proposes FeelX, a haptic glove system that would enable blind users to explore web page layouts through touch on any flat surface such as a desk or table. The core problem is that screen readers linearise web pages into a one-dimensional sequence…

  blindness · haptic technology · tactile interface · screen reader · web accessibility

• Optimus Web: Selective Delivery of Desktop or Mobile Web Pages

  Nádia Fernandes, Tiago Guerreiro, Diogo Marques, Luís Carriço · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents Optimus Web, a client-side web proxy system that automatically selects and delivers the most accessible version of a website — either its desktop or mobile representation — to blind users. The system uses QualWeb, an automated accessibility evaluator that…

  web accessibility · blind users · screen readers · mobile accessibility · automated testing