Reviews

Search results

• Producing Accessible Statistics Diagrams in R

  Donal Fitzpatrick, A. Jonathan R. Godfrey, Volker Sorge · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a system for making statistical diagrams accessible to blind users by generating semantically enriched SVG graphics from the R statistical computing environment. The core problem is that statistical graphics — bar charts, histograms, box plots, scatter plots,…

  data visualization accessibility · STEM accessibility · visual impairment · blindness · screen readers

• Subjective Evaluation of Website Accessibility and Usability: A Survey for People with Sensory Disabilities

  Tahani Alahmadi, Steve Drew · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a novel subjective evaluation model for assessing web accessibility and usability from the perspective of students with sensory disabilities, applied to Australian university websites. The model integrates accessibility criteria from WCAG 2.0 and Section 508…

  accessibility evaluation · usability · university websites · education accessibility · sensory disabilities

• Making Real-World Interfaces Accessible Through Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Fabrication

  Anhong Guo, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents two complementary systems designed to make inaccessible physical interfaces usable by blind people: VizLens and Facade. The research addresses a fundamental and long-standing accessibility problem — the vast majority of physical interfaces in…

  physical accessibility · computer vision · crowdsourcing · 3D printing · assistive technology

• The Crowd Work Accessibility Problem

  Saiganesh Swaminathan, Kotaro Hara, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper examines a largely overlooked accessibility problem: the inaccessibility of crowdsourcing tasks themselves. While crowd work platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) offer potential employment benefits for people with disabilities — flexible scheduling, remote…

  web accessibility evaluation · crowdsourcing · employment · disability employment · WCAG compliance

• 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

• Blocks4All Demonstration: a Blocks-Based Programming Environment for Blind Children

  Lauren R. Milne, Catherine M. Baker, Richard E. Ladner · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  Blocks4All is a tablet-based iOS application designed to make blocks-based programming accessible to blind and low-vision children. Blocks-based programming environments like Scratch and Blockly have become central to K-12 computer science education — of the 162 Hour of Code…

  programming education · blindness · children · touchscreen accessibility · screen readers

• Interviews and Observation of Blind Software Developers at Work to Understand Code Navigation Challenges

  Khaled Albusays, Stephanie Ludi, Matt Huenerfauth · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This exploratory study investigates code navigation challenges faced by 28 blind software developers using their preferred coding tools and assistive technologies. The researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology and University of North Texas conducted remote interview and…

  blindness · programming education · software engineering · screen readers · workplace accessibility

• In-context Q&A to Support Blind People Using Smartphones

  André Rodrigues, Kyle Montague, Hugo Nicolau, João Guerreiro, Tiago Guerreiro · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper addresses a pervasive but understudied problem: the daily challenges blind people face when using smartphone applications go far beyond the touchscreen gesture difficulties that most accessibility research focuses on. The researchers conducted workshops with 42 blind…

  blindness · smartphone accessibility · screen readers · crowdsourcing · human computation

• Improving Smartphone Accessibility with Personalizable Static Overlays

  André Rodrigues, André Santos, Kyle Montague, Tiago Guerreiro · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper addresses a fundamental usability problem for blind smartphone users: the loss of interface consistency that occurred when physical keypad phones gave way to touchscreen smartphones. Feature phones had tactually recognizable keys, simpler interfaces, and consistent…

  blindness · smartphone accessibility · screen readers · mobile accessibility · personalization

• 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

• Investigating Microinteractions for People with Visual Impairments and the Potential Role of On-Body Interaction

  Uran Oh, Lee Stearns, Alisha Pradhan, Jon E. Froehlich, Leah Findlater · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper investigates how well microinteractions — brief, high-frequency mobile tasks that take sighted users only a few seconds to complete — are currently supported for people who are blind or visually impaired (VI). While modern smartphones are reasonably accessible through…

  microinteraction · on-body interaction · visual impairment · wearable technology · mobile accessibility

• The Tangible Desktop: A Multimodal Approach to Nonvisual Computing

  Mark S. Baldwin, Gillian R. Hayes, Oliver L. Haimson, Jennifer Mankoff, Scott E. Hudson · 2017 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper identifies fundamental limitations of audio-only computer interfaces for blind and low-vision users and proposes a multimodal tangible alternative. The researchers conducted a 4-month field study at EmpowerTech, a computer training school for adults who are blind or…

  screen readers · tangible interfaces · haptic feedback · blindness · multimodal interaction

• Personalized Assistive Web for Improving Mobile Web Browsing and Accessibility for Visually Impaired Users

  Dongsong Zhang, Lina Zhou, Judith O. Uchidiuno, Isil Y. Kilic · 2017 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper addresses a critical gap in mobile web accessibility: while screen readers enable blind users to access web content, they do not effectively support skimming—the ability to quickly scan content to find relevant information. The authors propose PAW (Personalized…

  mobile accessibility · screen readers · web adaptation · personalization · blindness

• Accessible Touchscreen Technology for People with Visual Impairments: A Survey

  William Grussenmeyer, Eelke Folmer · 2017 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This comprehensive survey reviews the state of the art in touchscreen accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision, covering research from the mid-1990s through 2016. The authors organize the field by input modalities (gestural, voice, sensor-based) and output…

  touchscreen accessibility · mobile accessibility · visual impairment · screen readers · gestures

• Measuring the Impact of Automated Evaluation Tools on Alternative Text Quality: A Web Translation Study

  Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents the first empirical study on web accessibility conducted around a translation task, investigating how automated evaluation tools affect the quality of image text alternatives produced by web translators. Twenty-eight professional French translators were asked…

  alternative text · image accessibility · web translation · localization · automated testing

• An empirical investigation of the situationally-induced impairments experienced by blind mobile device users

  Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber, Amy Hurst · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates the situationally-induced impairments and disabilities (SIIDs) experienced by blind people when using mobile devices in real-world contexts. While prior SIID research has focused on sighted users encountering temporary impediments (like walking while…

  situational impairment · mobile accessibility · visual impairment · blindness · screen readers

• 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

• 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

• An Uninteresting Tour Through Why Our Research Papers Aren't Accessible

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Erin L. Brady, Cole Gleason, Anhong Guo, David A. Shamma · 2016 · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA 2016)

  This paper provides a candid examination of why academic research papers, delivered almost exclusively as PDFs, remain largely inaccessible to people with disabilities. The authors — who have spent years actively trying to improve the situation — trace the problem from PDF's…

  PDF accessibility · document accessibility · academic publishing · screen readers · alternative text

• Creating accessible PDFs for conference proceedings

  Erin Brady, Yu Zhong, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates the accessibility of PDF research papers published at major ACM conferences related to accessibility and human-computer interaction. The authors conducted a two-part analysis: first, an automated accessibility check of 1,811 papers from four years of CHI,…

  PDF accessibility · document accessibility · tagged PDF · PDF/UA · screen readers

• Complexities of Practical Web Automation

  Yury Puzis, Yevgen Borodin, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper systematizes and analyzes the complexities involved in building practical, usable, and accessible web automation systems, drawing on published literature and the authors' years of experience developing automation tools for visually impaired web users. Web automation —…

  web automation · screen readers · visual impairment · non-visual browsing · assistive technology

• 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

• Browser-Independent Accessible Math

  Neil Soiffer · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper describes the re-architecture of MathPlayer (version 4) from Design Science, transforming it from an Internet Explorer-only plugin into a standalone library that any assistive technology can use to make mathematical notation accessible in any browser or application.…

  MathML · STEM accessibility · screen readers · speech generation · braille