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• Improving the Accessibility of Dynamic Web Content for Older Users

  Darren Lunn, Simon Harper · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents the SCWeb2 (Senior Citizens on the Web 2.0) Assistant Tool, a browser extension designed to help older users understand and interact with dynamic Web 2.0 content. The authors build on their previous research showing that older users, unlike younger ones, have…

  aging · dynamic content · web accessibility · cognitive accessibility · AJAX

• AJAX Time Machine

  Andy Brown, Simon Harper · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper proposes the AJAX Time Machine, a Google Chrome browser extension that records states of dynamically updating web page regions and allows users to step backwards and forwards through those states at their own pace. The authors argue that dynamic AJAX content —…

  AJAX · dynamic content · cognitive accessibility · aging · screen readers

• Farfalla Project: Browser-Based Accessibility Solutions

  Andrea Mangiatordi, Harpreet Singh Sareen · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents Farfalla, a free and open-source project from the University of Milano Bicocca that provides cloud-based assistive technology through the browser, eliminating the need for locally installed software. The core insight is that traditional AT is deeply tied to…

  assistive technology · cloud computing · web accessibility · accessibility tools · browser extension

• An Integrative Accessibility Engineering Approach Using Multidimensional Classifications of Barriers in the Web

  Diana Ruth-Janneck · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper presents multidimensional classifications of web accessibility barriers derived from the large-scale German study "Web2.0/Accessible," commissioned by Aktion Mensch, which surveyed 671 disabled internet users via an accessible online questionnaire (with audio files…

  accessibility barriers · accessibility evaluation · user research · web accessibility · software engineering

• Evaluation of Haptic HTML Mappings Derived from a Novel Methodology

  Ravi Kuber, Wai Yu, Sile O'Modhrain · 2011 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of haptic HTML mappings designed to help blind users navigate web pages using a Logitech Wingman force-feedback mouse. The research builds on a novel five-step participatory design methodology that actively involved blind users in…

  haptic feedback · force-feedback · blind users · web accessibility · assistive technology

• Identifying Behavioral Strategies of Visually Impaired Users to Improve Access to Web Content

  Darren Lunn, Simon Harper, Sean Bechhofer · 2011 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a methodology for identifying how visually impaired screen reader users develop coping strategies when encountering inaccessible web content, then uses those strategies to inform the design of transcoding solutions. The researchers conducted observational…

  screen readers · web accessibility · transcoding · coping strategies · user behavior

• How Voice Augmentation Supports Elderly Web Users

  Daisuke Sato, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Jiro Tanaka · 2011 · The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper from IBM Research Tokyo investigates how voice-based augmentation, originally developed for blind screen reader users, can be adapted to support older adults using web applications. The research addresses two key barriers that prevent elderly users from engaging with…

  aging · web accessibility · voice interface · cognitive accessibility · auditory interface

• Monitoring Accessibility: Large Scale Evaluations at a Geo Political Level

  Silvia Mirri, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Paola Salomoni · 2011 · The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents AMA (Accessibility Monitoring Application), a system designed to monitor web accessibility across large collections of URLs from a geo-political perspective. Developed as part of the VaMoLà project — a collaboration between the Emilia-Romagna Region and the…

  web accessibility · automated testing · accessibility evaluation · policy · compliance

• The Interplay Between Web Aesthetics and Accessibility

  Grace Mbipom, Simon Harper · 2011 · Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper investigates whether the commonly held belief that visually attractive websites are inherently inaccessible holds true. The research was conducted in two studies. In Study 1, 30 sighted web users rated 50 homepages (drawn from Alexa top UK sites and Webby Award…

  web accessibility · visual design · user experience · accessibility evaluation · heuristic evaluation

• Sasayaki: Augmented Voice Web Browsing Experience

  Daisuke Sato, Shaojian Zhu, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2011 · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11)

  This paper introduces Sasayaki (Japanese for 'whisper'), a prototype that augments the standard screen-reader voice with a second, physically separated synthesised voice that whispers contextually relevant hints — for example 'entering main content', 'skipped the main', 'the…

  screen readers · auditory interface · voice browser · web accessibility · blindness and low vision

• Exploratory Analysis of Collaborative Web Accessibility Improvement

  Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Masatomo Kobayashi, Shinya Kawanaka, Chieko Asakawa · 2010 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a detailed analysis of the Social Accessibility Project, an experimental crowdsourced service from IBM Research-Tokyo that enables volunteers to fix web accessibility problems without requiring site owners to modify their pages. Launched in July 2008, the…

  crowdsourcing · web accessibility · social computing · metadata · screen readers

• Accessibility by Demonstration: Enabling End Users to Guide Developers to Web Accessibility Solutions

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeremy T. Brudvik, Bernie Zhang · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper introduces Accessibility by Demonstration (ABD), a novel approach to accessibility evaluation that lets assistive technology users record the accessibility problems they encounter as shareable, replayable demonstrations and send them directly to web developers. ABD is…

  web accessibility · accessibility testing · screen readers · blind and low vision · accessibility evaluation

• FlashDOM: Interacting with Flash Content from the Document Object Model

  Kyle I. Murray · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents FlashDOM, a system that exposes Adobe Flash content to assistive technologies by translating Flash's internal structure and interactive elements into standard HTML Document Object Model (DOM) elements. The core problem addressed is that Flash Player's…

  screen readers · Adobe Flash · Document Object Model · web accessibility · assistive technology

• Interactive SIGHT Demo: Textual Summaries of Simple Bar Charts

  Seniz Demir, David Oliver, Edward Schwartz, Stephanie Elzer, Sandra Carberry, Kathleen F. McCoy · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This demonstration paper presents Interactive SIGHT, a browser extension designed to make simple bar charts found in online popular media (newspapers, magazines) accessible to people with visual impairments. The system goes beyond providing raw data values — it identifies the…

  information graphics · data visualization · blindness · screen readers · natural language generation

• Testability and Validity of WCAG 2.0: The Expertise Effect

  Giorgio Brajnik, Yeliz Yesilada, Simon Harper · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper investigates the testability and validity of WCAG 2.0 success criteria through an empirical study with 22 accessibility experts and 27 non-experts (university students with 14 hours of accessibility training). Participants evaluated all 61 WCAG 2.0 success criteria…

  WCAG 2.0 · web accessibility · conformance review · evaluator effect · accessibility audit

• Sasayaki: An Augmented Voice-Based Web Browsing Experience

  Shaojian Zhu, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper introduces Sasayaki (meaning "whisper" in Japanese), an intelligent voice-based agent designed to augment voice browser navigation for users with visual impairments. The authors, from IBM Research Tokyo and UMBC, identify two key problems with voice-based web…

  web accessibility · screen reader · voice browser · visual impairment · contextual support

• Assistive Web Browsing with Touch Interfaces

  Faisal Ahmed, Muhammad Asiful Islam, Yevgen Borodin, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This demo paper from Stony Brook University proposes a touch-based directional navigation technique to improve web browsing for blind users on touch devices (iPhone, MacBook trackpad). The authors identify two key problems with Apple's VoiceOver touch interface: the "fat finger"…

  web accessibility · touch interface · screen reader · VoiceOver · visual impairment

• Are Synthesized Video Descriptions Acceptable?

  Masatomo Kobayashi, Trisha O'Connell, Bryan Gould, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper from IBM Research Tokyo and WGBH National Center for Accessible Media investigates whether text-to-speech (TTS) synthesised narrations are an acceptable alternative to human-narrated audio descriptions for online videos. While accessibility standards like WCAG 2.0,…

  audio description · video accessibility · text-to-speech · speech synthesis · web accessibility

• About the relevance of accessibility barriers in the everyday interactions of older people with the web

  Sergio Sayago, Josep Blat · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper reports findings from a remarkable 3-year ethnographic study (2005-2008) of 388 older people (aged 65-80) using web and computer technologies in their daily lives at the Àgora adult centre in Barcelona. Unlike most accessibility research that relies on lab-based…

  aging · ethnography · web accessibility · cognitive accessibility · mouse interaction

• User requirement analysis for a railway ticketing portal with emphasis on semantic accessibility for older users

  Michael Leitner, Özge Subasi, Norman Höller, Arjan Geven, Manfred Tscheligi · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates the user requirements of older adults using an online railway ticketing portal operated by a nationwide Austrian railway company. The researchers employed a mixed-methods approach combining a large-scale online questionnaire (1,200 valid responses),…

  older adults · semantic accessibility · user requirements · universal accessibility · e-commerce accessibility

• Transition of Accessibility Evaluation Tools to New Standards

  Amaia Aizpurua, Myriam Arrue, Markel Vigo, Julio Abascal · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a practical challenge that faced the web accessibility community following the release of WCAG 2.0 in December 2008: how to update the large ecosystem of existing automated evaluation tools that were built around WCAG 1.0. The authors present EvalAccess, a…

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

• Quantitative Evaluation for Web Accessibility with Respect to Disabled Groups

  Pornpat Sirithumgul, Atiwong Suchato, Proadpran Punyabukkana · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating web accessibility that goes beyond standard WCAG conformance levels to assess suitability for specific disability groups, particularly vision-impaired and hearing-impaired users. The authors argue that WCAG conformance levels (A,…

  accessibility metrics · web accessibility · barrier walkthrough · quantitative evaluation · visual impairment

• Web-based Chinese sign language broadcasting system

  Dengfeng Yao, Yunfeng Qiu, Harry Huang · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)

  This paper presents a web-based Chinese Sign Language (CSL) Broadcasting System that automatically translates text on web pages into animated 3D sign language gestures displayed through a browser plugin. The system addresses an often-overlooked accessibility barrier: while web…

  sign language · deaf accessibility · sign language synthesis · 3D animation · Chinese Sign Language

• Accessibility Perspectives on Enabling South African Sign Language in the South African National Accessibility Portal

  Louis Coetzee, Guillaume Olivrin, Ilse Viviers · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of embedding animated South African Sign Language (SASL) content into the South African National Accessibility Portal (NAP), a government-backed information sharing platform for the disability sector. The authors from the…

  sign language · deaf accessibility · web accessibility · localization · South Africa

• Combining SADIe and AxsJAX to Improve the Accessibility of Web Content

  Darren Lunn, Simon Harper, Sean Bechhofer · 2009 · Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Manchester presents a prototype system that combines two accessibility approaches — SADIe and Google's AxsJAX framework — to improve web content access for visually impaired screen reader users. SADIe (Semantic Annotation for Document Interfaces…

  screen readers · web accessibility · transcoding · ARIA · CSS