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• A comparison of area pointing and goal crossing for people with and without motor impairments

  Jacob O. Wobbrock, Krzysztof Z. Gajos · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  Wobbrock and Gajos at the University of Washington present a controlled study comparing two fundamentally different target-acquisition paradigms — conventional area pointing (move into a confined region and click) and goal crossing (sweep the cursor across a goal line, no click…

  target acquisition · goal crossing · area pointing · Fitts' law · steering law

• Information overload in non-visual web transaction: context analysis spells relief

  Jalal Mahmud · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster paper from Jalal Mahmud at Stony Brook University describes ongoing PhD research into reducing the information overload that blind users experience when completing multi-step web transactions — shopping, registrations, bill payments — using a screen…

  screen readers · non-visual web access · web page segmentation · context analysis · web transactions

• Comparing speaker-dependent and speaker-adaptive acoustic models for recognizing dysarthric speech

  Frank Rudzicz · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster from Frank Rudzicz at the University of Toronto compares two strategies for building automatic speech recognition (ASR) acoustic models that work for people with dysarthria — a set of motor speech disorders that produces speech with high intra- and…

  dysarthria · automatic speech recognition · acoustic model · speaker adaptation · hidden Markov model

• Developing usable CAPTCHAs for blind users

  Jonathan Holman, Jonathan Lazar, Jinjuan Heidi Feng, John D'Arcy · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster from a Towson University team led by Jonathan Lazar — joined by Jonathan Holman, Jinjuan Heidi Feng, and John D'Arcy of Notre Dame — addresses the long-standing accessibility problem that text-based CAPTCHAs (the distorted-letter image puzzles used…

  CAPTCHA · audio CAPTCHA · blindness and low vision · screen readers · web accessibility

• Consolidating computer operation and wheelchair control

  Torsten Felzer, Rainer Nordmann · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 demo proposal from Torsten Felzer and Rainer Nordmann at Darmstadt University of Technology describes the integration of two previously separate assistive systems they had built for people with severe physical disabilities. The first, HaMCoS (HAnds-free…

  hands-free interaction · muscle contraction · electromyography · powered wheelchair · mouse emulation

• Simulation to predict performance of assistive interfaces

  Pradipta Biswas, Peter Robinson · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This short ASSETS 2007 poster from Pradipta Biswas and Peter Robinson at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory describes a simulator for predicting how disabled users will perform on a given assistive interface, intended to reduce the dependence on hard-to-recruit disabled…

  user simulation · usability evaluation · GOMS · Model Human Processor · scanning interface

• Variable frame rate for low power mobile sign language communication

  Neva Cherniavsky, Anna C. Cavender, Richard E. Ladner, Eve A. Riskin · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This paper from the University of Washington MobileASL team — Neva Cherniavsky, Anna Cavender, Richard Ladner, and Eve Riskin — addresses a then-emerging problem: enabling Deaf people in the United States to hold real-time American Sign Language conversations over the cellular…

  American Sign Language · sign language · fingerspelling · Deaf community · video phone

• Photonote evaluation: aiding students with disabilities in a lecture environment

  Gregory Hughes, Peter Robinson · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  Hughes and Robinson at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory present Photonote, a lecture-capture system designed specifically for students with disabilities, and a controlled user study comparing it to human note-takers. Where existing lecture-capture systems (eClass, Lecture…

  lecture capture · note-taking · educational accessibility · academic accommodation · sign language interpreter

• Automated tactile graphics translation: in the field

  Chandrika Jayant, Matt Renzelmann, Dana Wen, Satria Krisnandi, Richard Ladner, Dan Comden · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper describes two years of field work extending the Tactile Graphics Assistant (TGA), a system developed at the University of Washington to automate the translation of figures from mathematics, science, and engineering (STEM) textbooks into embossed tactile graphics for…

  tactile graphics · Braille · STEM accessibility · blindness and low vision · image processing

• SAMBA: a semi-automatic method for measuring barriers of accessibility

  Giorgio Brajnik, Raffaella Lomuscio · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  Brajnik and Lomuscio argue that web accessibility cannot be managed without being measured, yet existing accessibility metrics are underdeveloped and almost universally tied to conformance with WCAG checkpoints rather than to the real-world barriers end users encounter. The…

  web accessibility · accessibility metrics · accessibility evaluation · accessibility testing · conformance testing

• Barrier pointing: using physical edges to assist target acquisition on mobile device touch screens

  Jon Froehlich, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  Froehlich, Wobbrock and Kane propose barrier pointing: a set of stylus-based target acquisition techniques that exploit the raised physical edge of a mobile touch screen to stabilise input for users with motor impairments. Standard touch-screen tapping requires a user to fly the…

  mobile accessibility · touchscreen accessibility · motor impairment · target acquisition · input techniques

• Analysis of Navigability of Web Applications for Improving Blind Usability

  Hironobu Takagi, Shin Saito, Kentarou Fukuda, Chieko Asakawa · 2007 · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Vol. 14, No. 3, Article 13

  This TOCHI article is a two-study investigation into why modern web applications — especially visually dense online shopping sites — remain slow and frustrating for blind users even when they pass automated accessibility checks. The authors argue that current usability theory,…

  web accessibility · screen readers · voice browser · navigation · usability testing

• Design and Evaluation of an American Sign Language Generator

  Matt Huenerfauth, Liming Zhao, Erdan Gu, Jan Allbeck · 2007 · Proceedings of the Workshop on Embodied Language Processing (EmbodiedNLP 2007)

  Huenerfauth, Zhao, Gu, and Allbeck (2007) describe the implementation and user evaluation of a prototype system for generating animations of American Sign Language (ASL) classifier predicates — spatially complex hand movements that trace the location, motion, shape, or contour…

  ASL · American Sign Language · deaf accessibility · sign language · sign language animation

• Self-Adapting User Interfaces as Assistive Technology for Handheld Mobile Devices

  Robert Dodd · 2006 · Assets '06: Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper addresses a fundamental challenge in mobile device accessibility: the limitations of bolt-on assistive technology solutions for handheld devices. Published at Assets '06, the premier ACM conference on accessible computing, it proposes a paradigm shift from…

  mobile accessibility · self-adapting interfaces · assistive technology · user modeling · design space

• Transforming Web Pages to Become Standard-Compliant through Reverse Engineering

  Benfeng Chen, Vincent Y. Shen · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses the problem of transforming legacy, non-standards-compliant web pages into valid HTML with proper separation of content and presentation — a fundamental requirement for web accessibility. In 2006, over 95% of web pages failed W3C validation, largely because…

  web standards · HTML validation · CSS · automated remediation · layout tables

• Evaluating Interfaces for Intelligent Mobile Search

  Karen Church, Barry Smyth, Mark T. Keane · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper argues that simply transplanting desktop web search interfaces onto mobile devices creates a poor user experience, and proposes an alternative approach to presenting search results on small screens. The authors first evaluate seven mobile search engines of the era…

  mobile accessibility · mobile search · search interfaces · small screen devices · information retrieval

• Physical Usability and the Mobile Web

  Shari Trewin · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper systematically compares the physical usability challenges faced by desktop web users with motor impairments and mobile web users, identifying where their needs overlap and diverge. Trewin first catalogs the interaction landscape for users with physical disabilities on…

  motor accessibility · mobile accessibility · physical disability · device independence · input methods

• Designing Beneath the Surface of the Web

  Sarah Horton · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper reframes web accessibility as fundamentally a source code design problem, arguing that designers focus almost exclusively on the visual "surface" of web pages — colors, typography, layouts — while neglecting the underlying code layer that determines how well pages are…

  semantic HTML · web design · universal usability · nonvisual access · screen readers

• GraSSML: Accessible Smart Schematic Diagrams for All

  Z. Ben Fredj, D. A. Duce · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a persistent gap in web accessibility: making schematic diagrams (organizational charts, flowcharts, UML diagrams, etc.) accessible to people who cannot perceive visual representations. While previous approaches tried to work "bottom-up" — starting with a…

  accessible graphics · SVG · semantic web · diagram accessibility · alternative representations

• Contextual Web Accessibility - Maximizing the Benefit of Accessibility Guidelines

  David Sloan, Andy Heath, Fraser Hamilton, Brian Kelly, Helen Petrie, Lawrie Phipps · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This influential paper challenges the prevailing approach to web accessibility that treats WCAG conformance as the sole measure of success. The authors argue that while guidelines like WCAG are valuable tools, the persistently low levels of web accessibility indicate that…

  accessibility policy · WCAG · contextual design · e-learning accessibility · inclusive design

• How People Use Presentation to Search for a Link: Expanding the Understanding of Accessibility on the Web

  Caroline Jay, Robert Stevens, Mashhuda Glencross, Alan Chalmers · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper uses eye-tracking to investigate a fundamental question about web accessibility: what exactly does visual presentation provide to sighted users that is lost when content is accessed nonvisually (via screen readers) or on small screens? The authors argue that…

  eye tracking · visual presentation · screen readers · nonvisual access · web navigation

• The Meaning of 'Life': Capturing Intent from Web Authors

  Rhys Lewis · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A): Building the Mobile Web: Rediscovering Accessibility?

  This paper explores the fundamental problem that web pages lack explicit semantic information, relying instead on visual cues — layout, color, juxtaposition — to convey meaning. Lewis argues that this semantic deficit creates parallel challenges for two distinct user groups:…

  mobile accessibility · web semantics · content adaptation · device independence · transcoding

• Dialog Generation for Voice Browsing

  Zan Sun, Amanda Stent, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A): Building the Mobile Web: Rediscovering Accessibility?

  This paper presents HearSay, a voice browser system developed at Stony Brook University that provides speech-driven web access for people with visual disabilities. Unlike conventional screen readers that force users to arrow through a linearized, single-column presentation of…

  voice browsing · screen readers · visual impairment · web page segmentation · content summarization

• Personalizable Edge Services for Web Accessibility

  Gennaro Iaccarino, Delfina Malandrino, Vittorio Scarano · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A): Building the Mobile Web: Rediscovering Accessibility?

  This paper presents PAN (Personalizable Accessible Navigation), a suite of proxy-based edge services that transform web pages on-the-fly to improve accessibility for users with disabilities. Built on top of the Scalable Intermediary Software Infrastructure (SISI) — a…

  proxy-based accessibility · web accessibility · content adaptation · personalization · edge services

• Capability Survey of Japanese User Agents and Its Impact on Web Accessibility

  Takayuki Watanabe, Masahiro Umegaki · 2006 · Proceedings of the 2006 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A): Building the Mobile Web: Rediscovering Accessibility?

  This paper presents a systematic evaluation of four major Japanese user agents for people with visual disabilities — IBM Home Page Reader 3.04 (a voice browser), PC-Talker XP 3.04, 95 Reader 6.0, and JAWS 6.2 (Japanese edition) — tested against the W3C UAAG 1.0 Test Suite for…

  user agents · screen readers · UAAG · assistive technology evaluation · Japanese accessibility