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• ExNovo: A user interface that supports novices without encumbering experts

  Mark Blair, Amanda Klassen, Justin O'Camb, Cal Woodruff, Rollin Poe, Christine Chuong, Robin Barrett · 2026 · ACM Games

  ExNovo is a novel hierarchical tree menu interface designed to bridge the long-standing divide between graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and keyboard hotkeys. Traditional GUIs scaffold novice users by making command options visible, but their reliance on precise mouse targeting…

  user interface design · keyboard accessibility · motor accessibility · visual impairment · novice-to-expert transition

• Social Media Apps: A Paradigm for Examining Usability of Mobile Apps for Working-Age Adults with Mild-Moderate Cognitive Disabilities

  Morris Huang, Greg McGrew, Cathy Bodine · 2025 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This empirical usability study examines how working-age adults (18-65) with mild-to-moderate cognitive disabilities interact with five mainstream social media apps: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Tumblr. The research addresses a significant gap—while mobile apps…

  cognitive disability · intellectual disability · traumatic brain injury · social media · mobile apps

• Supporting People with Acquired Brain Injury to Use a Reminding App; Narrow-deep vs. Broad-shallow User Interfaces

  Matthew Jamieson, Marilyn Lennon, Breda Cullen, Stephen Brewster, Jonathan Evans · 2022 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study compares two contrasting user interface approaches for smartphone reminder apps used by people with acquired brain injury (ABI). "Broad-shallow" interfaces show lots of information on fewer screens (requiring scrolling), while "narrow-deep" interfaces present one…

  acquired brain injury · cognitive accessibility · user interface design · assistive technology · memory aids

• 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

• Supporting Older Adults in Locating Mobile Interface Features with Voice Input

  Ja Eun Yu, Debaleena Chattopadhyay · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents a voice assistant system built on Android that helps older adults locate specific features on complex mobile interfaces by speaking natural language queries. The system addresses a well-documented challenge: older adults struggle to find…

  aging · mobile accessibility · voice interface · user interface design · assistive technology

• Screen Magnification for Office Applications

  Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok, IV Ramakrishnan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This demonstration paper presents MagPro, an interface augmentation for office productivity tools (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint) designed to reduce the excessive panning and zooming that screen-magnifier users with low vision must perform. The core problem is that office…

  low vision · screen magnification · assistive technology · workplace accessibility · user interface design

• See-Thru: Towards Minimally Obstructive Eye-Controlled Wheelchair Interfaces

  Corten Clemente Singer, Björn Hartmann · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents See-Thru, an eye-tracking interface for controlling power wheelchairs that replaces the conventional obstructive computer screen with a transparent wire-frame device containing spatially arranged LEDs. The fundamental problem with existing eye-controlled…

  eye tracking · eye-gaze control · power wheelchair · motor disability · assistive technology

• Preferred Appearance of Captions Generated by Automatic Speech Recognition for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Viewers

  Larwan Berke, Khaled Albusays, Matthew Seita, Matt Huenerfauth · 2019 · Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '19)

  This CHI 2019 Late-Breaking Work (6 pages) investigates a practical question that has received surprisingly little research: when Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is used to caption small-group meetings for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) viewers, how should those captions…

  captioning · deaf and hard of hearing · automatic speech recognition · user interface design · typography

• Adaptable User Interfaces for People with Autism: A Transportation Example

  Claudia De Los Rios Perez · 2018 · Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents early-stage research into developing an accessibility framework for adaptable user interfaces tailored to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), using public transportation as the application domain. The author argues that while computer…

  autism · adaptive user interface · transportation accessibility · ontology · semantic web

• Effects of Virtual Reality Properties on User Experience of Individuals with Autism

  Lal "Lila" Bozgeyikli, Evren Bozgeyikli, Andrew Raij, Redwan Alqasemi, Srinivas Katkoori, Rajiv Dubey · 2018 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study systematically examines how five virtual reality user interface attributes affect the experience of high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). The research addresses a critical gap in VR design guidelines for autistic users, particularly in…

  autism spectrum disorder · virtual reality · user interface design · vocational training · user experience

• A Tool for Capturing Essential Preferences

  Dana Ayotte, Michelle Brennan, Nancy Frishberg, Cynthia Jimes, Lisa Petrides, Whitney Quesenbery, Madeleine Rothberg, Rich Schwerdtfeger, Jim Tobias, Jutta Treviranus, Shari Trewin, Gregg C. Vanderheiden · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This demonstration paper presents the First Discovery Tool, a multimodal web-based application designed to help people discover and set essential accessibility preferences — such as large fonts, high contrast, speech output, or one-handed keyboard use — to address major…

  personalization · accessibility tools · aging · education · inclusive design

• Design Recommendations for TV User Interfaces for Older Adults: Findings from the eCAALYX Project

  Francisco Nunes, Maureen Kerwin, Paula Alexandra Silva · 2012 · Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012)

  This paper presents thirteen design recommendations for TV-based user interfaces for older adults, derived from the eCAALYX (Enhanced Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment) project. eCAALYX is a European health monitoring system that uses a TV and set-top box to help older…

  older adults · interactive television · user interface design · design guidelines · ambient assisted living

• Accessibility at Early Stages: Insights from the Designer Perspective

  Adriana Martín, Alejandra Cechich, Gustavo Rossi · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper addresses a fundamental imbalance in web accessibility practice: while many tools exist to help developers evaluate accessibility after implementation, very few support designers in building accessibility into web applications from the start. The authors propose a…

  accessible design · software engineering · aspect-oriented design · web engineering · model-driven development

• Accessible Icon Design in Enterprise Applications

  Eric Stilan, Amy Chen, Lulit Bezuayehu · 2011 · Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from Oracle's design team presents case studies of designing accessible icons for enterprise software, focusing on the challenge of conveying complex meanings — conditional status, severity levels, data trends — within 16x16 pixel icons without relying on color as the…

  visual design · color contrast · color blindness · accessible design · user interface design

• Spindex (Speech Index) Improves Auditory Menu Acceptance and Navigation Performance

  Myounghoon Jeon, Bruce N. Walker · 2011 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper introduces the "spindex" (speech index), a novel auditory cue designed to improve navigation through spoken menus on mobile devices. The spindex works by pronouncing the first letter of each menu item before the full text-to-speech (TTS) rendering—analogous to the…

  auditory interfaces · mobile accessibility · text-to-speech · screen readers · user interface design

• Developing Accessible TV Applications

  José Coelho, Carlos Duarte, Pradipta Biswas, Patrick Langdon · 2011 · The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper describes the GUIDE (Gentle User Interfaces for Elderly People) framework for developing accessible TV applications through multimodal interaction, user interface adaptation, and impairment simulation. The research combines a survey of 46 elderly participants (ages…

  aging · multimedia accessibility · multimodal interaction · adaptive systems · personalization

• Mining Web Interactions to Automatically Create Mash-Ups

  Jeffrey P. Bigham, Ryan S. Kaminsky, Jeffrey Nichols · 2009 · Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2009)

  This paper introduces TX2, a Firefox browser extension that automatically creates meta-search mash-ups by mining the web interactions of multiple users to discover relationships between query forms on different websites. The deep web — information accessible only through web…

  web accessibility · web development · information retrieval · end-user programming · personalization

• Lessons from an evaluation of a domestic well-being indicator system

  Nubia M. Gil · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This short paper presents an evaluation of a domestic well-being indicator system designed to present sensor-collected data from older people's homes through two distinct user interfaces — one for the older person and one for their carer. The system tracks well-being indicators…

  aging · telecare · well-being monitoring · older adults · caregiving

• PhotoTacs: An Image-Based Cell Phone Interface

  Michael J. Astrauskas · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper presents PhotoTacs, a simplified image-based cell phone interface designed to help people with cognitive or visual impairments navigate their phone contacts and make calls. The author begins by identifying the core problem: as cellular phones gained features, their…

  cognitive accessibility · mobile accessibility · assistive technology · visual impairment · user interface design

• Hover or Tap? Supporting Pen-based Menu Navigation for Older Adults

  Karyn Moffatt, Sandra Yuen, Joanna McGrenere · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper investigates "drifting" — an error specific to pen-based (Tablet PC) interaction where users accidentally hover over an adjacent menu head, causing their intended menu to close and the wrong one to open. This occurs because inductive pen technology tracks the pen…

  aging · input methods · touchscreen accessibility · inclusive design · user interface design

• WISE: A Wizard Interface Supporting Enhanced Usability

  Joshua M. Hailpern · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06)

  This poster paper from Carnegie Mellon University presents WISE (Wizard Interface Supporting Enhanced usability), an alternative operating system and application UI specifically designed to address the cognitive deficits of older adults (60+) rather than just physical…

  older adults · cognitive accessibility · age-friendly design · linear interaction · cognitive decline

• Designing Search Engine User Interfaces for the Visually Impaired

  Barbara Leporini, Patrizia Andronico, Marina Buzzi · 2004 · Proceedings of the 2004 International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper examines the fundamental differences between visual and aural perception of search engine interfaces and proposes specific design guidelines to improve usability for blind and visually impaired users interacting via screen readers. The authors from the Italian…

  visual impairment · screen readers · search engines · user interface design · web navigation

• Strategic Design for Users with Diabetic Retinopathy: Factors Influencing Performance in a Menu-Selection Task

  Paula J. Edwards, Leon Barnard, V. Kathlene Emery, Ji Soo Yi, Kevin P. Moloney, Thitima Kongnakorn, Julie A. Jacko, François Sainfort, Pamela R. Oliver, Joseph Pizzimenti, Annette Bade, Greg Fecho, Josephine Shallo-Hoffmann · 2004 · Proceedings of the 6th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets 04)

  This paper examines how interface design features affect menu selection performance for users with Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), a progressive eye condition affecting 40-45% of the approximately 18 million Americans with diabetes. The study involved 25 volunteers from Nova…

  diabetic retinopathy · low vision · visual impairment · multimodal feedback · menu design

• A Framework of Assistive Pointers for Low Vision Users

  Julie Fraser, Carl Gutwin · 2000 · Proceedings of the Fourth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '00)

  This paper from the University of Saskatchewan proposes a four-dimensional framework for systematically exploring the design space of assistive mouse pointers for low vision computer users. The authors argue that while various pointer assistance techniques exist — such as…

  low vision · mouse pointer · cursor movement · screen magnification · design frameworks

• Designing Interfaces for an Overlooked User Group: Considering the Visual Profiles of Partially Sighted Users

  Julie A. Jacko, Andrew Sears · 1998 · Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '98)

  This position paper argues that partially sighted computer users represent a critically underserved population in interface design research. The authors identify a gap between two groups that have received significant attention — fully sighted users and totally blind users —…

  low vision · visual impairment · partial vision · visual profile · graphical user interface accessibility