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• Characterizing Visual Intents for People with Low Vision through Eye Tracking

  Ru Wang, Ruijia Chen, Anqiao Erica Cai, Zhiyuan Li, Sanbrita Mondal, Yuhang Zhao · 2025 · Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2025)

  This study investigates how people with low vision use their gaze when viewing images, with the goal of understanding their visual intents — the immediate, in-the-moment goals behind their eye movements. While assistive technologies like magnifiers and contrast enhancement exist…

  low vision · eye tracking · visual intent · gaze behavior · assistive technology

• 30 Years of Solving the Wrong Problem: How Recolouring Tool Design Fails those with Colour Vision Deficiency

  Connor Geddes, David R. Flatla, Ciabhan L. Connelly · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)

  This paper critically examines three decades of research into recolouring tools — colour filters and daltonization algorithms designed to help people with Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) differentiate colours — and finds that these tools fundamentally misunderstand how people…

  colour vision deficiency · colour blindness · recolouring · colour filters · daltonization

• How and Why We Run: Investigating the Experiences of Blind and Visually-Impaired Runners

  Sidas Saulynas, Mei-Lian Vader, Apoorva Bendigeri, Tristan King, Anirudh Nagraj, Ravi Kuber · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This qualitative study investigates the running experiences of 13 legally blind individuals in the United States, exploring where and how they run, what assistance they use, the challenges they face, and how technology could better support them. Participants ranged from casual…

  blindness · visual impairment · physical activity · assistive technology · wearable technology

• From the Lab to People's Home: Lessons from Accessing Blind Participants' Interactions via Smart Glasses in Remote Studies

  Kyungjun Lee, Jonggi Hong, Ebrima Jarjue, Ernest Essuah Mensah, Hernisa Kacorri · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Maryland explores using smart glasses as an observational tool in remote usability studies with blind participants. The COVID-19 pandemic forced accessibility researchers to shift from in-person to remote methods, but standard remote setups —…

  blindness and low vision · smart glasses · remote usability testing · user research · assistive technology

• Anticipate and Adjust: Cultivating Access in Human-Centered Methods

  Kelly Mack, Emma McDonnell, Venkatesh Potluri, Maggie Xu, Jailyn Zabala, Jeffrey Bigham, Jennifer Mankoff, Cynthia Bennett · 2022 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper investigates how accessibility experts make human-centered research methods accessible for both disabled participants and disabled facilitators. Through 17 interviews with US and Canadian accessibility experts (13 researchers and 4 community organizers, 14 of whom…

  research methods · accessibility · disability · participatory design · user research

• Understanding Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users' Interest in Sign-Language Interaction with Personal-Assistant Devices

  Abraham Glasser, Vaishnavi Mande, Matt Huenerfauth · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This mixed-methods study investigates Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) users' experiences with and interest in personal-assistant devices (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) that could understand American Sign Language (ASL) commands. The research was motivated by the growing…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sign language · personal assistants · voice interface · smart home

• Caption-Occlusion Severity Judgments across Live-Television Genres from Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Viewers

  Akhter Al Amin, Saad Hassan, Matt Huenerfauth · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This paper addresses a largely overlooked dimension of caption quality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) viewers: the problem of captions occluding important onscreen visual content during live television broadcasts. While existing caption quality metrics focus primarily on…

  deaf and hard of hearing · captions · television accessibility · caption placement · media accessibility

• "It is fascinating to make these beasts fly": Understanding Visually Impaired People's Motivations and Needs for Drone Piloting

  Vinitha Gadiraju, Sanika Moharana, Aisha Azhar, Kimberley Gans, Shane T. Mueller, Jenna L. Gorlewicz · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This paper investigates the motivations, interests, and accessibility needs of blind and visually impaired (BVI) people regarding drone piloting. While drones have been explored as assistive tools for BVI users — helping with navigation, obstacle detection, and environment…

  visual impairment · blindness · drones · assistive technology · accessible interaction

• Lost in Translation: Challenges and Barriers to Sign Language-Accessible User Research

  Amelie Unger, Dieter P. Wallach, Nicole Jochems · 2021 · Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

  This experience report describes the challenges hearing researchers face when conducting user research with sign language (SL) users, based on the authors' experience running remote focus groups with German Sign Language (GSL) users as part of the AVASAG project — which is…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sign language · user research · focus groups · language accessibility

• Investigating Best Practices for Remote Summative Usability Testing with People with Mild to Moderate Dementia

  Rachel Wood, Emma Dixon, Salma Elsayed-Ali, Ekta Shokeen, Amanda Lazar, Jonathan Lazar · 2021 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This study is the first to examine best practices for conducting remote summative usability testing with people who have mild to moderate dementia, independent of their caregivers. The research included 15 participants (5 pilot, 10 main study) with an average age of 64,…

  dementia · usability testing · remote research · cognitive accessibility · older adults

• Deaf and hard-of-hearing users’ prioritization of genres of online video content requiring accurate captions

  Larwan Berke, Matthew Seita, Matt Huenerfauth · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates which genres of online video content Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) users consider most important to have accurately captioned. With over 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and no U.S. legal mandate to caption all online video (especially…

  deaf and hard of hearing · captioning · video accessibility · automatic speech recognition · user research

• Deaf Individuals' Views on Speaking Behaviors of Hearing Peers when Using an Automatic Captioning App

  Matthew Seita, Matt Huenerfauth · 2020 · Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '20)

  This CHI 2020 Late-Breaking Work paper investigates what behaviors hearing speakers should ideally exhibit when holding in-person conversations with Deaf or deaf people using an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) captioning app on a mobile device. The authors position the study…

  automatic speech recognition · deaf and hard of hearing · captioning · captions · speaking behavior

• Home Automation for an Independent Living: Investigating the Needs of Visually Impaired People

  Barbara Leporini, Marina Buzzi · 2018 · Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This paper investigates the habits, expectations, and unmet needs of visually impaired people regarding home automation and remote control systems through an online survey of 42 participants (32 totally blind, 10 low vision; ages 18-70+; 64.3% male) and face-to-face interviews…

  smart home · blind · visual impairment · Internet of Things · independent living

• "I knew that, I was just testing you": Understanding Older Adults' Impression Management Tactics During Usability Studies

  Rachel L. Franz, Ron Baecker, Khai N. Truong · 2018 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper investigates how older adults (65+) engage in impression management (IM) during usability studies—conscious or unconscious behaviors to present themselves favorably to researchers. While IM is known to affect research validity, its specific manifestations in…

  older adults · aging · usability testing · research methodology · user research

• Understanding Accessibility as a Process through the Analysis of Feedback from Disabled Students

  Tim Coughlan, Thomas Daniel Ullmann, Kate Lister · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from The Open University UK analyzes over 6,000 open comment feedback responses from disabled students (out of 93,148 total responses) to argue that accessibility must be understood as an ongoing process rather than a state achieved through technical guideline…

  education accessibility · disability · organizational accessibility · distance learning · accessibility theory

• 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

• Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Perspectives on Imperfect Automatic Speech Recognition for Captioning One-on-One Meetings

  Larwan Berke, Christopher Caulfield, Matt Huenerfauth · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper investigates whether and how to display word-level confidence information from Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems in real-time captions for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) users during one-on-one meetings with hearing people. ASR engines assign confidence…

  deaf accessibility · automatic speech recognition · captioning · communication · user research

• Opinions and Preferences of Blind and Low Vision Consumers Regarding Self-Driving Vehicles: Results of Focus Group Discussions

  Julian Brinkley, Brianna Posadas, Julia Woodward, Juan E. Gilbert · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This paper explores the opinions, concerns, and preferences of 38 blind and low vision participants regarding self-driving vehicle technology through eight focus group sessions conducted over two days in north central Florida. Participants had a mean age of 51.5 (range 18-90),…

  blindness · low vision · autonomous vehicles · accessible transportation · mobility

• Using data from social media websites to inspire the design of assistive technology

  Xing Yu · 2016 · Proceedings of the 13th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This doctoral consortium paper proposes using social media data as a low-cost, scalable method to inform the design of assistive technology, addressing limitations of traditional user research approaches. The author argues that designing assistive technology faces unique…

  assistive technology · social media · natural language processing · machine learning · prosthetics

• 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

• How People with Low Vision Access Computing Devices: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities

  Sarit Felicia Anais Szpiro, Shafeka Hashash, Yuhang Zhao, Shiri Azenkot · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper presents a contextual inquiry study examining how 11 people with low vision use mainstream computing devices (smartphones, tablets, and computers) to perform common tasks like reading email and browsing news. Low vision affects at least 3.3 million Americans over 40,…

  low vision · screen magnification · visual impairment · mobile accessibility · usability

• Blind Photographers and VizSnap: A Long-Term Study

  Dustin Adams, Sri Kurniawan, Cynthia Herrera, Veronica Kang, Natalie Friedman · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper reports on a two-month longitudinal study with 13 blind participants (ages 18-65, nine totally blind and two with some light perception, seven adventitiously and six congenitally blind) using VizSnap, a free iPhone app designed to help blind people organize and browse…

  blindness · photography · mobile accessibility · social media · iPhone

• 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

• Supporting Orientation of People with Visual Impairment: Analysis of Large Scale Usage Data

  Hernisa Kacorri, Sergio Mascetti, Andrea Gerino, Dragan Ahmetovic, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper analyzes large-scale remote usage data from iMove, an iOS GPS-based orientation app for people with visual impairments, to understand how users interact with assistive navigation technology in real-world conditions. Traditional assistive technology user studies are…

  visual impairment · blindness · navigation · orientation and mobility · mobile accessibility

• A Personalizable Mobile Sound Detector App Design for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users

  Danielle Bragg, Nicholas Huynh, Richard E. Ladner · 2016 · Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '16)

  This paper presents the design and evaluation of a personalizable mobile phone app that detects sounds of interest to deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) users by learning from training examples recorded by the user themselves. Unlike existing commercial sound detection products —…

  deaf and hard of hearing · mobile accessibility · machine learning · sound detection · personalization