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• Towards Automated Accessibility Report Generation for Mobile Apps

  Amanda Swearngin, Jason Wu, Xiaoyi Zhang, Esteban Gomez, Jen Coughenour, Rachel Stukenborg, Bhavya Garg, Greg Hughes, Adriana Hilliard, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeffrey Nichols · 2024 · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

  This paper presents a system for automatically generating whole-app accessibility reports for mobile apps, addressing key limitations of existing accessibility scanning tools. The work begins with formative interviews with eight accessibility QA professionals at a large…

  automated testing · accessibility testing · mobile accessibility · app crawling · machine learning

• Snap&Nav: Smartphone-based Indoor Navigation System For Blind People via Floor Map Analysis and Intersection Detection

  Masaya Kubota, Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima · 2024 · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI)

  Snap&Nav is a smartphone-based indoor navigation system for blind travellers that works in any building with a visible floor map, without requiring the building owner to pre-build a digital map, install BLE beacons, or deploy any other localisation infrastructure. The authors…

  blindness and low vision · indoor navigation · wayfinding · map-less navigation · intersection detection

• ChitChatGuide: Conversational Interaction Using Large Language Models for Assisting People with Visual Impairments to Explore a Shopping Mall

  Yuka Kaniwa, Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima · 2024 · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI)

  ChitChatGuide is a smartphone-based indoor navigation system that wraps a GPT-4-powered conversational interface around an existing BLE-beacon localisation stack (HULOP) to support something most blind-navigation research overlooks: casual, purpose-less exploration — the blind…

  blindness and low vision · large language model · indoor navigation · wayfinding · conversational agent

• The State of Accessibility in Blackboard: Survey and User Reviews Case Study

  Wajdi Aljedaani, Mohammed Alkahtani, Stephanie Ludi, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Marcelo M. Eler, Marouane Kessentini, Ali Ouni · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates the accessibility of the Blackboard mobile app, one of the most widely used Learning Management Systems (LMS) in higher education, through a two-pronged methodology. First, the authors conducted a large-scale survey with 1,308 hearing students and 65 deaf…

  mobile accessibility · learning management systems · deaf and hard of hearing · education accessibility · user reviews

• On the independent and sustainable mobility of people with visual impairments

  Gabriele Galimberti · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A '23)

  This doctoral consortium extended abstract outlines a research project investigating the factors that enable or hinder independent mobility for people with blindness or visual impairments (BVI), with a particular focus on the link between mobility autonomy and environmental…

  visual impairment · blind and low vision · independent living · public transportation · navigation

• "I stepped into a puddle": Non-Visual Texting in Nomadic Contexts

  Pegah Karimi, Erin Brady, Aqueasha Martin-Hammond, Davide Bolchini · 2023 · Proceedings of the 20th International Web for All Conference (W4A '23)

  This study investigates the under-explored practice of texting by people who are blind and visually impaired (BVI) while navigating outdoors — what the authors term "nomadic contexts." While previous research has examined accessible text entry methods (screen readers, speech…

  blind and low vision · text entry · mobile accessibility · navigation · assistive technology

• Understanding Personalized Accessibility through Teachable AI: Designing and Evaluating Find My Things for People who are Blind or Low Vision

  Cecily Morrison, Martin Grayson, Rita Faia Marques, Daniela Massiceti, Camilla Longden, Linda Wen, Edward Cutrell · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '23)

  This paper from Microsoft Research presents Find My Things, one of the first fully realized end-to-end teachable AI applications for accessibility. The app allows people who are blind or low vision to teach their phone to recognize personal objects — keys, earbuds, lip balm,…

  teachable AI · object recognition · blind and low vision · personalization · few-shot learning

• AdaptiveSound: An Interactive Feedback-Loop System to Improve Sound Recognition for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

  Hang Do, Quan Dang, Jeremy Zhengqi Huang, Dhruv Jain · 2023 · ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces AdaptiveSound, the first feedback-loop sound recognition system designed for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) users. Sound recognition tools help DHH people become aware of environmental sounds ranging from safety-critical alerts like fire alarms and sirens…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sound recognition · human-in-the-loop · machine learning · incremental learning

• "I just thought it was me": How Smartphones Fail Users with Mild-to-Moderate Dexterity Differences

  Molly Bowman, Jerry Robinson, Erin Buehler, Shaun Kane · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023)

  This paper examines the smartphone experiences of people with mild-to-moderate dexterity (MMD) challenges — a population largely overlooked by accessibility research that tends to focus on more severe motor disabilities requiring specialized assistive technology like switches.…

  motor disability · dexterity · mobile accessibility · smartphones · touch screen

• Never-ending Learning of User Interfaces

  Jason Wu, Rebecca Krosnick, Eldon Schoop, Amanda Swearngin, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Jeffrey Nichols · 2023 · Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)

  This paper introduces the Never-ending UI Learner, an automated system that continuously crawls real mobile applications to learn semantic properties of user interfaces. The system addresses a fundamental limitation of current approaches to UI understanding: most machine…

  machine learning · mobile accessibility · UI semantics · automated crawling · tappability

• WebUI: A Dataset for Enhancing Visual UI Understanding with Web Semantics

  Jason Wu, Siyan Wang, Siman Shen, Yi-Hao Peng, Jeffrey Nichols, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2023 · Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper introduces WebUI, a large-scale dataset of approximately 400,000 web pages automatically crawled and paired with visual, semantic, and stylistic metadata extracted from the browser engine. The dataset addresses a critical bottleneck in UI understanding research:…

  machine learning · computer vision · UI modeling · web semantics · transfer learning

• Understanding the Touchscreen-based Nonvisual Target Acquisition Task Performance of Screen Reader Users

  Hwayeon Joh, Yun Jung Lee, Uran Oh · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2022)

  This study investigates how screen reader users find and select targets on a smartphone touchscreen without visual cues, examining the effects of screen size, target size, and the ratio between them. Twelve participants with visual impairments (three totally blind, three with…

  touchscreen · screen readers · target acquisition · mobile accessibility · visual impairment

• Where Are You Taking Me? Reflections from Observing Ridesharing Use By People with Visual Impairments

  Earl W. Huff Jr., Robin N. Brewer, Julian Brinkley · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper presents a methodological case study of conducting quasi-naturalistic observations of 17 blind or visually impaired participants using the Uber ridesharing service. Rather than reporting substantive findings about ridesharing accessibility (which are reserved for a…

  visual impairment · ridesharing · transportation accessibility · observation study · mobile accessibility

• Designing Gestures for Digital Musical Instruments: Gesture Elicitation Study with Deaf and Hard of Hearing People

  Ryo Iijima, Akihisa Shitara, Yoichi Ochiai · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This study addresses a gap in how deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people can enjoy playing musical instruments using smartphones. While DHH people can and do enjoy music — often sensing it through vibrations transmitted by instruments or through body movements while performing —…

  deaf and hard of hearing · music accessibility · gesture elicitation · digital musical instruments · haptic feedback

• Blind Users Accessing Their Training Images in Teachable Object Recognizers

  Jonggi Hong, Jaina Gandhi, Ernest Essuah Mensah, Farnaz Zamiri Azar, Kyungjun Lee, Hernisa Kacorri · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper introduces MYCam, an open-source iOS testbed application designed to help blind users build and improve personalized object recognizers. While teachable object recognizers allow users to train custom models by taking photos of objects they want to recognize, blind…

  teachable AI · object recognition · blind users · machine learning · camera interaction

• "I Used To Carry A Wallet, Now I Just Need To Carry My Phone": Understanding Current Banking Practices and Challenges Among Older Adults in China

  Xiaofu Jin, Mingming Fan · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper investigates how older adults in China navigate the rapidly shifting landscape from physical to digital banking, examining their practices, motivations for learning, and the challenges they encounter. China provides a particularly compelling context: it has the…

  older adults · digital banking · mobile accessibility · digital equity · financial accessibility

• Lessons Learned from Designing, Deploying and Testing an Accessible BLE Beacon-based Wayfinding System in a Multi-Floor Indoor Environment

  Ajay Abraham · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

  This paper documents the practical guidelines and design decisions involved in deploying a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon-based indoor wayfinding system in a three-story college campus building. The system builds on GuideBeacon, a previously developed proximity-based indoor…

  indoor navigation · wayfinding · BLE beacon · blind and low vision · mobile accessibility

• Automatically Generating and Improving Voice Command Interface from Operation Sequences on Smartphones

  Lihang Pan, Chun Yu, JiaHui Li, Tian Huang, Xiaojun Bi, Yuanchun Shi · 2022 · Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper presents AutoVCI, a system that automatically generates voice command interfaces (VCIs) for smartphone tasks from recorded touch operation sequences, enabling hands-free and eyes-free interaction without requiring programming expertise, corpora, or hand-written rules.…

  voice command interface · mobile accessibility · speech recognition · natural language understanding · programming by demonstration

• Ally: Understanding Text Messaging to Build a Better Onscreen Keyboard for Blind People

  Danielle Lottridge, Chris Yoon, Darren Burton, Chester Wang, Jofish Kaye · 2022 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This research presents Ally, a smartphone onscreen keyboard designed specifically for blind users who need to enter text messages when voice input or external keyboards are unavailable. The authors recognized that blind smartphone users employ heterogeneous input methods—voice…

  blindness · text entry · mobile accessibility · keyboard design · VoiceOver

• Scribe: Improving Older Adults' Access to Medical Instructions from Patient-Physician Conversations

  Hilda Karimi, Jasprabhjit Bora, Martin Hammond · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This paper presents Scribe, a mobile prototype designed to help older adults access, organize, and recall medical information shared during doctor's visits. The research addresses a significant accessibility challenge: older patients, particularly those managing multiple chronic…

  older adults · health informatics · patient-physician communication · mobile accessibility · assistive technology

• WordMelodies: an Inclusive Mobile App Supporting the Acquisition of Literacy Skills

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, Irene Mantegazza, Sergio Mascetti · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This paper presents WordMelodies, a cross-platform mobile edutainment application designed for inclusive literacy education for primary school children with and without visual impairments or blindness (VIB). The app was motivated by a teacher of children with VIB in the USA who…

  visual impairment · education accessibility · mobile accessibility · inclusive design · screen readers

• MusA: Artwork Accessibility through Augmented Reality for People with Low Vision

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, Kristian Keller, Sergio Mascetti · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents MusA (Museo Accessibile), an iOS mobile application that uses augmented reality to make 2D visual artworks in museums accessible to people with low vision. The research addresses the persistent problem that people with visual impairments rarely visit museums,…

  low vision · augmented reality · museum accessibility · art accessibility · mobile accessibility

• Multi-touch Exploration and Sonification of Line Segments

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Cristian Bernareggi, Sergio Mascetti, Federico Pini · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents SoundLines, a mobile app designed to help children with visual impairments develop spatial exploration skills through touchscreen interaction coupled with audio (sonification) feedback. The app is structured as a game where a kitten must be guided to find its…

  visual impairment · sonification · spatial cognition · mobile accessibility · tactile accessibility

• When Can Accessibility Help? An Exploration of Accessibility Feature Recommendation on Mobile Devices

  Jason Wu, Gabriel Reyes, Sam C. White, Xiaoyi Zhang, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2021 · Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper tackles a significant gap in mobile accessibility: while smartphone operating systems now include dozens of built-in accessibility features — from screen readers and magnifiers to caption support and touch accommodations — most users are unaware these features exist…

  mobile accessibility · accessibility features · older adults · recommender systems · feature discovery

• Auditory feedback to compensate audible instructions to support people with visual impairment

  Gabriele Galimberti · 2021 · ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This doctoral consortium extended abstract addresses a practical challenge faced by people with visual impairments who rely on auditory feedback from mobile devices: background noise in real-world mobility contexts can mask device audio output, degrading the information it…

  visual impairment · auditory feedback · sonification · mobile accessibility · navigation