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• Toward Fairness in AI for People with Disabilities: A Research Roadmap

  Anhong Guo, Ece Kamar, Jennifer Wortman Vaughan, Hanna Wallach, Meredith Ringel Morris · 2020 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing

  This position paper from Microsoft Research presents a systematic risk assessment of how major categories of AI systems may fail or discriminate against people with disabilities, proposing a four-point research roadmap for increasing AI fairness. The authors organize their…

  AI fairness · algorithmic bias · disability · computer vision · speech recognition

• What Is the Point of Fairness? Disability, AI and the Complexity of Justice

  Cynthia L. Bennett, Os Keyes · 2020 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing

  This paper offers a critical disability studies challenge to the dominant "fairness" framing of AI ethics, arguing that fairness is insufficient and potentially harmful when applied to disability, and that justice must be centred instead. Drawing on Anna Lauren Hoffmann's…

  AI fairness · disability justice · critical disability studies · computer vision · autism diagnosis

• Game Changer: Accessible Audio and Tactile Guidance for Board and Card Games

  Gabriella M. Johnson, Shaun K. Kane · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents Game Changer, an augmented workspace system that makes board and card games accessible to blind and visually impaired (BVI) players through a combination of audio descriptions and tactile modifications. The system uses an overhead webcam to track ArUco…

  game accessibility · blind and low vision · board games · tangible interaction · audio description

• Indoor Localization for Visually Impaired Travelers Using Computer Vision on a Smartphone

  Giovanni Fusco, James M. Coughlan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a computer vision-based indoor localization system that runs as a real-time app on a conventional iPhone, designed to help blind and visually impaired travelers navigate indoor spaces where GPS is unavailable. The system combines several technologies into a…

  indoor navigation · wayfinding · computer vision · visual impairment · blindness

• A Saliency-Driven Video Magnifier for People with Low Vision

  Ali Selman Aydin, Shirin Feiz, Vikas Ashok, I V Ramakrishnan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents SViM (Saliency-driven Video Magnifier), a system that uses deep learning-based visual saliency prediction to automatically guide screen magnification to the most important regions of a video for people with low vision. Screen magnifiers are the…

  low vision · screen magnifier · video accessibility · computer vision · deep learning

• Exploring Collection of Sign Language Datasets: Privacy, Participation, and Model Performance

  Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Naomi Caselli, William Thies · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper tackles a fundamental tension in building machine learning systems for marginalized communities: the need for large training datasets versus the privacy risks of collecting data from small, identifiable populations. The authors focus on sign language video collection,…

  sign language · privacy · machine learning · data collection · Deaf culture

• Eyelid Gestures on Mobile Devices for People with Motor Impairments

  Mingming Fan, Zhen Li, Franklin Mingzhe Li · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents a novel approach to mobile device interaction for people with severe motor impairments: using eyelid gestures detected by the smartphone's front-facing camera. While existing eye-based interaction research has primarily focused on gaze direction and simple…

  motor accessibility · mobile accessibility · input methods · gesture interaction · eye tracking

• Visual Content Considered Private by People Who are Blind

  Abigale Stangl, Kristina Shiroma, Bo Xie, Kenneth R. Fleischmann, Danna Gurari · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents the first empirical study investigating what types of visual content people who are blind consider private, in the context of their use of Visual Interpreters or Description Services (VIDS) — services like Seeing AI, Aira, Be My Eyes, and TapTapSee that…

  visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · privacy · computer vision · artificial intelligence

• Privacy Considerations of the Visually Impaired with Camera Based Assistive Technologies: Misrepresentation, Impropriety, and Fairness

  Taslima Akter, Tousif Ahmed, Apu Kapadia, Swami Manohar Swaminathan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper investigates the privacy concerns of both visually impaired people (PVIs) and sighted bystanders regarding camera-based assistive technologies like smart glasses (Orcam, Aira, eSight) that can identify people and provide demographic and behavioral information about…

  visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · privacy · AI bias · AI fairness

• AIGuide: An Augmented Reality Hand Guidance Application for People with Visual Impairments

  Nelson Daniel Troncoso Aldas, Sooyeon Lee, Chonghan Lee, Mary Beth Rosson, John M. Carroll, Vijaykrishnan Narayanan · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents AIGuide, a self-contained offline iOS smartphone application that uses augmented reality (ARKit) to help people with visual impairments locate, navigate to, and pick up objects in their surroundings. Unlike existing object detection apps (Seeing AI, Aipoly)…

  visual accessibility · augmented reality · blindness and low vision · mobile accessibility · computer vision

• Designing and Evaluating Head-based Pointing on Smartphones for People with Motor Impairments

  Muratcan Cicek, Ankit Dave, Wenxin Feng, Michael Xuelin Huang, Julia Katherine Haines, Jeffry Nichols · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '20)

  This paper presents a calibration-free head-based pointing (HBP) system for Android smartphones that uses the standard front-facing camera to enable people with motor impairments to control an on-screen cursor through head movements. The system was designed by a team including…

  motor accessibility · head tracking · alternative input · mobile accessibility · Fitts law

• Computer Vision-based Methodology to Support AAC

  Rúbia Eliza de Oliveira Schultz Ascari, Roberto Pereira, Luciano Silva · 2020 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents a methodology for supporting augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) through personalized gestural interaction using computer vision and machine learning. The authors developed the PGCA (Personal Gesture Communication Assistant) system, which enables…

  AAC · augmentative and alternative communication · computer vision · machine learning · gesture recognition

• Twitter A11y: A Browser Extension to Make Twitter Images Accessible

  Cole Gleason, Amy Pavel, Emma McCamey, Christina Low, Patrick Carrington, Kris M. Kitani, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2020 · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper presents Twitter A11y, a browser extension designed to address the widespread lack of alternative text on images posted to Twitter. The authors note that while around 12% of Twitter content consists of images, only 0.1% of those images include user-provided alt text,…

  social media accessibility · alternative text · screen readers · image accessibility · optical character recognition

• ReCog: Supporting Blind People in Recognizing Personal Objects

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Daisuke Sato, Uran Oh, Tatsuya Ishihara, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2020 · Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  ReCog is a smartphone application designed to help blind users recognize their own personal objects — items like specific clothing, handmade goods, medicines, or family photos that cannot be identified by general-purpose recognizers such as Seeing AI or TapTapSee. The authors…

  visual impairment · blindness · object recognition · computer vision · deep learning

• Tradeoffs in the Efficient Detection of Sign Language Content in Video Sharing Sites

  Caio D. D. Monteiro, Frank M. Shipman, Satyakiran Duggina, Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna · 2019 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper addresses the problem of finding sign language (SL) content on video sharing sites like YouTube, where such videos serve as de-facto digital libraries of Deaf community knowledge, experiences, and culture. Metadata-based search is inadequate — prior work showed only…

  sign language · video analysis · content detection · deaf and hard of hearing · computer vision

• Write-it-Yourself: Empowering Blind People to Independently Fill-out Paper Forms

  Syed Masum Billah, Shirin Feiz, Vikas Ashok, Roy Shilkrot, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper introduces WiYG (Write-it-Yourself Guide), a system that enables blind people to independently fill out printed paper forms such as bank checks, consent forms, and restaurant receipts — a task that has until now been impossible without sighted…

  blindness · assistive technology · computer vision · 3D printing · writing assistance

• Feel-It: Personalized Audio-Tactile Web Browsing

  Anatoliy Borodin, Yevgen Borodin, Andrii Soviak, Vikas Ashok, Shirin Disfani, I. V. Ramakrishnan · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents Feel-It, a hardware-software system for audio-tactile web browsing that enables blind users to explore the two-dimensional spatial layout of web pages through touch. The core problem addressed is that screen readers reduce web pages to a…

  blindness · haptic feedback · tactile display · web browsing · screen reader

• Combining Semantic Tools for Automatic Evaluation of Alternative Texts

  Carlos Duarte, Carlos M. Duarte, Luís Carriço · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents SCREW v2, an updated algorithm for automatically assessing the quality of alternative texts for images on web pages from an accessibility perspective. The work is motivated by the EU Directive 2016/2102, which requires monitoring the accessibility of public…

  alternative text · automated accessibility testing · image accessibility · semantic analysis · computer vision

• Revisiting Blind Photography in the Context of Teachable Object Recognizers

  Kyungjun Lee, Jonggi Hong, Simone Pimento, Ebrima Jarjue, Hernisa Kacorri · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper introduces a real-time audio-haptic feedback system to help people with visual impairments frame objects in their smartphone camera when training teachable object recognizers. The challenge is that teachable recognizers — which let users train personalized models to…

  blind photography · teachable object recognizer · computer vision · deep learning · visual impairment

• Supporting Older Adults in Using Complex User Interfaces with Augmented Reality

  Junhan Kong, Anhong Guo, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents an augmented reality system that provides step-by-step visual guidance to help older adults navigate complex user interfaces. The core problem is that older adults frequently struggle with complex digital interfaces — from self-service kiosks…

  older adults · aging · augmented reality · cognitive support · user interface

• Closing the Gap: Designing for the Last-Few-Meters Wayfinding Problem for People with Visual Impairments

  Manaswi Saha, Alexander J. Fiannaca, Melanie Kneisel, Edward Cutrell, Meredith Ringel Morris · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper comprehensively investigates the last-few-meters wayfinding problem — the gap between where GPS navigation ends (within approximately 5 meters of a destination) and where a person with visual impairment actually needs to arrive (the specific door, entrance, or…

  blindness · wayfinding · navigation · GPS · computer vision

• Sign Language Recognition, Generation, and Translation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

  Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Mary Bellard, Larwan Berke, Patrick Boudreault, Annelies Braffort, Naomi Caselli, Matt Huenerfauth, Hernisa Kacorri, Tessa Verhoef, Christian Vogler, Meredith Ringel Morris · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of sign language processing — encompassing recognition, generation, and translation — produced through a two-day workshop bringing together 39 experts from computer science, linguistics, Deaf studies, and industry.…

  sign language · Deaf culture · computer vision · natural language processing · machine translation

• Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery

  Galen Weld, Esther Jang, Anthony Li, Aileen Zeng, Kurtis Heimerl, Jon E. Froehlich · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents the first application of deep learning to automatically assess sidewalk accessibility from Google Street View (GSV) panoramas, addressing four types of accessibility problems: curb ramps, missing curb ramps, sidewalk obstructions, and surface problems.…

  computer vision · deep learning · sidewalk accessibility · curb ramps · crowdsourcing

• WatchOut: Obstacle Sonification for People with Visual Impairment or Blindness

  Giorgio Presti, Dragan Ahmetovic, Mattia Ducci, Cristian Bernareggi, Luca Ludovico, Adriano Baratè, Federico Avanzini, Sergio Mascetti · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents WatchOut, a sonification technique that conveys real-time information about obstacle characteristics to people who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) through non-verbal sound, enabling them to avoid obstacles while walking. The white cane, the primary…

  sonification · obstacle avoidance · blind · low vision · computer vision

• BrailleBlocks: Braille Toys for Cross-Ability Collaboration

  Vinitha Gadiraju · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This student research abstract presents BrailleBlocks, a tangible learning system designed to help blind or visually impaired children learn Braille collaboratively with their sighted parents. Braille literacy in the United States is critically low — less than 10% of blind…

  braille · blind · education · children · tangible interaction