Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group

  Figure 1: A virtual slide from Old Dominion University's GAAD 2025 event highlights "Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)" during a hybrid session on inclusive design. Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) , Old Dominion University Libraries successfully hosted " Accessible by Design: Creating Inclusive PDFs Using Adobe Acrobat" in collaboration with the recently established Employees with Disabilities Association ( EWDA ). Led by Dr. Brett Cook-Snell , this hybrid workshop brought together faculty, staff, and students both in person at Perry Library Room 1306 and online via Zoom for a thorough investigation of digital accessibility that went far beyond technical training to address fundamental questions about inclusion, ableism, and universal design. I attended the session virtually via Zoom, and in this blog post, I will share my firsthand experience and reflections. Since its launch in 2021 (Figure 2), when the first event was planne...

Figure 1:  An example of a Coyote ad on social media in Spanish. (Figure 1 in  Kodandaram et al. )   Introduction Social media has revolutionized how information flows, connecting people across the globe at an unprecedented scale. However, this same connectivity has made these platforms fertile ground for illicit activities, including human smuggling. This issue, though not immediately visible to most people, poses a severe humanitarian crisis. We explore in our paper published at the 35th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media 2024 titled " Unveiling Coyote Ads: Detecting Human Smuggling Advertisements on Social Media, " how traffickers exploit these platforms to lure vulnerable individuals, particularly those seeking better opportunities or fleeing dangerous situations. The study focuses on identifying and analyzing “ coyote ads, ” which are advertisements posted by human smugglers. Our goal was clear: to develop an effective detection mechanism that exposes thes...

  Figure: One participant shared his shopping experience using his smartphone. (Figure 1 in Liu et al .) Introduction The emergence of online shopping has transformed consumer behavior, providing unmatched convenience. For individuals with visual impairments, it is of paramount importance, offering autonomy and accessibility that conventional shopping frequently lacks. The study 'I Bought This for Me to Look More Ordinary': A Study of Blind People Doing Online Shopping by Guanhong Liu et al. explores the intricate practices, challenges, and aspirations of blind individuals in online shopping. The study published at the CHI 2019 conference underscores how the aspiration to seem " ordinary " profoundly influences shopping behaviors, illustrating a complex interaction among societal perceptions, accessibility obstacles, and individual strategies. This paper is particularly influential in my work as it effectively summarizes the challenges and motivations within this r...

Figure: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) banner Introduction Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is a time to reflect, celebrate, and renew our commitment to making sure everyone can access learning and information without physical or digital barriers. This special day highlights the progress and challenges in making digital spaces accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities.  Since 2021, Old Dominion University Libraries have celebrated GAAD with presentations from our Computer Science faculty. This year, ODU Libraries welcome guest speakers Timothy Hackman , dean of the University Libraries , Courtney Gipson, director of ODU’s Office of Educational Accessibility , and Vikas Ashok , Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science .Professor Ashok, who leads the Accessible Computing Lab at ODU, has 12 years of experience in accessible computing research. His lab focuses on making computing devices more accessible for people with visual dis...

  Figure 1: Example of AccessBolt with File Explorer application. (Figure 1 from Utku et al.) Introduction User interface (UI) automation is the process of programmatically controlling and testing the UI of applications. In our last blog on UI automation, we talk about the ideas of using it and walkthrough of these interesting tools using the Python programming language. The main purposes of UI automation are to simulate user interactions for testing, increase test coverage, and reduce repetitive manual testing. In this blog, we are going to talk about a recently published paper named “ Taming User-Interface Heterogeneity with Uniform Overlays for Blind Users, ” published at the UMAP 2022 conference, where Utku et al. explored how to improve the accessibility of desktop application interfaces for blind individuals who rely on screen readers . The paper introduces a novel system called AccessBolt that aims to make interacting with desktop software easier and more efficient using...