Introduction to the Special Issue on ASSETS’21

I am pleased to present three articles that are extended versions of conference papers presented at the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS’21). Authors of accepted full papers were invited to submit a proposal of an extended version to be submitted to TACCESS, of which a subset submitted a manuscript for consideration. All papers submitted underwent a full review process for ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS). The guest editor for this issue is João Guerreiro (LASIGE, University of Lisbon, Portugal). The guest editor thanks the authors for their excellent submissions and also thanks all of the journal reviewers who contributed their time and expertise to this process. The first article, “The Design and Prototyping of an App to Teach Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Empower Them Against Abuse” presents the design and prototyping of Recognize, an app that empowers adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to independently learn about abuse. The findings suggest Recognize as a viable solution, and the authors discuss the implications for the deployment of future versions of Recognize or similar applications. The second article, “Understanding the Usages, Life-Cycle, and Opportunities of Screen Readers’ Plugins” investigates the usage of screen reader plugins, focusing on why and how these plugins are used. The findings showcase a variety of reasons for using plugins, as well as challenges and opportunities – e.g., the authors recommend a plugin-based distribution model, benefiting from a community-driven repository. The third article, “How the Alt Text Gets Made: What Roles and Processes of Alt Text Creation Can Teach Us About Inclusive Imagery” presents a study of image accessibility production practices in a company. The findings provide insights into four different types of alt-text production processes. The authors discuss its implications for future research and changes to production processes.