Automatic switching between speech and non-speech: adaptive auditory feedback in desktop assistance for the visually impaired

Abstract

Continual enrichments in auditory interfaces of desktop applications allow visually impaired people to successfully use computers in education, employment, and social interaction. Designers face multiple challenges while producing sound for auditory interfaces. This paper presents a new method of adaptive auditory feedback, which converts speech-only instructions to non-speech (i.e., spearcons), based on users’ interaction with the application in the desktop environment. Using within-subject design, fifteen participants (i.e., visually impaired) were involved in the study. Results from the study demonstrate that the adaptive auditory feedback method is more efficient than non-speech and more pleasurable with respect to repetitive speech-only instructions. Furthermore, adaptive auditory feedback improves task completion time and action awareness as compared to speech-only. Lastly, these findings may benefit researchers and developers to use adaptive auditory feedback, instead of using speech-only or non-speech feedback while designing auditory feedback for interfaces in desktop environment for the people with visual impairment.