Blind and Visually Impaired Users’ Interactions with Digital Libraries: Help-Seeking Situations in Mobile and Desktop Environments

Abstract

With the goal of developing information retrieval (IR) systems, including digital libraries (DLs), that support universal access, the authors conducted two studies to identify the help-seeking situations that blind and visually impaired (BVI) users encountered in DLs. First, the authors quantitatively compared BVI users’ help-seeking situations when interacting with the DL's mobile website (M.Web) and the mobile app (M.App). Using multiple data collection methods, the mobile study identified six situations BVI users faced more frequently when using M.Web than M.App. Second, the findings of the mobile study were qualitatively compared with the situations that occurred in the desktop environment, highlighting eight unique situations. It is more difficult for BVI users to interact with DLs in the mobile environment because of the reduced size of the mobile interface, complex DL structures, dynamic elements, diverse formats, and sight-centered design. Specific design recommendations were offered to enhance DLs in the mobile environment.