Understanding Research Themes and Interactions at Scale within Blind and Low-vision Research in ACM and IEEE

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This article extends our 2023 ASSETS paper, “A Large-Scale Mixed-Methods Analysis of Blind and Low-vision Research in ACM and IEEE,” which provided a field-, technology-, and method-agnostic examination of blind and low-vision (BLV) research. Our mixed-methods approach combined quantitative bibliometric analyses with a qualitative analysis of the field, resulting in four high-level research areas. Building on this analysis, we further explore these areas by identifying and characterizing research themes and examining how the notion of interaction has been used in BLV research through an analysis of co-located terms. Our results highlight the rich diversity, overlap, and complementarity among these themes while highlighting potential areas for interdisciplinary collaboration. Moreover, our investigation into the terms co-located with interaction reveals a predominant focus on the modalities, technologies and actions involved in interaction, rather than on the qualities of interaction. Our paper extends our previous findings by providing: (1) a finer-grained delineation within and between research areas; (2) a better understanding of the notion of interaction within BLV research; (3) an analysis of the research methods used when developing interactive computing systems for BLV users; and (4) a comparative analysis of prior systematic literature reviews of BLV research and possibilities for future survey contributions in our field.