Visually-impaired Users Research Articles

Social media use and vision impairment in adults between the ages of 18 and 35 years in India.

Social media is used by >4.48 billion people worldwide. Despite its popularity, vision-impaired individuals struggle to use social media given visual inaccessibility of content and lack of access to Internet/Wireless-Fidelity-enabled devices. Our study explores visually impaired adult's use of social media in comparison to a control group. This study aimed to report the demographic profile and patterns of social media use among adults with vision impairment (VI) aged 18 to 35 years and compare it with an age-matched normally sighted group in India. In addition, we explored barriers to use of social media among adults with VI. Vision-impaired and normally sighted adults (controls) aged 18 to 35 years at L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India, answered a questionnaire about social media use (e.g., platform used). Four hundred twenty-two individuals (201 VI, 221 controls) participated. Normally sighted adults (98%) used social media more than the VI group (81%; p<0.001). Vision-impaired users were predominantly male (85%) and unemployed (57%; p<0.00001 for both). There was no significant difference in educational level between groups (p=0.17). Smartphones were the most popular device used (VI, 161 [99%]; control, 206 [95%]), with tablet PC/iPad being the least popular (VI, 5 [3%]; control, 12 [6%]). Adults with VI and controls commonly used WhatsApp as communication platforms, and Facebook and Twitter as networking platforms. Approximately one-third of individuals across both social media user groups reported barriers to use (VI, 48 [30%]; control, 74 [34%]; p<0.001). Vision-impaired individuals cited accessibility issues of having to rely on audio over vision to navigate social media, whereas controls reported having to share a phone. The proportion of social media usage among VI adults is high (81%) and is substantially higher than the 33% reported in the general Indian population. Vision-impaired adults who used social media were male with moderate VI and were less likely to be employed compared with controls.

AI-Enabled Smart Glasses for People with Severe Vision Impairments

Over the last decade, there has been significant research on how smart assistive devices with artificial intelligence (AI) built into them can assist people with severe vision impairments to comprehend their surroundings. These devices come in various forms such as smartphone applications, smart-glasses, and smart canes. Smart glasses have gained popularity lately due to recent technological advancements, as well as their natural position in front of the user's eyes. However, there has been limited research to understand how people with severe vision impairments would prefer to interact with them. The objective of this project is to investigate the use of AI-enabled smart-glasses to aid individuals with severe vision impairments. The research aims to comprehend the differences between the types of research conducted by researchers and the needs and desires of the community. The study will utilise a Design Thinking approach and involve vision-impaired users throughout the project by utilising co-design methods. The research will involve the development of smart-glass application prototypes through iterative case studies with individuals who are blind, have low-vision, and have cerebral vision impairment (CVI). The goal is to understand the users' preferred interaction model from their lived experiences. The outcome of the research will also be a software architecture that enables people with severe vision impairments to seamlessly access information about their surroundings.

Familiarity and understanding of assistive technology among visually impaired users of libraries of special institutes of Haryana, India

PurposeAssistive technology (AT) is like the eyes of visually impaired users (VIUs) and plays a vital role in making them independent in accessing a wide range of library resources and services. It is a revolutionary way to improve the academic performance of VIUs and amalgamate them into mainstream library services. This paper aims to explore the familiarity and understanding of AT among VIUs in accessing library resources and services of three special institutes of Haryana state, India.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey method, and data were collected using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of closed-ended questions focused on participants’ familiarity, understanding and key barriers VIUs face in accessing existing AT facilities. Scope of the study is to include three special institutions’ libraries serving to VIUs in Haryana (India). Purposive sampling technique was adopted for data collection. The data are tabulated and analyzed with descriptive statistics methods using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0, and the results are presented in tables, diagrams and graphs.FindingsThe study found that most of the VIUs are highly familiar and reported an expert understanding of Daisy player and digital voice recorder, whereas refreshable Braille display, Braille printer/embosser and scanning and reading devices are least familiar with and reported poor understanding. In the software category, it is noted that VIUs are more familiar with screen reading and speech synthesizer software than other software, and participants confirmed a good understanding of the said software.Practical implicationsThe literature review revealed that the majority of library staff in the institutions being investigated had limited knowledge about the availability of the most suitable AT tools. So, the study will be beneficial for them to select the most popular AT tools for their libraries to amalgamate VIUs. The study also highlights some barriers VIUs face in using the existing AT facility of their respective libraries that may be helpful for librarians to understand the root cause of low utilization of available AT tools and how to address this problem effectively. The study can also help policymakers in formulating AT policies for academic libraries. Findings will also help to develop a cost-effective AT workstation suiting the needs of VIUs.Originality/valueThis study will provide an idea to library professionals about which AT hardware and software are more popular among VIUs and useful for developing/improving cutting-edge AT facilities in their libraries to amalgamate VIUs in the mainstream of the library.

Digitally Mediated Communication of Emojis By Visually Impaired Users: The Case of Sarcastic WhatsApp Messages

In today’s digital age, emojis have come to compensate for the nonverbal cues that speakers use to communicate their attitudes or emotions as they speak, and hence become an essential element of online communication. In the realm of WhatsApp, where written conversations with an immediacy level close to that of spoken are supported, an ironic or sarcastic message is likely to be misunderstood, as it involves decrypting a meaning that often contradicts what is said. The functions of emojis could facilitate the correct interpretation of a message. However, the phenomenon of emojis may not be ideal for visually impaired WhatsApp users. Distinguishing sarcasm from the sincerity tone of a message requires distinct semantic and cognitive processes. This study aims to uncover how visually impaired users (VIU) use emojis on WhatsApp to clarify sarcastic versus literal intent. To meet this aim, two experimental tasks were conducted. Results provide clear evidence that emojis are necessary tools for VIU in online communication. However, their use varies with emojis linked more to literal WhatsApp messages than sarcastic ones and in praise situations than in criticism.

A Portable One-Hand Braille Input System Enabled by Dual-Interlocked Tactile Sensors for Communication

This article presents a novel portable one-hand Braille input system (BIS) to assist visually impaired users in entering text on electronic devices. The proposed BIS is designed based on a flexible Braille keyboard (FBK), it mainly consists of five dual-interlocked tactile sensors, a processing circuit, and a software modulus. The fully elastomeric graphene/carbon nanotube/ silicone rubber nanocomposites are synthesized and used as tactile sensing material and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the structural and encapsulation for the fabrication of sensors. Characterization tests showed the tactile sensor has relatively high force sensing sensitivity of 0.649 N <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-\text{1}}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> at sensing range of 0–5 N and a frequency sensing ability of 0.5–2.0 Hz, which can meet human finger pressing requirements. A specific Braille input method is proposed, and personalized parameters are set for users to fit different pressing habits. The average input speed of 3.37 words per minute (WPM) with an average accuracy of 92.2% for Braille characters input is demonstrated by evaluating text entry performance. The results indicated that our developed tactile sensor enabled portable one-hand BIS can assist visual impaired users with enhanced text entry on electronic devices effectively and privately.

Design, realization, control, and validation of a smart tether system for a robotic guide for blind and visually impaired users

This paper describes the design, the realization, the controller synthesis, and the validation of a smart tether system (STS). The STS is an add-on active device for autonomous moving robots allowing them to be employed as guides for blind and visually-impaired users. The paper illustrates the mechanical structure of the STS, the model identification campaign, and the control synthesis. Validation experiments are also provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed device.

Library services provision to visually-impaired users in academic libraries: A gap in the literature

The importance of providing library and information services to the visually-impaired students for educational pursuit in academic libraries cannot be ignored. This is because the students cannot use the normal facilities that their sighted counterparts uses, they require special facilities and services. This paper sought to provide a systematic review of theoretical and empirical literature about services provision for visually-impaired students in academic libraries. Reviewing the related literature focuses mainly on studies about availability of and accessibility to facilities for this category of students, perceptions about providing services for the students, training in visually-impaired services provision, accessibility to the services by the students, constraints to effective visually-impaired services provision in academic libraries as well as appraisal of reviewed literature. An in-depth account of the selected and related literature indicated that, many libraries in the university seldom provide services for the students who are visually-impaired due to limited financial and human resources, insufficient assistive technology, inadequacy of funding and absence of trained personnel among others. This category of students have limited access to many of the major required facilities and services. Furthermore, the article contributes to the growing body of knowledge and builds on existing literature in this area of study.

Designing User Experience for Improving Mobile Application Accessibility Online Transport Booking for Visually-Impaired User With User-Centered Design: A Case Study of Grab

The online transportation ordering mobile application is an application that helps users in ordering transportation facilities that can be accessed by anyone using mobile phones and internet users are no exception for people with visual impairments. Users with visual impairments with limited accessibility will have difficulty accessing the application. Based on the results of the initial survey, it was found that the online grab transportation ordering application is currently still less accessible and an increase in accessibility is needed. This study aims to design the right user experience to improve the accessibility of the application so that users with visual impairments can access the application properly. In this research, the method used is User Centered Design (UCD) which focuses on user needs and characteristics who are visually-impaired users. The study's findings are recommendations for the interaction design of the Grab application. Based on the needs and characteristics of the users, the resulting accessibility improvements are in the form of a simpler design than the previous design and features designed to overcome the pain points of users with visual impairments. Furthermore, the design that has been made is tested using the Cognitive Walkthrough method, which contains user scenarios to achieve certain goals. The evaluation results show that the scenario completion rate has increased and the number of errors made when completing the scenario has also decreased. It can be concluded that using the UCD method can improve the usability of the application.

Bayesian Gabor Network With Uncertainty Estimation for Pedestrian Lane Detection in Assistive Navigation

Automatic pedestrian lane detection is a challenging problem that is of great interest in assistive navigation and autonomous driving. Such a detection system must cope well with variations in lane surfaces and illumination conditions so that a vision-impaired user can navigate safely in unknown environments. This paper proposes a new lightweight Bayesian Gabor Network (BGN) for camera-based detection of pedestrian lanes in unstructured scenes. In our approach, each Gabor parameter is represented as a learnable Gaussian distribution using variational Bayesian inference. For the safety of vision-impaired users, in addition to an output segmentation map, the network provides two full-resolution maps of aleatoric uncertainty and epistemic uncertainty as well-calibrated confidence measures. Our Gabor-based method has fewer weights than the standard CNNs, therefore it is less prone to overfitting and requires fewer operations to compute. Compared to the state-of-the-art semantic segmentation methods, the BGN maintains a competitive segmentation performance while achieving a significantly compact model size (from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.8\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$237.6\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> reduction), a fast prediction time (from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.2\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$67.5\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> faster), and a well-calibrated uncertainty measure. We also introduce a new lane dataset of 10,000 images for objective evaluation in pedestrian lane detection research.

Supporting People with Visual Impairments in Cultural Heritage: Survey and Future Research Directions

This literature review surveys published research that aims to foster blind and visually impaired (VI) people’s engagement with cultural heritage. The reviewed papers cover a broad area of methodological approaches, outlining challenges and solutions for empowering VI people to enjoy cultural heritage sites and museums, mainly with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Fifty (50) papers are included in this survey, published between 2008 and 2021. They mostly focus on multisensory, multimodal and interdisciplinary, ICT-based assistive human-centered computing approaches. These methods often optimize the VI user experience through an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of this special group’s needs. Moreover, several publications include user evaluations and empirical studies. Findings suggest that approaches tend to become more complex, multimodal, and multidisciplinary as time progresses. This leads to a discussion and conclusions suggesting future research directions in this domain. The proposed way forward relates to a synthesis of methodologies, scientific domains, and approaches into a more holistic, comprehensive, and synergetic model.

Dynamic indoor path planning for the visually impaired

Independent indoor navigation for the Visually Impaired (VI) is extremely challenging, especially in unfamiliar environments. This paper presents the development process for a navigator system for the VI that plans an optimized path to safely lead them to their desired destination. The first contribution of this research paper is proposing a path planning algorithm, based on the well-known Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique. The algorithm computes an optimized route considering the user’s preferences while avoiding collisions with fixed obstacles. The algorithm’s output consists of the moving directions for VI users, which are delivered to them via audio commands to direct their movements. A path following algorithm was also implemented so that the calculated path is dynamically updated whenever the VI diverts from the initially pre-defined path. This functionality utilizes a step and deviation detector that counts and monitors the user’s steps, matching them with the expected path. Finally, a thorough usability evaluation involving both visually impaired and unimpaired users was conducted; the results indicate that the system ultimately achieves its intended goals in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and most importantly, user satisfaction.

도시재생 문화예술공간 공용공간의 유니버설디자인 특성 연구

Recent years have witnessed the appearance of many cultural and art spaces regenerated from old buildings Not only multi-functional architecture, but also cultural and art spaces with a profound history and culture are open to the public. In addition, to meet the needs of all users, these spaces should be applied with universal design. This study aims to promote a deeper understanding of the characteristics of universal design by analyzing urban regeneration culture and arts spaces for various users through case studies. The results are as follows. First, The public space of urban regeneration cultural and art space has four characteristics: accessibility, safety, acceptability and supportivity. Second, Research shows that, among universal design characteristics of public spaces in urban regenerative culture and art spaces, the acceptability is the highest, while the supportivity scores the lowest. Third, From the perspective of acceptability, the major information is highlighted by materials and colors different from those of the surroundings. The dotted blocks and acoustic interpretation devices are set at the elevators, staircases, entrances and exits to the indoor, toilet entrances and exists for visually-impaired users, which has greatly improved the acceptability. Survey shows that a majority of cases fail to provide independent nursing room for pregnant women, infants. So caring spaces should be set up for the visually-impaired, pregnant women, infants. Fourthly, From the perspective of supportivity, the braille signs should be set up for the visually-impaired. Two sections of handles should be installed at the corridors, staircases, etc. Meanwhile, rental services covering strollers, wheelchairs, and so on should be offered. In the future, while transforming the cultural and art spaces, researchers should also consider the universal design for multiple users.

Assistive technology in smart cities: A case of street crossing for the visually-impaired

Visually-impaired people encounter a series of challenging tasks in their daily life that are easy to the majority of society. For example, crossing a street, which is a critical task for a pedestrian traveling in a city, actually involves a set of orientation and navigation sub-tasks. The typical form of assistive technology as a solution today for street crossing relies upon an accessible pedestrian signal (APS) usually in the mode of audio signals broadcasted at a cross street. As popular as such APS is, there are various pain points to visually-impaired users who are trying to rely on conventional APS when crossing a street. Given the prevalence of smartphones among the visually-impaired around the world, there is still a vacuum in the literature as to the possibility of providing them, through a smartphone, a safer solution to address those pain points so that users can more confidently walk across a street. In this paper we look at how mobile technology relevantly helps the visually-impaired to cross streets more comfortably and confidently by presenting an action-research-based case of developing and deploying a smart accessible pedestrian signal system (SAPSS) in Taiwan. Originated from an ability-based design principle so as to ensure accessibility, the system integrates hardware, software, and a user-side mobile app into an enhanced solution for the visually-impaired to comfortably cross a street. Two field tests by 19 visually-impaired end users help modify the system and confirm its usability. From the positive feedbacks of these test participants, SAPSS has been formally deployed in three cities in Taiwan. This case study reports the development, the tests, and the deployment of the system in detail and also discusses implications of such a new generation assistive technology in the development of smart cities.

The Daily Experiences of Facebook for Visually Impaired Users

Prior research into using social networking sites (SNSs) by visually impaired (VI) users has focused primarily on their competencies and accessibility barriers in its usage. We argue, however, that there exists insufficient research into the daily pattern of use of SNSs by VI users and benefits unique to this population. To address these limitations, we conducted two empirical studies, a diary study and a follow-up in-depth interview study, to further explore the social experiences of VI users’ everyday Facebook engagement. Our findings show that VI users were motivated to use Facebook by the prospect of connecting with family and friends and that Facebook offers unique benefits to VI users in terms of improved quality-of-life through social capital building, knowledge obtainment, and entertainment.

Internet Accessibility for Blind and Visually-Impaired Users: An Evaluation of Official U.S. State and Territory COVID-19 Websites

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most health information was moved to an online format for easier dissemination. However, many of these health websites may not be accessible to users who are visually impaired, such as people who use screen readers and magnifiers. This study aimed to test the accessibility of 55 U.S. state and territory COVID-19 websites using 3 automated accessibility checker tools (MAUVE++, CynthiaSays, and AChecker). The homepage, testing, and vaccine pages for each state/territory were tested. Accessibility violations were categorized based on their relevance to visual impairment and compared between categories. Individuals who have vision loss but still access the websites visually are the most likely to be affected, with relevant accessibility violations detected in 81% of the checked cases. In addition, states/territories were ranked by their accessibility ratings. Our findings emphasize the need to improve the accessibility of public-facing health informational websites and provide suggestions for remedies.

Toward a purposeful design strategy for visually impaired Web users

The central premise of this research is the belief that using the Web non-visually is cognitively burdensome and tedious due to its complex, sight-centered design. There exists a literature gap on visually impaired (VI) users’ perceptions and experiences regarding Web site complexity. This paper reports the findings from a survey of 50 visually impaired individuals regarding perceived complexity and usability of a popular shopping Web site and its less complex version. Results show that significant gains in usability could be achieved by reducing complexity in Web design. A theoretical model of perceived complexity and associated propositions are presented to guide future research on improving the VI user experience of Web sites and Web applications.

Pharmaceutical mobile application for visually-impaired people in Thailand: development and implementation

BackgroundMost mobile pharmaceutical applications produced for people with visual disabilities in Thailand fail to meet the required standard due to poor-quality regulations, defective design, lack of user support and impracticality; as a result, visually-impaired people are unable to use them. This research is motivated by the limited use of this technology in primary medical services and its aim is to enable people with disabilities to access effective digital health information. The research objective is to analyse, design and develop a mobile pharmaceutical application with functions that are appropriate for visually-impaired users, and test its usability.ResultsBased on the design and development of the application, it contained five necessary functions. When testing the usability and users’ satisfaction, it was found that the input or fill of information in the application was of low usability. According to the test results, the medicinal database function was missing 71 times and the voice command function was missing 34 times. Based on users’ satisfaction results, users who had the highest level of usage gave higher average scores to users’ attitude, users’ confidence, user interface and system performance than those with lower levels of usage. The scores of both groups were found to be the same when discussing the implementation of the development.ConclusionsThis mobile application, which was developed based on the use of smart technology, will play an important role in supporting visually-impaired people in Thailand by enhancing the efficacy of self-care. The design and development of the application will ensure the suitability of many functions for visually-impaired users. However, despite the high functional capacity of the application, the gap in healthcare services between the general public and disabled groups will still exist if users have inadequate IT skills.

Tailoring basemaps for color vision impaired people

Abstract. Widely used basemaps are not particularly inclusive when it comes to color vision impaired users. The use of colors, even though perfect for the representation of features, does not always account for color vision impairments. Certain combinations of colors in basemaps are indistinguishable for colorblind people. With the awareness that those disabilities should be considered when designing a basemap, Esri Nederland and Kadaster instigated the research on the topic, aiming to create a methodology on how to optimize the basemaps for color vision impaired users. The methodology developed was applied in the assessment of six basemaps and improvements were performed in the two most commonly used basemaps in the Netherlands, the Esri World Topographic Map, and the BRT Achtergrondkaart Standaard. Suitable shades were selected to replace the problematic ones in the original basemaps, and the target group evaluated the improvements through surveys. The results showed that the commonly used basemaps are able to well represent the features in a colorblind-friendly way. However, there is room for improvements in order to achieve more suitable and inclusive basemaps.

Can search result summaries enhance the web search efficiency and experiences of the visually impaired users?

There are limited studies that are addressing the challenges of visually impaired (VI) users when viewing search results on a search engine interface by using a screen reader. This study investigates the effect of providing an overview of search results to VI users. We present a novel interactive search engine interface called InteractSE to support VI users during the results exploration stage in order to improve their interactive experience and web search efficiency. An overview of the search results is generated using an unsupervised machine learning approach to present the discovered concepts via a formal concept analysis that is domain-independent. These concepts are arranged in a multi-level tree following a hierarchical order and covering all retrieved documents that share maximal features. The InteractSE interface was evaluated by 16 legally blind users and compared with the Google search engine interface for complex search tasks. The evaluation results were obtained based on both quantitative (as task completion time) and qualitative (as participants’ feedback) measures. These results are promising and indicate that InteractSE enhances the search efficiency and consequently advances user experience. Our observations and analysis of the user interactions and feedback yielded design suggestions to support VI users when exploring and interacting with search results.

Creating Accessible Online Floor Plans for Visually Impaired Readers

We present a generic model for providing blind and severely vision-impaired readers with access to online information graphics. The model supports fully and semi-automatic transcription and allows the reader a choice of presentation mediums. We evaluate the model through a case study: online house floor plans. To do so, we conducted a formative user study with severely vision impaired users to determine what information they would like from an online floor plan and how to present the floor plan as a text-only description, tactile graphic, and on a touchscreen with audio feedback. We then built an automatic transcription tool using specialized graphics recognition algorithms. Finally, we measured the quality of system recognition as well as conducted a second user study to evaluate the usefulness of the accessible graphics produced by the tool for each of the three formats. The results generally support the design of the generic model and the usefulness of the tool we have produced. However, they also reveal the inability of current graphics recognition algorithms to handle unforeseen graphical conventions. This highlights the need for automatic transcription systems to return a level of confidence in the recognized components and to present this to the end-user so they can have an appropriate level of trust.