Navigation assistive technologies have been designed to support individuals with visual impairments during independent mobility by providing sensory augmentation and contextual awareness of their surroundings. Such information is habitually provided through predefned audio-haptic interaction paradigms. However, individual capabilities, preferences and behavior of people with visual impairments are heterogeneous, and may change due to experience, context and necessity. Therefore, the circumstances and modalities for providing navigation assistance need to be personalized to different users, and through time for each user. We conduct a study with 13 blind participants to explore how the desirability of messages provided during assisted navigation varies based on users' navigation preferences and expertise. The participants are guided through two different routes, one without prior knowledge and one previously studied and traversed. The guidance is provided through turn-by-turn instructions, enriched with contextual information about the environment. During navigation and follow-up interviews, we uncover that participants have diversifed needs for navigation instructions based on their abilities and preferences. Our study motivates the design of future navigation systems capable of verbosity level personalization in order to keep the users engaged in the current situational context while minimizing distractions.
This content will become publicly available on August 30, 2023
User experience of assistive apps among people with visual impairment
BACKGROUND: Today, various emerging assistive applications (apps) running on smartphones have been introduced such as Seeing AI, TapTapSee, and BeMyEyes apps. The assistive apps are designed to assist people with visual impairment in navigating unfamiliar environments, reading text, identifying objects and persons. Yet, little is known about how those with visual impairment perceive the assistive apps. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to advance knowledge of user experience with those assistive apps. METHODS: To address the knowledge gap, this study conducted phone interviews with a convenience sample of 30 individuals with visual impairment. RESULTS: The results indicated that those with visual impairment showed a range of preferences, needs, and concerns about user interfaces and interactions with the assistive apps. DISCUSSIONS: Given their needs and concerns, this study offered a set of facilitators to promote user adoption of the assistive apps, which should be valuable guidance to user interface/interaction designers in the field.
- Award ID(s):
- 1831969
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10356195
- Journal Name:
- Technology and Disability
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 3
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- 165 to 174
- ISSN:
- 1055-4181
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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