Today, a great number of people with visual impairment take advantage of mainstream technology via assistive technology. User involvement in the systems development life cycle contributes to addressing user needs accurately. This article presents practical strategies to facilitate participatory design approaches involving users with visual impairment. Both researchers and professional designers will benefit these practical strategies by using them as action checklists for preparing, conducting, and concluding a participatory design session ethically and responsibly.
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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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1831969
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10356195
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Technology and Disability
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1055-4181
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 165 to 174
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3233/tad-220377
