Gisela Reyes-Cruz
Joel E. Fischer
Stuart Reeves
ABSTRACT
More than a billion people in the world live with some form of visual impairment, and a wide variety of technologies are now routinely used by them in the course of 'getting on' in everyday life. However, little is known about the ways in which assistive and non-assistive technologies are brought to bear on material practices. We present findings from a four-month ethnographic study facilitated by a local branch of a UK charity that supports people with visual impairments. Our study explores mainstream and assistive technology use within their everyday lives. We identify three main sites for technology use: social relations and communication practices, textual reading practices, and mobility practices. Via an ethnographic approach we contribute to understanding how people accomplish such practices, and in doing so, uncover the practical competencies that enable people with visual impairments to conduct their everyday activities. Thus we investigate how disability can be thought of in terms of competencies, arguing that understanding of competencies can enrich the design of technologies that fit the needs of people with visual impairments.
Supplemental Material
- Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber, and Stacy M. Branham. 2018. "Siri Talks at You": An Empirical Investigation of Voice-Activated Personal Assistant (VAPA) Usage by Individuals Who Are Blind. Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '18, ACM Press, 249--258.Google Scholar
- Ali Abdolrahmani, Ravi Kuber, and Amy Hurst. 2016. An empirical investigation of the situationally-induced impairments experienced by blind mobile device users. Proceedings of the 13th Web for All Conference on - W4A '16, ACM Press, 1--8.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mauro Avila, Katrin Wolf, Anke Brock, and Niels Henze. 2016. Remote Assistance for Blind Users in Daily Life: A Survey about Be My Eyes. Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments - PETRA '16, ACM Press, 1--2.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shiri Azenkot and Nicole B. Lee. 2013. Exploring the use of speech input by blind people on mobile devices. Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '13, ACM Press, 1--8.Google Scholar
- Rachel Bartlett, Yi Xuan Khoo, Juan Pablo Hourcade, and Kyle K. Rector. 2019. Exploring the Opportunities for Technologies to Enhance Quality of Life with People who have Experienced Vision Loss. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '19, ACM Press, 1--8.Google Scholar
- Cynthia L. Bennett, Erin Brady, and Stacy M. Branham. 2018. Interdependence as a Frame for Assistive Technology Research and Design. Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '18, ACM Press, 161--173.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cynthia L. Bennett, Burren Peil, and Daniela K. Rosner. 2019. Biographical Prototypes: Reimagining Recognition and Disability in Design. Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference - DIS '19, ACM Press, 35--47.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alexy Bhowmick and Shyamanta M. Hazarika. 2017. An insight into assistive technology for the visually impaired and blind people: state-of-the-art and future trends. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces 11, 2: 149--172.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Danielle Bragg, Cynthia Bennett, Katharina Reinecke, and Richard Ladner. 2018. A Large Inclusive Study of Human Listening Rates. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '18, ACM Press, 1--12.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stacy M. Branham and Shaun K. Kane. 2015. Collaborative Accessibility: How Blind and Sighted Companions Co-Create Accessible Home Spaces. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '15, ACM Press, 2373--2382.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Michele A. Burton, Erin Brady, Robin Brewer, Callie Neylan, Jeffrey P. Bigham, and Amy Hurst. 2012. Crowdsourcing subjective fashion advice using VizWiz: challenges and opportunities. Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, 135--142.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Andrew Crabtree, Mark Rouncefield, and Peter Tolmie. 2012. Doing design ethnography. Springer.Google Scholar
- Michael D. Crossland, Rui S. Silva, and Antonio F. Macedo. 2014. Smartphone, tablet computer and e-reader use by people with vision impairment. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics 34, 5: 552--557.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rafael Jeferson Pezzuto Damaceno, Juliana Cristina Braga, and Jesús Pascual Mena-Chalco. 2018. Mobile device accessibility for the visually impaired: problems mapping and recommendations. Universal Access in the Information Society 17, 2: 421--435.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Guy Dewsbury, Karen Clarke, Dave Randall, Mark Rouncefield, and Ian Sommerville. 2004. The anti-social model of disability. Disability & Society 19, 2: 145--158.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Brian L Due and Simon Bierring Lange. 2018. Troublesome Objects: Unpacking Ocular-Centrism in Urban Environments by Studying Blind Navigation Using Video Ethnography and Ethnomethodology. Sociological Research Online: 136078041881196.Google Scholar
- Brian Due and Simon Lange. 2018. Semiotic resources for navigation: A video ethnographic study of blind people's uses of the white cane and a guide dog for navigating in urban areas. Semiotica 2018, 222: 287--312.Google Scholar
- Silvia B. Fajardo-Flores, Laura S. Gaytán-Lugo, Pedro C. Santana-Mancilla, and Miguel A. Rodríguez-Ortiz. 2017. Mobile Accessibility for People with Combined Visual and Motor Impairment: A case Study. Proceedings of the 8th Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - CLIHC '17, ACM Press, 1--4.Google Scholar
- Heather A. Faucett, Kate E. Ringland, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2017. (In)Visibility in Disability and Assistive Technology. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 10, 4: 1--17.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Christopher Frauenberger. 2015. Disability and Technology: A Critical Realist Perspective. Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility - ASSETS '15, ACM Press, 89--96.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Harold Garfinkel. 1967. Studies in ethnomethodology. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
- Harold Garfinkel and Anne Warfield Rawls. 2002. Ethnomethodology's program: working out Durkeim's aphorism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Md.Google Scholar
- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. 2005. Feminist Disability Studies. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, 2: 1557--1587.Google ScholarCross Ref
- João Guerreiro, Dragan Ahmetovic, Daisuke Sato, Kris Kitani, and Chieko Asakawa. 2019. Airport Accessibility and Navigation Assistance for People with Visual Impairments. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '19, ACM Press, 1--14.Google ScholarDigital Library
- João Guerreiro and Daniel Gonçalves. 2014. Text-to-speeches: evaluating the perception of concurrent speech by blind people. Proceedings of the 16th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers & accessibility - ASSETS '14, ACM Press, 169--176.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tiago Guerreiro, Joaquim Jorge, and Daniel Gonçalves. 2010. Identifying the relevant individual attributes for a successful non-visual mobile experience. Proceedings of the 28th Annual European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics - ECCE '10, ACM Press, 27.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alison Kafer. 2013. Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.Google Scholar
- Vaishnav Kameswaran, Jatin Gupta, Joyojeet Pal, et al. 2018. "We can go anywhere": Understanding Independence through a Case Study of Ride-hailing Use by People with Visual Impairments in metropolitan India. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 2, CSCW: 1--24.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shaun K. Kane, Jeffrey P. Bigham, and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2008. Slide rule: making mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multi-touch interaction techniques. Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - Assets '08, ACM Press, 73.Google Scholar
- Shaun K. Kane, Chandrika Jayant, Jacob O. Wobbrock, and Richard E. Ladner. 2009. Freedom to roam: a study of mobile device adoption and accessibility for people with visual and motor disabilities. Proceeding of the eleventh international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - ASSETS '09, ACM Press, 115.Google Scholar
- Dirk vom Lehn. 2010. Discovering 'Experience-ables': Socially including visually impaired people in art museums. Journal of Marketing Management 26, 7--8: 749--769.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Barbara Leporini, Maria Claudia Buzzi, and Marina Buzzi. 2012. Interacting with mobile devices via VoiceOver: usability and accessibility issues. Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, 339--348.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Julie Miller, Samantha Brady, Chaiwoo Lee, et al. 2018. How The "Oldest Old" Experience and Adapt to Vision and Hearing Loss Through the Use of Assistive Technologies. Proceedings of the Technology, Mind, and Society on ZZZ - TechMindSociety '18, ACM Press, 1--5.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Meredith Ringel Morris, Annuska Zolyomi, Catherine Yao, Sina Bahram, Jeffrey P. Bigham, and Shaun K. Kane. 2016. "With most of it being pictures now, I rarely use it": Understanding Twitter's Evolving Accessibility to Blind Users. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '16, ACM Press, 5506--5516.Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. F. Newell and P. Gregor. 1999. Extra-Ordinary Human-Machine Interaction: What can be Learned from People with Disabilities? Cognition, Technology & Work 1, 2: 78--85.Google ScholarCross Ref
- João Oliveira, Tiago Guerreiro, Hugo Nicolau, Joaquim Jorge, and Daniel Gonçalves. 2011. Blind people and mobile touch-based text-entry: acknowledging the need for different flavors. The proceedings of the 13th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, 179--186.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mike Oliver. 2013. The social model of disability: thirty years on. Disability & Society 28, 7: 1024--1026.Google ScholarCross Ref
- World Health Organization. 2011. World report on disability 2011. World Health Organization.Google Scholar
- Joyojeet Pal, Anandhi Viswanathan, Priyank Chandra, et al. 2017. Agency in Assistive Technology Adoption: Visual Impairment and Smartphone Use in Bangalore. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '17, ACM Press, 5929--5940.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Umesh Persad, Patrick Langdon, and John Clarkson. 2007. Characterising user capabilities to support inclusive design evaluation. Universal Access in the Information Society 6, 2: 119--135.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. 2018. Care work: Dreaming disability justice. arsenal pulp press.Google Scholar
- Alisha Pradhan, Kanika Mehta, and Leah Findlater. 2018. "Accessibility Came by Accident": Use of Voice-Controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants by People with Disabilities. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '18, ACM Press, 1--13.Google ScholarDigital Library
- David Randall, Richard Harper, and Mark Rouncefield. 2007. Fieldwork for design: theory and practice. Springer Science & Business Media.Google ScholarDigital Library
- André Rodrigues, Kyle Montague, Hugo Nicolau, and Tiago Guerreiro. 2015. Getting Smartphones to Talkback: Understanding the Smartphone Adoption Process of Blind Users. Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility - ASSETS '15, ACM Press, 23--32.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jaime Sánchez and Héctor Flores. 2003. Memory enhancement through audio. Proceedings of the 6th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, 24--31.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Vassilis Kostakos, and Jorge Goncalves. 2019. Situationally-Induced Impairments and Disabilities Research. arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.06128.Google Scholar
- Sami Schalk. 2018. Bodyminds Reimagined:(Dis) ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction. Duke University Press.Google Scholar
- Kristen Shinohara and Josh Tenenberg. 2007. Observing Sara: a case study of a blind person's interactions with technology. Proceedings of the 9th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - Assets '07, ACM Press, 171.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kristen Shinohara and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2011. In the shadow of misperception: assistive technology use and social interactions. Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '11, ACM Press, 705.Google Scholar
- Kristen Shinohara and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2016. Self-Conscious or Self-Confident? A Diary Study Conceptualizing the Social Accessibility of Assistive Technology. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 8, 2: 1--31.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Berglind F. Smaradottir, Jarle A. Håland, and Santiago G. Martinez. 2018. User Evaluation of the Smartphone Screen Reader VoiceOver with Visually Disabled Participants. Mobile Information Systems 2018: 1--9.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ji-Won Song and Sung-Ho Yang. 2010. Touch your way: haptic sight for visually impaired people to walk with independence. Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '10, ACM Press, 3343.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sarit Felicia Anais Szpiro, Shafeka Hashash, Yuhang Zhao, and Shiri Azenkot. 2016. How People with Low Vision Access Computing Devices: Understanding Challenges and Opportunities. Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '16, ACM Press, 171--180.Google Scholar
- Sarit Szpiro, Yuhang Zhao, and Shiri Azenkot. 2016. Finding a store, searching for a product: a study of daily challenges of low vision people. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '16, ACM Press, 61--72.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Anja Thieme, Cynthia L. Bennett, Cecily Morrison, Edward Cutrell, and Alex S. Taylor. 2018. ?I can do everything but see!" -- How People with Vision Impairments Negotiate their Abilities in Social Contexts. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '18, ACM Press, 1--14.Google Scholar
- Shannon M. Tomlinson. 2016. Perceptions of accessibility and usability by blind or visually impaired persons: A pilot study: Perceptions of Accessibility and Usability by Blind or Visually Impaired Persons: A Pilot Study. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology 53, 1: 1--4.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Shari Trewin, John Richards, Rachel Bellamy, et al. 2010. Toward modeling auditory information seeking strategies on the web. Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '10, ACM Press, 3973.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Marynel Vázquez and Aaron Steinfeld. 2012. Helping visually impaired users properly aim a camera. Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - ASSETS '12, ACM Press, 95.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Violeta Voykinska, Shiri Azenkot, Shaomei Wu, and Gilly Leshed. 2016. How Blind People Interact with Visual Content on Social Networking Services. Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing - CSCW '16, ACM Press, 1582--1593.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Herman Wahidin, Jenny Waycott, and Steven Baker. 2018. The challenges in adopting assistive technologies in the workplace for people with visual impairments. Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction - OzCHI '18, ACM Press, 432--442.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Susan Wendell. 2013. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. Routledge.Google Scholar
- Brian Wentz and Jonathan Lazar. 2011. Usability evaluation of email applications by blind users. Journal of Usability Studies 6, 2: 75--89.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Susumu Harada, and Jon Froehlich. 2011. Ability-Based Design: Concept, Principles and Examples. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 3, 3: 1--27.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hanlu Ye, Meethu Malu, Uran Oh, and Leah Findlater. 2014. Current and future mobile and wearable device use by people with visual impairments. Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '14, ACM Press, 3123--3132.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Yuhang Zhao, Elizabeth Kupferstein, Doron Tal, and Shiri Azenkot. 2018. "It Looks Beautiful but Scary": How Low Vision People Navigate Stairs and Other Surface Level Changes. Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '18, ACM Press, 307--320.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Annuska Zolyomi, Anushree Shukla, and Jaime Snyder. 2017. Technology-Mediated Sight: A Case Study of Early Adopters of a Low Vision Assistive Technology. Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - ASSETS '17, ACM Press, 220--229.Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Reframing Disability as Competency: Unpacking Everyday Technology Practices of People with Visual Impairments
Recommendations
Review of Quantitative Empirical Evaluations of Technology for People with Visual Impairments
CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsAddressing the needs of visually impaired people is of continued interest in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Yet, one of the major challenges facing researchers in this field continues to be how to design adequate quantitative empirical ...
Designing to Support and Extend the Competencies of People with Visual Impairments
CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThis work sits in the fields of Human Computer Interaction and accessibility research dedicated to the study and development of technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired. Increasingly, researchers have stated the need to get away from ...
What difference does tech make? Conceptualizations of Disability and Assistive Technology among Kenyan Youth: Conceptualizations of Disability and AT
ASSETS '21: Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and AccessibilityMost research which investigates stigma towards with people with disabilities and the use of Assistive Technology (AT) are based in the Global North and focus on the experiences of people with disabilities and the consequences that stigma has on choices ...
Comments