Facilitating smartphone use for blind people through a human powered approach
André Rodrigues · ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing · 2018
From a longitudinal study of smartphone adoption with blind users, we uncovered the need for frequent assistance and the opportunity for effective and efficient knowledge sharing. Smartphones are constantly evolving platforms where new applications, features, and consequently barriers, appear every day. Building on comprehensive knowledge of challenges and coping mechanisms employed by blind people, we are exploring how human-powered solutions can contribute. A human-powered approach has the potential to address efficacy, availability and coverage issues by expanding the pool of supporters. Our goal is to devise a set of human-powered tools to facilitate and promote smartphone usage. With in-context solutions we aim to investigate solutions that enable user independence and self-learning. We will augment knowledge sharing interactions and investigate its impact in promoting new smartphone usages.