A Blind Person's Interactions with Technology
From: Communications of the ACM - 08/2009 - pages 58-66
By: Kristen Shinohara and Josh Tenenberg

Meaning can be as important as usability in the design of technology

Current practice in computer interface design often takes for granted the
user's sightedness. But a blind user employs a combination of other senses in
accomplishing everyday tasks, such as having text read aloud or using fingers
along a tactile surface to read Braille. As such, designers of assistive
technologies must pay careful attention to the alternatives to sight to
engage a blind user in completing tasks. It may be difficult for a sighted
designer to understand how blind people mentally represent their environment
or how they apply alternative options in accomplishing a task. Designers have
responded to these challenges by developing alternative modes of interaction,
including audible screen readers, external memory aids for exploring haptic
graphs, non-speech sounds for navigating hypermedia, two-finger haptic
interfaces for touching virtual objects, haptic modeling of virtual objects,
and multimodal (auditory, haptic, visual) feedback for simple computer-based
tasks. The effectiveness of these alternative modes of interaction is studied
primarily through a usability framework, where blind and visually impaired
users interact with specific devices in a controlled laboratory environment.
These developments in assistive technology make a point to take advantage of
the alternative modes of interaction available to blind users. 

Read the entire article at:
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/8/34496-a-blind-persons-interactions-with-technology/fulltext

Link:
Observing Sara: a case study of a blind person's interactions with technology
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1296873&type=pdf&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=47690479&CFTOKEN=47849437

Authors:
Kristen Shinohara
kshino@u.washington.edu

Josh Tenenberg
jtenenbg@u.washington.edu