Upper extremity (UE) health issues are a common concern among wheelchair users and have a large impact on their independence, social participation, and quality of life. However, despite the ...well-documented prevalence and negative impacts, these issues remain unresolved. Existing solutions (e.g. surgical repair, conservative treatments) often fail to promote sustained UE health improvement in wheelchair users’ day-to-day lives. Recent HCI research has shown the effectiveness of health tracking technologies in supporting patients’ self-care for different health conditions (e.g. chronic diseases, mental health). In this work, we explore how health tracking technologies could support wheelchair users’ UE health self-care. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 wheelchair users and 5 therapists to understand their practices and challenges in UE health management, as well as the potential benefits of integrating health tracking technologies into self-care routines. We discuss design implications for UE health tracking technologies and outline opportunities for future investigation.
The reliance on vision for tasks related to cooking and eating healthy can present barriers to cooking for oneself and achieving proper nutrition. There has been little research exploring cooking ...practices and challenges faced by people with visual impairments. We present a content analysis of 122 YouTube videos to highlight the cooking practices of visually impaired people, and we describe detailed practices for 12 different cooking activities (e.g., cutting and chopping, measuring, testing food for doneness). Based on the cooking practices, we also conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 visually impaired people who have cooking experience and show existing challenges, concerns, and risks in cooking (e.g., tracking the status of tasks in progress, verifying whether things are peeled or cleaned thoroughly). We further discuss opportunities to support the current practices and improve the independence of people with visual impairments in cooking (e.g., zero-touch interactions for cooking). Overall, our findings provide guidance for future research exploring various assistive technologies to help people cook without relying on vision.
Many people with upper-body motor impairments encounter challenges while performing Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), such as toileting, grooming, ...and managing finances, which have impacts on their Quality of Life (QOL). Although existing assistive technologies enable people with upper-body motor impairments to use different input modalities to interact with computing devices independently (e.g., using voice to interact with a computer), many people still require Personal Care Assistants (PCAs) to perform ADLs. Multimodal input has the potential to enable users to perform ADLs without human assistance. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with people who have upper-body motor impairments to capture their existing practices and challenges of performing ADLs, identify opportunities to expand the input possibilities for assistive devices, and understand user preferences for multimodal interaction during everyday tasks. Finally, we discuss implications for the design and use of multimodal input solutions to support user independence and collaborative experiences when performing daily living tasks.
Understanding Visual Arts Experiences of Blind People Li, Franklin Mingzhe; Zhang, Lotus; Bandukda, Maryam ...
Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,
04/2023
Conference Proceeding
Odprti dostop
Visual arts play an important role in cultural life and provide access to social heritage and self-enrichment, but most visual arts are inaccessible to blind people. Researchers have explored ...different ways to enhance blind people’s access to visual arts (e.g., audio descriptions, tactile graphics). However, how blind people adopt these methods remains unknown. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 blind visual arts patrons to understand how they engage with visual artwork and the factors that influence their adoption of visual arts access methods. We further examined interview insights in a follow-up survey (N=220). We present: 1) current practices and challenges of accessing visual artwork in-person and online (e.g., Zoom tour), 2) motivation and cognition of perceiving visual arts (e.g., imagination), and 3) implications for designing visual arts access methods. Overall, our findings provide a roadmap for technology-based support for blind people’s visual arts experiences.
Makeup and cosmetics offer the potential for self-expression and the reshaping of social roles for visually impaired people. However, there exist barriers to conducting a beauty regime because of the ...reliance on visual information and color variances in makeup. We present a content analysis of 145 YouTube videos to demonstrate visually impaired individuals’ unique practices before, during, and after doing makeup. Based on the makeup practices, we then conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 visually impaired people to discuss their perceptions of and challenges with the makeup process in more depth. Overall, through our findings and discussion, we present novel perceptions of makeup from visually impaired individuals (e.g., broader representations of blindness and beauty). The existing challenges provide opportunities for future research to address learning barriers, insufficient feedback, and physical and environmental barriers, making the experience of doing makeup more accessible to people with visual impairments.
Sidewalk robots are increasingly common across the globe. Yet, their operation on public paths poses challenges for people with mobility disabilities (PwMD) who face barriers to accessibility, such ...as insufficient curb cuts. We interviewed 15 PwMD to understand how they perceive sidewalk robots. Findings indicated that PwMD feel they have to compete for space on the sidewalk when robots are introduced. We next interviewed eight robotics practitioners to learn about their attitudes towards accessibility. Practitioners described how issues often stem from robotic companies addressing accessibility only after problems arise. Both interview groups underscored the importance of integrating accessibility from the outset. Building on this finding, we held four co-design workshops with PwMD and practitioners in pairs. These convenings brought to bear accessibility needs around robots operating in public spaces and in the public interest. Our study aims to set the stage for a more inclusive future around public service robots.
Sensemaking in unfamiliar domains can be challenging, demanding considerable user effort to compare different options with respect to various criteria. Prior research and our formative study found ...that people would benefit from reading an overview of an information space upfront, including the criteria others previously found useful. However, existing sensemaking tools struggle with the “cold-start” problem — it not only requires significant input from previous users to generate and share these overviews, but such overviews may also turn out to be biased and incomplete. In this work, we introduce a novel system, Selenite, which leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) as reasoning machines and knowledge retrievers to automatically produce a comprehensive overview of options and criteria to jumpstart users’ sensemaking processes. Subsequently, Selenite also adapts as people use it, helping users find, read, and navigate unfamiliar information in a systematic yet personalized manner. Through three studies, we found that Selenite produced accurate and high-quality overviews reliably, significantly accelerated users’ information processing, and effectively improved their overall comprehension and sensemaking experience.
Individuals with vision impairments employ a variety of strategies for object identification, such as pans or soy sauce, in the culinary process. In addition, they often rely on contextual details ...about objects, such as location, orientation, and current status, to autonomously execute cooking activities. To understand how people with vision impairments collect and use the contextual information of objects while cooking, we conducted a contextual inquiry study with 12 participants in their own kitchens. This research aims to analyze object interaction dynamics in culinary practices to enhance assistive vision technologies for visually impaired cooks. We outline eight different types of contextual information and the strategies that blind cooks currently use to access the information while preparing meals. Further, we discuss preferences for communicating contextual information about kitchen objects as well as considerations for the deployment of AI-powered assistive technologies.
Social inclusion of disabled people has been a topic of interest in HCI research led by the rise of ubiquitous and camera-based technologies. As the research area is increasing, a comprehensive ...understanding of blind, partially sighted (BPS), and sighted people's needs in various social settings is needed to fully inform the design of social technologies. To address this, we conducted semi-structured individual and group interviews with 12 BPS and eight sighted participants. Our findings show that context-dependent information-sharing needs of BPS and sighted people vary across social contexts (illustrated in Figure 1). While currently depending on support from sighted companions, BPS participants expressed a strong sense of independence and agency. We discuss the tensions between BPS people's information needs, sighted people's privacy concerns, and implications for the design of social technologies to support the social inclusion of BPS people.
PDF
