Ubiquitous Accessibility for People with Visual Impairments: Are We There Yet?
Open accessAbstract
Ubiquitous access is an increasingly common vision of computing, wherein users can interact with any computing device or service from anywhere, at any time. In the era of personal computing, users with visual impairments required special-purpose, assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to interact with computers. This paper investigates whether technologies like screen readers have kept pace with, or have created a barrier to, the trend toward ubiquitous access, with a specific focus on desktop computing as this is still the primary way computers are used in education and employment. Towards that, the paper presents a user study with 21 visually-impaired participants, specifically involving the switching of screen readers within and across different computing platforms, and the use of screen readers in remote access scenarios. Among the findings, the study shows that, even for remote desktop access-an early forerunner of true ubiquitous access-screen readers are too limited, if not unusable. The study also identifies several accessibility needs, such as uniformity of navigational experience across devices, and recommends potential solutions. In summary, assistive technologies have not made the jump into the era of ubiquitous access, and multiple, inconsistent screen readers create new practical problems for users with visual impairments.
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A prior study found that blind participants valued uniform access across applications, screen readers, and platforms, and all participants considered its absence a significant drawback.
“In a previous study, blind participants emphasized the importance of having uniform and consistent access independent of the specific application, screen readers, and platforms [10], and the absence of this type of access in contemporary assistive technology was considered a significant drawback by all study participants.”
From Enabling Uniform Computer Interaction Experience for Blind Users through Large Language Models (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
The Discussion (Uniformity of interaction experience; page unavailable) identifies consistent access across screen readers and platforms as a recurring need, and the Conclusion extends that need to applications and operating systems. The paper says all participants wanted a portable screen reader, but it does not say that all participants judged the absence of uniform access across applications, screen readers, and platforms a significant drawback. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBillah et al. observed that differences in shortcut mappings between screen readers and between applications caused confusion and interaction problems for blind screen reader users.
“In another study, Billah et al. [10] observed that differences in shortcut mappings between different screen readers and between different applications generated confusion and interaction problems for blind screen reader users.”
From Enabling Uniform Computer Interaction Experience for Blind Users through Large Language Models (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
The Findings (Switching Devices, Platforms, and Screen Readers; page unavailable) report that screen readers have differing shortcuts and that switching between them is disruptive. The Discussion (page unavailable) links such changes to navigational confusion. The paper calls some shortcuts application-specific, but the cited passages do not establish that differing shortcut mappings between applications caused the reported confusion. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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- Authors
- Billah, S. M., Ashok, V., Porter, D. E., & Ramakrishnan, I. V.
- Affiliations
- Stony Brook University (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2017-05-02
- Volume
- 2017
- Pages
- 5862-5868
- PMC
- PMC5540228
- OpenAlex
- W2611833583
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 7.97
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (CNS-1161541, IIS-1447549)
- VMware
- National Eye Institute of NIH (NIDILRR, 90IF0117-01-00)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Digital Accessibility for Disabilities
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Keywords
- ubiquitous computing, visual impairment, screen readers, assistive technology, remote desktop access, accessibility, accessibility needs, user study
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