People with visual impairments face significant barriers to participation in public life and productive contributions in the workplace. Barriers due to inaccessible information and communication technology can make it difficult for a person with visual impairments to excel in school or find employment commensurate with his or her abilities and potential. Fortunately, accessible computing technology enables people with visual impairments to access information that was previously inaccessible. For example, people with visual impairments can use screen reader software to translate electronic documents into speech or Braille. However, barriers still exist in the context of using computers to participate in the contemporary classroom or workplace because these are now places where active, real-time, face-to-face collaboration with other people has become the norm, and because there is a gulf between the look and feel of assistive technology such as screen readers and the look and feel of contemporary graphical user interfaces such as those used routinely by people without disabilities. Screen readers are difficult to learn and use, and operate quite differently than contemporary graphical user interfaces, and most sighted people do not know how to use screen readers, and so the opportunity for shared artifacts in communication and collaboration is reduced.
The focus of this proposal is to explore and identify barriers to collaboration between people with and without visual impairments. This research will support the development of tools that will bridge the gap between the non-graphical user interfaces used by people with visual impairments and the graphical interfaces used by sighted people, enabling individuals with any level of visual ability to collaborate at school or work. Building on prior research on developing accessible user interfaces for people with visual impairments, this project will explore the challenges of collocated synchronous collaboration between people with and without visual impairments. The researchers will conduct formative interviews and observational studies of professional adults with and without visual impairments to understand the barriers to collaboration within and across these populations. Very little prior research has explored these issues. This project will conduct a deep exploration to reveal accessibility barriers that were previously hidden and unknown.
Broader Impacts: This research will identify existing barriers to employment that can be addressed through changes in policy or practice, or through the development of new technology. Enabling people with visual impairments to work alongside their sighted peers will significantly improve educational and employment outcomes for millions of people. The research project itself will be developed in the context of a collaboration between people with and without visual impairments, and will include blind and visually impaired people from the local community.
