The challenges in adopting assistive technologies in the workplace for people with visual impairments

Abstract

There are many barriers to employment for people with visual impairments. Assistive technologies (ATs), such as computer screen readers and enlarging software, are commonly used to help overcome employment barriers and enable people with visual impairments to contribute to, and participate in, the workforce. However, recent research suggests it can be difficult for people with visual impairments to effectively adopt and implement ATs in the workplace. This paper reports insights from interviews with five professional workers with visual impairments. The interviews revealed that each participant had adopted different configurations of ATs, which they used in various ways to support their work. In addition, all participants followed a complex process to successfully select, learn, and integrate these tools into their work activities. During this process, they faced challenges, such as the need to educate colleagues to make shared documents more accessible. We conclude that despite progress in the development and use of ATs, there remains a need for future work that addresses these accessibility issues to support collaborative work between people with visual impairments and their sighted colleagues.

Reframing Disability as Competency: Unpacking Everyday Technology Practices of People with Visual Impairments

“…There have been decades of research into accessible technologies. This has examined visually impaired peoples' use of desktop computers, mobile devices and screen readers [18,30,32,53,60,64]. Accessibility issues of websites and applications also have been widely investigated [14,32,56].…”

“…A large and longstanding body of literature has also investigated outdoor and indoor navigation and wayfinding [8,24], whilst some research has also investigated other specific activities around technology. Prior work has also examined people with VI's practices in everyday life, such as social and professional interactions [49,55], demonstrations and discussions of technology use [2,48] and creation and maintenance of accessible spaces [7,10,30,60].…”

“…Generally, prior research has found that people with VI employ a range of methods, strategies, workarounds or configurations for overcoming accessibility issues encountered or for adapting to their environment, such as appropriating the phone's camera as magnifier [2,53,60], placing markers on objects in order to find and identify them [10], or requesting co-located or remote assistance [3,5,33,54]. These methods are strictly related to one's unique conditions and experiences.…”

Playing Blind

“…PVI experience higher rates of unemployment and of underemployment than are found in the general population [53,83,107]. To date, much of this research has been focused on everyday participation, including key workplace issues such as accessibility and the education of sighted colleagues [109]. Dobransky and Hargittai [36] have explored internet adoption by people with disabilities in the US and argue that technology has a tremendous potential to include these individuals in an inaccessible society.…”

“…Tensions of PVI integrating to mainstream activities such as regular employment, and the workarounds they rely on have been explored in depth [109]. Additionally, projects have proposed both general guidelines for accessible game design [58] and more specific guidelines, for example the Meeple Like Us guidelines to accommodate PVI playing tabletop games [59].…”