ImageAssist: Tools for Enhancing Touchscreen-Based Image Exploration Systems for Blind and Low Vision Users

TL;DR

This paper introduces ImageAssist, a set of tools designed to improve touch-based image exploration for blind and low vision users, addressing usability challenges and enhancing their understanding of digital images.

Contribution

We developed and evaluated three novel tools that scaffold touch-based image exploration, providing deeper insights into improving accessibility for BLV users.

Findings

ImageAssist tools significantly reduced exploration effort.

Users reported increased confidence and understanding.

Design implications for future BLV image exploration systems.

Abstract

Blind and low vision (BLV) users often rely on alt text to understand what a digital image is showing. However, recent research has investigated how touch-based image exploration on touchscreens can supplement alt text. Touchscreen-based image exploration systems allow BLV users to deeply understand images while granting a strong sense of agency. Yet, prior work has found that these systems require a lot of effort to use, and little work has been done to explore these systems' bottlenecks on a deeper level and propose solutions to these issues. To address this, we present ImageAssist, a set of three tools that assist BLV users through the process of exploring images by touch -- scaffolding the exploration process. We perform a series of studies with BLV users to design and evaluate ImageAssist, and our findings reveal several implications for image exploration tools for BLV users.