A Recipe for Success? Exploring Strategies for Improving Non-Visual Access to Cooking Instructions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the challenges faced by individuals with vision impairments in accessing cooking instructions and offers design guidelines for developing accessible kitchen technologies.

Contribution

It provides new insights into recipe access challenges and proposes design features for accessible cooking technologies based on user interviews.

Findings

Identified key challenges in accessing recipes during different cooking stages

Gathered user preferences for recipe information representation

Suggested design features for accessible kitchen technology

Abstract

Cooking is an essential activity that enhances quality of life by enabling individuals to prepare their own meals. However, cooking often requires multitasking between cooking tasks and following instructions, which can be challenging to cooks with vision impairments if recipes or other instructions are inaccessible. To explore the practices and challenges of recipe access while cooking, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 people with vision impairments who have cooking experience and four cooking instructors at a vision rehabilitation center. We also asked participants to edit and give feedback on existing recipes. We revealed unique practices and challenges to accessing recipe information at different cooking stages, such as the heavy burden of hand-washing to interact with recipe readers. We also presented the preferred information representation and structure of recipes. We then highlighted design features of technological supports that could facilitate the development of more accessible kitchen technologies for recipe access. Our work contributes nuanced insights and design guidelines to enhance recipe accessibility for people with vision impairments.