"Game Changer" or "Overenthusiastic Drunk Acquaintance"? Generative AI Use by Blind and Low Vision Software Professionals in the Workplace

TL;DR

This study explores how blind and low vision software professionals use generative AI in their work, highlighting benefits like increased productivity and accessibility, but also risks such as hallucinations and organizational barriers.

Contribution

It provides the first qualitative insights into BLVSPs' experiences with GenAI, revealing unique challenges and benefits specific to their accessibility needs in the workplace.

Findings

GenAI improves productivity and accessibility for BLVSPs.

BLVSPs are more vulnerable to hallucinations in GenAI outputs.

Organizational policies sometimes restrict GenAI use.

Abstract

The software development workplace poses numerous technical and collaborative accessibility challenges for blind and low vision software professionals (BLVSPs). Though Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly adopted within the software development industry and has been a rapidly growing topic of interest in research, to date, the unique perspectives of BLVSPs have yet to be consulted. We report on a qualitative study involving 39 semi-structured interviews with BLVSPs about what the introduction of GenAI has meant for their work. We found that BLVSPs used GenAI for many software development tasks, resulting in benefits such as increased productivity and accessibility. However, significant costs were also accompanied by GenAI use as they were more vulnerable to hallucinations than their sighted colleagues. Sometimes, organizational policies prevented use. Based on our findings, we discuss the higher-risks and higher-returns that BLVSPs had to carefully weigh when deciding whether and when to use GenAI tools for work.