Lost in Instructions: Study of Blind Users' Experiences with DIY Manuals and AI-Rewritten Instructions for Assembly, Operation, and Troubleshooting of Tangible Products

TL;DR

This study investigates how blind users utilize AI tools and manuals for DIY tasks involving tangible products, revealing that current AI assistance often falls short and can worsen the challenges faced by blind individuals.

Contribution

It provides new insights into blind users' experiences with AI and manuals for physical product assembly and troubleshooting, highlighting gaps and proposing improvements.

Findings

Manuals are crucial but often inadequate for blind users.

Current AI tools frequently provide incomplete or misleading guidance.

AI tools need enhancements to better support blind users in DIY tasks.

Abstract

AI tools like ChatGPT and Be-My-AI are increasingly being used by blind individuals. Although prior work has explored their use in some Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tasks by blind individuals, little is known about how they use these tools and the available product-manual resources to assemble, operate, and troubleshoot physical or tangible products - tasks requiring spatial reasoning, structural understanding, and precise execution. We address this knowledge gap via an interview study and a usability study with blind participants, investigating how they leverage AI tools and product manuals for DIY tasks with physical products. Findings show that manuals are essential resources, but product-manual instructions are often inadequate for blind users. AI tools presently do not adequately address this insufficiency; in fact, we observed that they often exacerbate this issue with incomplete, incoherent, or misleading guidance. Lastly, we suggest improvements to AI tools for generating tailored instructions for blind users' DIY tasks involving tangible products.