Advantages and Drawbacks of Smartphones and Tablets for Visually Impaired People —— Analysis of ICT User Survey Results ——

Tetsuya WATANABE; Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI; Kazunori MINATANI

doi:10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317

Advantages and Drawbacks of Smartphones and Tablets for Visually Impaired People —— Analysis of ICT User Survey Results ——

Tetsuya WATANABE, Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI, Kazunori MINATANI

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A survey was conducted on the use of ICT by visually impaired people. Among 304 respondents, 81 used smartphones and 44, tablets. Blind people used feature phones at a higher rate and smartphones and tablets at lower rates than people with low vision. The most popular smartphone model was iPhone and the most popular tablet model was iPad. While almost all blind users used the speech output accessibility feature and only a few of them used visual features, low vision users used both visual features such as Zoom, Large text, and Invert colors and speech output at high rates both on smartphones and tablets. The most popular text entry methods were different between smartphones and tablets. For smartphones flick and numeric keypad input were popular among low vision users while voice input was the most popular among blind users. For tablets a software QWERTY keyboard was the most popular among both blind and low vision users. The advantages of smartphones were access to geographical information, quick Web browsing, voice input, and extensibility for both blind and low vision users, object recognition for blind users, and readability for low vision users. Tablets also work as a vision aid for people with low vision. The drawbacks of smartphones and tablets were text entry and touch operation difficulties and inaccessible apps for both blind and low vision users, problems in speech output for blind users, and problems in readability for low vision users. Researchers and makers of operating systems (OS) and apps should assume responsibility for solving these problems.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E98-D No.4 pp.922-929

Publication Date: 2015/04/01

Publicized: 2014/12/26

Online ISSN: 1745-1361

DOI: 10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317

Type of Manuscript: PAPER

Category: Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology

Authors

Tetsuya WATANABE
  Niigata University
Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI
  Niigata University
Kazunori MINATANI
  National Center for University Entrance Examinations

Keyword

visually impaired people, smartphones, tablets, touch interface, user survey

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Tetsuya WATANABE, Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI, Kazunori MINATANI, "Advantages and Drawbacks of Smartphones and Tablets for Visually Impaired People —— Analysis of ICT User Survey Results ——" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information, vol. E98-D, no. 4, pp. 922-929, April 2015, doi: 10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317.
Abstract: A survey was conducted on the use of ICT by visually impaired people. Among 304 respondents, 81 used smartphones and 44, tablets. Blind people used feature phones at a higher rate and smartphones and tablets at lower rates than people with low vision. The most popular smartphone model was iPhone and the most popular tablet model was iPad. While almost all blind users used the speech output accessibility feature and only a few of them used visual features, low vision users used both visual features such as Zoom, Large text, and Invert colors and speech output at high rates both on smartphones and tablets. The most popular text entry methods were different between smartphones and tablets. For smartphones flick and numeric keypad input were popular among low vision users while voice input was the most popular among blind users. For tablets a software QWERTY keyboard was the most popular among both blind and low vision users. The advantages of smartphones were access to geographical information, quick Web browsing, voice input, and extensibility for both blind and low vision users, object recognition for blind users, and readability for low vision users. Tablets also work as a vision aid for people with low vision. The drawbacks of smartphones and tablets were text entry and touch operation difficulties and inaccessible apps for both blind and low vision users, problems in speech output for blind users, and problems in readability for low vision users. Researchers and makers of operating systems (OS) and apps should assume responsibility for solving these problems.
URL: https://globals.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317/_p

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@ARTICLE{e98-d_4_922,
author={Tetsuya WATANABE, Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI, Kazunori MINATANI, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Advantages and Drawbacks of Smartphones and Tablets for Visually Impaired People —— Analysis of ICT User Survey Results ——},
year={2015},
volume={E98-D},
number={4},
pages={922-929},
abstract={A survey was conducted on the use of ICT by visually impaired people. Among 304 respondents, 81 used smartphones and 44, tablets. Blind people used feature phones at a higher rate and smartphones and tablets at lower rates than people with low vision. The most popular smartphone model was iPhone and the most popular tablet model was iPad. While almost all blind users used the speech output accessibility feature and only a few of them used visual features, low vision users used both visual features such as Zoom, Large text, and Invert colors and speech output at high rates both on smartphones and tablets. The most popular text entry methods were different between smartphones and tablets. For smartphones flick and numeric keypad input were popular among low vision users while voice input was the most popular among blind users. For tablets a software QWERTY keyboard was the most popular among both blind and low vision users. The advantages of smartphones were access to geographical information, quick Web browsing, voice input, and extensibility for both blind and low vision users, object recognition for blind users, and readability for low vision users. Tablets also work as a vision aid for people with low vision. The drawbacks of smartphones and tablets were text entry and touch operation difficulties and inaccessible apps for both blind and low vision users, problems in speech output for blind users, and problems in readability for low vision users. Researchers and makers of operating systems (OS) and apps should assume responsibility for solving these problems.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={April},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - Advantages and Drawbacks of Smartphones and Tablets for Visually Impaired People —— Analysis of ICT User Survey Results ——
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 922
EP - 929
AU - Tetsuya WATANABE
AU - Toshimitsu YAMAGUCHI
AU - Kazunori MINATANI
PY - 2015
DO - 10.1587/transinf.2014EDP7317
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E98-D
IS - 4
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - April 2015
AB - A survey was conducted on the use of ICT by visually impaired people. Among 304 respondents, 81 used smartphones and 44, tablets. Blind people used feature phones at a higher rate and smartphones and tablets at lower rates than people with low vision. The most popular smartphone model was iPhone and the most popular tablet model was iPad. While almost all blind users used the speech output accessibility feature and only a few of them used visual features, low vision users used both visual features such as Zoom, Large text, and Invert colors and speech output at high rates both on smartphones and tablets. The most popular text entry methods were different between smartphones and tablets. For smartphones flick and numeric keypad input were popular among low vision users while voice input was the most popular among blind users. For tablets a software QWERTY keyboard was the most popular among both blind and low vision users. The advantages of smartphones were access to geographical information, quick Web browsing, voice input, and extensibility for both blind and low vision users, object recognition for blind users, and readability for low vision users. Tablets also work as a vision aid for people with low vision. The drawbacks of smartphones and tablets were text entry and touch operation difficulties and inaccessible apps for both blind and low vision users, problems in speech output for blind users, and problems in readability for low vision users. Researchers and makers of operating systems (OS) and apps should assume responsibility for solving these problems.
ER -