GPS and smartphones enable users to place location-based annotations, capturing rich environmental context. Previous research demonstrates that blind and low vision (BLV) people can use annotations to explore unfamiliar areas. However, current commercial systems allowing BLV users to create annotations have never been evaluated, and current GPS-based systems can deviate several meters. Motivated by high-accuracy visual positioning technology, we first conducted a formative study with 24 BLV participants to envision a more accurate and inclusive annotation system. Surprisingly, many participants viewed the high-accuracy technology not just as an annotation system but also as a tool for precise last-few-meters navigation. Guided by participant feedback, we developed NaviNote, which combines vision-based high-precision localization with an agentic architecture to enable voice-based annotation authoring and navigation. Evaluating NaviNote with 18 BLV participants showed that it significantly improved navigation performance and supported users in understanding and annotating their surroundings. Based on these findings, we discuss design considerations for future accessible annotation authoring systems.

Recent advances in smartphone technology have elevated their potential as digital assistive technologies (AT) for blind or partially sighted (BPS) and deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) individuals.However, there is a gap in fully understanding the use of smartphones as AT and their impact on the quality of life (QoL) of BPS and DHH individuals.To address this gap, we conducted a mixed-methods longitudinal study over six months with 193 participants in Kenya.The study involved a baseline survey, smartphone digital skills training, and a follow-up survey and interviews to examine the impact of smartphones as AT.The findings emphasise the significant impact of smartphones on their quality of life, including impact on their identity and well-being, social inclusion and leisure, access to information and education, and material well-being.Building on the findings, we contribute an AT Impact Framework, which

Video content creation offers vital opportunities for expression and participation, yet remains largely inaccessible to creators with sensory impairments, especially in low-resource settings.We conducted interviews with 20 video creators with visual and hearing impairments in Kenya to examine their tools, challenges, and collaborative practices.Our findings show that accessibility barriers and infrastructural limitations shape video creation as a staged, collaborative process involving trusted human partners and emerging AI tools.Across workflows, creators actively negotiated agency and trust, maintaining creative control while bridging sensory gaps.We discuss the need for flexible, interdependent collaboration models, inclusive human-AI workflows, and diverse storytelling practices.This work broadens accessibility research in HCI by examining how technology and social factors intersect in low-resource contexts, suggesting ways to better support disabled creators globally.

Digital inclusion is essential for attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and for ensuring no one is left behind. In low-and-middle countries (LMICs), people lack the digital skills to access good-quality employment opportunities. It has been shown in other contexts that scaffolding the learning of digital skills can enhance people’s attainment of digital skills; specifically, these interventions target increasing the zones of actual development and independent action. However, to date, fewer studies have looked specifically at the role of digital skills training via smartphones for blind and partially sighted and deaf and hard-of-hearing people in LMICs. We conducted classroom-based training and peer learning through WhatsApp groups for 138 people in India and Kenya. Our findings emphasize the role of inclusive scaffolding and instructional and community-based peer learning. As such, we present a new digital scaffolding framework for inclusive instructional and peer learning, extending Vygotsky’s Scaffolding Theory.

In a world where diversity is increasingly recognised and celebrated, it is important for HCI to embrace the evolving methods and theories for technologies to reflect the diversity of its users and be ability-centric. Interdependence Theory, an example of this evolution, highlights the interpersonal relationships between humans and technologies and how technologies should be designed to meet shared goals and outcomes for people, regardless of their abilities. This necessitates a contemporary understanding of "ability-diverse collaboration," which motivated this review. In this review, we offer an analysis of 117 papers sourced from the ACM Digital Library spanning the last two decades. We contribute (1) a unified taxonomy and the Ability-Diverse Collaboration Framework, (2) a reflective discussion and mapping of the current design space, and (3) future research opportunities and challenges. Finally, we have released our data and analysis tool to encourage the HCI research community to contribute to this ongoing effort.

Sexually transmitted infections are highly prevalent in the United Kingdom, and chlamydia, which is largely asymptomatic, is the most common. Digital health is being integrated into health service provision to support the increasing demand for testing and treatment. However, with this integration, there is a need to ensure that the design, development, and deployment of digital health platforms are inclusive and accessible for all. This paper explores the needs of blind and partially sighted people when using an online sexual health clinic through interviews with seven blind and partially sighted people. The findings identified key barriers and facilitators that impact the accessibility of online sexual health clinics, including the accessibility of the visual content, particularly for self-testing and the need to consider the privacy of disclosing sexual health information. We align with the principles of Universal Design and, as such, present design recommendations to inform the design of inclusive online sexual health interventions.

Visual arts play an important role in cultural life and provide access to social heritage and self-enrichment, but most visual arts are inaccessible to blind people. Researchers have explored different ways to enhance blind people’s access to visual arts (e.g., audio descriptions, tactile graphics). However, how blind people adopt these methods remains unknown. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 blind visual arts patrons to understand how they engage with visual artwork and the factors that influence their adoption of visual arts access methods. We further examined interview insights in a follow-up survey (N=220). We present: 1) current practices and challenges of accessing visual artwork in-person and online (e.g., Zoom tour), 2) motivation and cognition of perceiving visual arts (e.g., imagination), and 3) implications for designing visual arts access methods. Overall, our findings provide a roadmap for technology-based support for blind people’s visual arts experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced researchers to find new ways to continue research, as universities and laboratories experienced closure due to nationwide lockdowns in many countries worldwide, including conducting experiments, workshops, and ethnographic work online. While this had a significant impact on the majority of research work across SIGCHI, research relating to disability and ageing was most impacted due to the additional challenges of recruiting participants, finding accessible online platforms, and ensuring seamless participation while juggling platform accessibility issues, facilitation, and supporting participants’ needs. These challenges were more extreme for disabled researchers. In this workshop, we aim to bring together researchers, designers, and practitioners to explore effective strategies and brainstorm actionable guidelines for supporting disability inclusive online research methods and platforms.

Orientation and mobility (O&M) training provides essential skills and techniques for safe and independent mobility for blind and partially sighted (BPS) people. The demand for O&M training is increasing as the number of people living with vision impairment increases. Despite the growing portfolio of HCI research on assistive technologies (AT), few studies have examined the experiences of BPS people during O&M training, including the use of technology to aid O&M training. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 BPS people and 8 Mobility and Orientation Trainers (MOT). The interviews were thematically analysed and organised into four overarching themes discussing factors influencing the self-efficacy belief of BPS people: Tools and Strategies for O&M training, Technology Use in O&M Training, Changing Personal and Social Circumstances, and Social Influences. We further highlight opportunities for combinations of multimodal technologies to increase access to and effectiveness of O&M training.

Interacting with natural environments such as parks and the countryside improves health and wellbeing. These spaces allow for exercise, relaxation, socialising and exploring nature, however, they are often not used by blind and partially sighted people (BPSP). To better understand the needs of BPSP for outdoor leisure experience and barriers encountered in planning, accessing and engaging with natural environments, we conducted an exploratory qualitative online survey (22 BPSP), semi-structured interviews (20 BPSP) and a focus group (9 BPSP; 1 support worker). We also explored how current technologies support park experiences for BPSP. Our findings identify common barriers across the stages of planning (e.g. limited accessible information about parks), accessing (e.g. poor wayfinding systems), engaging with and sharing leisure experiences. Across all stages (PLan, Access, Engage, Share) we found a common theme of Contribute. BPSP wished to co-plan their trip, contribute to ways of helping others access a place, develop multisensory approaches to engaging in their surroundings and share their experiences to help others. In this paper, we present the initial work supporting the development of a framework for understanding the leisure experiences of BPSP. We explore this theme of contribution and propose a framework where this feeds into each of the stages of leisure experience, resulting in the proposed, PLACES framework (PLan, Access, Contribute, Engage, Share), which aims to provide a foundation for future research on accessibility and outdoor leisure experiences for BPSP and people with disabilities.