Enhancing usability of digital libraries: Designing help features to support blind and visually impaired users

Highlights

• This study frames vulnerabilities of BVI users within the social model of disability in which improper DL design impairs their ability to effectively access and use DLs.

• Designing digital library help features based on blind and visually impaired (BVI) user needs reduces the number of help-seeking situations these users face.

• Adding help features is more useful for supporting BVI users’ interactions with digital libraries.

• Adding help features makes digital libraries easier for BVI users to use.

• Adding help features increases BVI user satisfaction in digital library use.

Abstract

Blind and visually impaired (BVI) users experience vulnerabilities in digital library (DL) environments largely due to limitations in DL design that prevent them from effectively interacting with DL content and features. Existing research has not adequately examined how BVI users interact with DLs, nor the typical problems encountered during interactions. This is the first study conducted to test whether implementing help features corresponding to BVI users’ needs can reduce five critical help-seeking situations they typically encounter, with the goal to further enhance usability of DLs. Multiple data collection methods including pre-questionnaires, think-aloud protocols, transaction logs, and pre and post search interviews, were employed in an experimental design. Forty subjects were divided into two groups with similar demographic data based on data generated from pre-questionnaires. The findings of this study show that the experimental group encountered fewer number of help-seeking situations than the control group when interacting with the experimental and baseline versions of a DL. Moreover, the experimental group outperformed the control group on perceived usefulness of the DL features, ease of use of the DL, and DL satisfaction. This study provides theoretical and practical contributions to the field of library and information science. Theoretically, this study frames vulnerabilities of BVI users within the social model of disability in which improper DL design impairs their ability to effectively access and use DLs. Practically, this study takes into account BVI users’ critical help-seeking situations and further translates these into the design of help features to improve the usability of DLs.

Introduction

The global BVI population exceeds 1.3 billion (World Health Organization, 2018), of whom 25 million reside in the U.S. (American Foundation for the Blind, 2018). In this paper, a “BVI user” refers to someone without the sight necessary to see information presented on a display screen and who relies on screen-reader (SR) software to use information retrieval (IR) systems. The SR identifies and interprets text content on a system interface and presents this aurally through a synthetic voice (Di Blas, Paolini & Speroni, 2004). The BVI comprise a vulnerable user group that interacts with IR systems, including digital libraries (DLs), in different ways than sighted users.

According to Aday (1994), to be vulnerable is to be in a position of being hurt, marginalized, or ignored—as well as helped—by others. BVI users are among these vulnerable groups mainly because there is inadequate support for their IR system interactions. It's important to note that, in recent years, disability theorists have developed a social model of disability to challenge traditional and reductive assumptions about disability that were based in the medical model of disability, where people with impairments are viewed as abnormal, lacking, and unable to fully participate in society (Andreas Kleynhans & Fourie, 2014). According to the medical model, which has traditionally been applied within fields such as science, medicine, and technology, those with disabilities are regarded as having an impairment or deficit that needs to be cured, altered, or normalized. Disability theorists challenge these notions, and instead focus on the social and cultural structures and conditions that limit, restrict, or fail to accommodate people with impairments (Walters, 2010). When considering universal design, accessibility, and usability in the context of DL design, it's important to consider how it is not the impairment of the individual that prevents access to information, but rather the barriers created by social context and environment (Brebner & Parkinson, 2006). BVI users remain vulnerable in the digital environment even though administrative supports such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and technological supports like SRs, have existed for the past two to three decades. Prior research (Babu and Singh, 2013, Clark, 2006, Di Blas et al., 2004, June, Leuthold et al., 2008) has consistently shown that while these supports are necessary for technical accessibility, they do not fully account for the differing abilities, needs, and challenges of BVI users in interacting with digital environments.

This research is concerned with designing BVI-friendly DLs. A DL is an online collection of digital content created by libraries and cultural heritage institutions excluding those purchased from publishers. It is envisioned as the gateway of universal access to information. Just as other library services, DLs are deployed to reach a wider user base. However, research shows this goal is yet to be fulfilled for marginalized and vulnerable communities like the BVI (Jaeger, Bertot & Franklin, 2010). One of the key factors could be the current designs of DLs fail to account for the needs of these users (Babu and Xie, 2017, Xie et al., 2018). Existing DLs, like other online systems, are sight-centered by design, and characterized by complex structures and multimedia formats—attributes that run counter to the non-visual mode of information access that SRs offer BVI users (Andronico et al., 2006, Jones et al., 2005, Lazar et al., 2007). Very scant research examines the DL experiences of BVI users. Relevant literature explains how it is significantly more challenging for non-sighted users to use a DL and understand the content presented than it is for sighted users (Kumar and Sanaman, 2013, Kumar and Sanaman, 2015).

Existing literature does not adequately examine how BVI users interact with DLs, nor the typical problems encountered during their interactions. In order to design DLs to effectively support BVI users, we need to first identify help-seeking situations that these users face in their DL search process. Xie et al., 2015, Xie et al., 2018) conducted studies to address this problem and identified 17 unique help-seeking situations that blind users experience when interacting with DLs. A help-seeking situation is characterized by a problem that arises during a user's interaction with a DL that motivates them to seek some form of assistance in order to complete an information retrieval task. A DL design needs to support users to effectively search for information through implementation of a series of help features, which can influence the usability of the DL. In this study, help features refer not only to explicit help features but also to any DL features that assist users—regardless of their abilities—to overcome any problems in their interactions with DLs. In this way, DLs can actively support BVI users in effectively searching for information instead of passively waiting for them to seek help. Moreover, no research has been conducted to test the usability of DLs that are equipped with new help features based on the needs of BVI users, in particular, and therefore this topic provides fruitful ground for investigation. Theoretically, this study aims to link vulnerabilities of BVI users in the digital environment to help feature design, and the usability of DLs. Practically and methodologically, this study offers an approach that takes into account BVI users’ critical help-seeking situations and further translates them into the design of help features to improve the usability of DLs.