skip to main content
10.1145/2818048.2820013acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagescscwConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

How Blind People Interact with Visual Content on Social Networking Services

Published: 27 February 2016 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we explore blind people's motivations, challenges, interactions, and experiences with visual content on Social Networking Services (SNSs). We present findings from an interview study of 11 individuals and a survey study of 60 individuals, all with little to no functional vision. Compared to sighted SNS users, our blind participants faced profound accessibility challenges, including the prevalence of photos without sufficient text descriptions. To overcome the challenges, they developed creative strategies, including using a variety of methods to access SNS features (e.g., opening the mobile site on a desktop browser), and inferring photo content from textual cues and social interactions. When strategies failed, participants reached out for help from trusted friends, or avoided certain features. We discuss our findings in the context of CSCW research and SNS accessibility as a design value. We highlight the social significance of photo interactions for blind people and suggest design practices.

References

[1]
Morgan Ames and Mor Naaman. 2007. Why we tag: motivations for annotation in mobile and online media. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '07), 971-980. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1240624.1240772
[2]
Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince, and Richard E. Ladner. 2008. WebAnywhere: a screen reader on-thego. In Proceedings of the 2008 international crossdisciplinary workshop on Web accessibility (W4A'08), 73-82. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1368044.1368060
[3]
Jeffrey P. Bigham, Samual White, Tom Yeh, et al. 2010. VizWiz: nearly real-time answers to visual questions. In Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST '10), 333–342. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1866029.1866080
[4]
Nathan Bos, Judy Olson, Darren Gergle, Gary Olson, and Zach Wright. 2002. Effects of four computermediated communications channels on trust development. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '02), 135-140. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/503376.503401
[5]
Erin L. Brady, Yu Zhong, Meredith Ringel Morris, and Jeffrey P. Bigham. 2013. Investigating the appropriateness of social network question asking as a resource for blind users. In Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work – (CSCW '13), 1225-1236. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2441776.2441915
[6]
Erin Brady, Meredith Ringel Morris, Yu Zhong, Samuel White, and Jeffrey P Bigham. 2013. Visual challenges in the everyday lives of blind people. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13), 2117–2126. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2470654.2481291
[7]
Maria Claudia Buzzi, Marina Buzzi, Barbara Leporini, and Fahim Akhter. 2010. Is Facebook really 'open' to all? International Symposium on Technology and Society, Proceedings, IEEE, 327–336.
[8]
Francine Chen, Scott Carter, Laurent Denoue, and Jayant Kumar. 2013. SmartDCap: semi-automatic capture of higher quality document images from a smartphone. In Proceedings of the 2013 international conference on Intelligent user interfaces SE (IUI '13), 287–296. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2449396.2449433
[9]
V R Cimarolli and K Boerner. 2005. Social support and well-being in adults who are visually impaired. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 99, 521–534. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://www.afb.org/jvib/jvibabstractnew.asp?articleid=j vib990904
[10]
Alan Dix. 2007. Designing for Appropriation. 27–30. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/41618/
[11]
Maeve Duggan and Joanna Brenner. 2013. The Demographics of Social Media Users-2012. PewResearchCenter, 1–14. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Socialmedia-users.aspx
[12]
Nicole B. Ellison, Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe. 2007. The benefits of facebook 'friends:' Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12, 4, 1143–1168.
[13]
W. Erickson, C. Lee, S. von Schrader. 2014. 2013 Disability Status Report: United States. Cornell University Employment and Disability Institute(EDI). Retrieved July 29, 2015 from http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/
[14]
T. S. Goldhaber, P. M. Langdon, P. J. Clarkson, et al. 2012. Designing Inclusive Systems. Springer London, London.
[15]
Google. Search for pictures with Google Goggles Search Help. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/166331
[16]
Susumu Harada, Daisuke Sato, Dustin W. Adams, Sri Kurniawan, Hironobu Takagi, and Chieko Asakawa. 2013. Accessible photo album. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13), 2127-2136. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2470654.2481292
[17]
Taina Maarit Huurre, Erkki Juhani Komulainen, and Hillevi Marita Aro. 1999. Social support and selfesteem among adolescents with visual impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 93, 26–37. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://www.afb.org
[18]
Internet.org. A focus on efficiency: A whitepaper from Facebook, Ericsson and Qualcomm. (13 September 2013.). Retrieved May 20, 2015 from https://fbcdndragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-akprn1/851575_520797877991079_393255490_n.pdf
[19]
Chandrika Jayant, Hanjie Ji, Samuel White, and Jeffrey P. Bigham. 2011. Supporting blind photography. In The proceedings of the 13th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility (ASSETS '11), 203–210. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2049536.2049573
[20]
Adam N Joinson. 2008. Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people? In Proceeding of the twentysixth annual CHI conference on Human factors in computing systems CHI 08, 1027-1036. DOI=10.1145/1357054.1357213
[21]
Shaun K. Kane, Jessie a. Shulman, Timothy J. Shockley, and Richard E. Ladner. 2007. A web accessibility report card for top international university web sites. In Proceedings of the 2007 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility (W4A '07), 148-156. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1243441.1243472
[22]
Richard E. Ladner, Beverly Slabosky, Andrew Martin, et al. 2005. Automating tactile graphics translation. In Proceedings of the 7th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility (Assets '05), 150-157. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1090785.1090814
[23]
Walter S. Lasecki, Phyo Thiha, Yu Zhong, Erin Brady, and Jeffrey P. Bigham. 2013. Answering visual questions with conversational crowd assistants. In Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '13), 1–8. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2513383.2517033
[24]
Jonathan Lazar, Alfreda Dudley-Sponaugle, and Kisha Dawn Greenidge. 2004. Improving web accessibility: A study of webmaster perceptions. Computers in Human Behavior 20, 2, 269–288.
[25]
Jonathan Lazar, Aaron Allen, Jason Kleinman, and Chris Malarkey. 2007. What Frustrates Screen Reader Users on the Web: A Study of 100 Blind Users. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 22, 3, 247–269.
[26]
Jonathan Lazar, Brian Wentz, C. Akeley, et al. 2012. Equal access to information? Evaluating the accessibility of public library web sites in the state of Maryland. Designing inclusive systems: Designing inclusion for real-world applications, 185–194.
[27]
Jennifer Mankoff, Holly Fait, and Tu Tran. 2005. Is your web page accessible? In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI'05), 41-50. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1054979
[28]
Cade Metz. 2015. Meet the team that makes it possible for the blind to use Facebook. Wired Magazine, February 22, 2015. Retrieved on May 21, 2015 from http://www.wired.com/2015/02/meet-team-makespossible-blind-use-facebook/
[29]
Jarno Ojala and Sanna Malinen. 2012. Photo sharing in small groups. In Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference (MindTrek '12), 6976. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2393132.2393148
[30]
Christopher Power, André Freire, Helen Petrie, and David Swallow. 2012. Guidelines are only half of the story: accessibility problems encountered by blind users on the web. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '12), 433–442. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2207676.2207736
[31]
Ravic Ringlaben, Marty Bray, and Abbot Packard. 2014. Accessibility of American University Special Education Departments' Web Sites. Universal Access in the Information Society 13, 2, 249–254.
[32]
Archie W. N. Roy, Gisela Dimigen, and Marcella Taylor. 1998. The Relationship between Social Networks and the Employment of Visually Impaired College Graduates. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB) 92, 7, 423–432.
[33]
Sharon Zell Sacks, Karen E. Wolffe, and Deborah Tierney. 1998. Lifestyles of students with visual impairments: Preliminary studies of social networks. Exceptional Children 64, 4, 463–478.
[34]
Johnny Saldana. 2008. Coding manual for qualitative researchers. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
[35]
Phoebe Sengers and Bill Gaver. 2006. Staying open to interpretation: engaging multiple meanings in design and evaluation. In Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '06), 99-108. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1142405.1142422
[36]
Ben Shneiderman. 2000. Universal usability. Communications of the ACM 43, 5, 84–91.
[37]
Manya Sleeper, Rebecca Balebako, Sauvik Das, Amber Lynn McConahy, Jason Wiese, and Lorrie Faith Cranor. 2013. The post that wasn't: exploring selfcensorship on facebook. In Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '13), 793-802. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2441776.2441865
[38]
Tien Tay, Jie Jin Wang, Richard Lindley, et al. 2007. Sensory impairment, use of community support services, and quality of life in aged care clients. Journal of aging and health 19, 2, 229–241.
[39]
Catalina L. Toma. 2010. Perceptions of trustworthiness online: the role of visual and textual information. In Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '10), 13-22. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1718918.1718923
[40]
Marynel Vázquez and Aaron Steinfeld. 2012. Helping visually impaired users properly aim a camera. In Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility (ASSETS '12), 95-102. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2384916.2384934
[41]
Joseph B. Walther. 1996. Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction. Communication Research 23, 3-43.
[42]
Web Accessibility Initiative. 2012. WCAG Overview. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php
[43]
WebAIM. 2014. WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey #5 Results. Retrieved May 20, 2015 from http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey5/
[44]
Brian Wentz and Jonathan Lazar. 2011. Are separate interfaces inherently unequal? In Proceedings of the 2011 iConference (iConference '11), 91-97. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1940761.1940774
[45]
Shaomei Wu and La Adamic. 2014. Visually impaired users on an online social network. In Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '14), 3133–3142. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2556288.2557415
[46]
Yu Zhong, Walter S. Lasecki, Erin Brady, and Jeffrey P. Bigham. 2015. RegionSpeak: Quick Comprehensive Spatial Descriptions of Complex Images for Blind Users. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '15), 2353–2362. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2702123.2702437

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Knocking on doors: The use of blogging sites by visually impaired people in the USA preliminary studyConvergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies10.1177/13548565241261963Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
  • (2024)Beadwork Bridge: Understanding and Exploring the Opportunities of Beadwork in Enriching School Education for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) PeopleProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675623(1-14)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • (2024)EditScribe: Non-Visual Image Editing with Natural Language Verification LoopsProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675599(1-19)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • Show More Cited By
  1. How Blind People Interact with Visual Content on Social Networking Services

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Information & Contributors

      Information

      Published In

      cover image ACM Conferences
      CSCW '16: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing
      February 2016
      1866 pages
      ISBN:9781450335928
      DOI:10.1145/2818048
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

      Sponsors

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 27 February 2016

      Permissions

      Request permissions for this article.

      Check for updates

      Author Tags

      1. Blind users
      2. accessibility
      3. assistive technologies
      4. qualitative study.
      5. social networking services

      Qualifiers

      • Research-article

      Funding Sources

      Conference

      CSCW '16
      Sponsor:
      CSCW '16: Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
      February 27 - March 2, 2016
      California, San Francisco, USA

      Acceptance Rates

      CSCW '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 142 of 571 submissions, 25%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

      Upcoming Conference

      CSCW '25

      Contributors

      Other Metrics

      Bibliometrics & Citations

      Bibliometrics

      Article Metrics

      • Downloads (Last 12 months)200
      • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)3
      Reflects downloads up to 14 Feb 2025

      Other Metrics

      Citations

      Cited By

      View all
      • (2024)Knocking on doors: The use of blogging sites by visually impaired people in the USA preliminary studyConvergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies10.1177/13548565241261963Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
      • (2024)Beadwork Bridge: Understanding and Exploring the Opportunities of Beadwork in Enriching School Education for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) PeopleProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675623(1-14)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
      • (2024)EditScribe: Non-Visual Image Editing with Natural Language Verification LoopsProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675599(1-19)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
      • (2024)From Automation to User Empowerment: Investigating the Role of a Semi-automatic Tool in Social Media AccessibilityACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/364764317:3(1-25)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2024
      • (2024)Utilizing a Dense Video Captioning Technique for Generating Image Descriptions of Comics for People with Visual ImpairmentsProceedings of the 29th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces10.1145/3640543.3645154(750-760)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2024
      • (2024)"Because Some Sighted People, They Don't Know What the Heck You're Talking About:" A Study of Blind Tokers' Infrastructuring Work to Build IndependenceProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36372978:CSCW1(1-30)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
      • (2024)Challenges to Online Disability Rights Advocacy in IndiaProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642737(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2024)Designing Accessible Obfuscation Support for Blind Individuals’ Visual Privacy ManagementProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642713(1-19)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2024)“It’s Kind of Context Dependent”: Understanding Blind and Low Vision People’s Video Accessibility Preferences Across Viewing ScenariosProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642238(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2024)Salient Object Detection for Images Taken by People With Vision Impairments2024 IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV)10.1109/WACV57701.2024.00833(8507-8516)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2024
      • Show More Cited By

      View Options

      Login options

      View options

      PDF

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader

      Figures

      Tables

      Media

      Share

      Share

      Share this Publication link

      Share on social media