Exploring Space: User Interfaces for Blind and Visually Impaired People for Spatial and Non-verbal Information

Meetings play an important role in today’s work environment. Unfortunately, blind and visually impaired people often encounter difficulties in participating fully and equally. The main reasons are twofold: Firstly, visual aids such as whiteboards, flipcharts, or projectors are often used, which present information in a 2D format. Secondly, nonverbal communication plays an essential role, with frequent use of deictic gestures, like pointing gestures, incorporating spatial information into the conversation. These factors lead to a disadvantage for blind and visually impaired individuals in the workplace. As part of the research project MAPVI [5], an accessible brainstorming tool for meetings has been developed, capable of storing nonverbal and spatial information, which can be connected to various devices such as computers, smartphones, and smartwatches. This provides a solid foundation for successfully addressing these issues through innovative user interaction concepts, making spatial information accessible and understandable for blind and visually impaired individuals. Prototypes of these user interface concepts have been developed and tested with the target group in a staged and iterative manner, with implementations running in the browser, on a smartphone, and on a smartwatch. This paper will outline the development and testing procedures, as well as the corresponding test results.