People who are blind or low-vision may have a harder time participating in exercise due to inaccessibility or lack of experience. We employed Value Sensitive Design (VSD) to explore the potential of technology to enhance exercise for people who are blind or low-vision. We conducted 20 semistructured interviews about exercise and technology with 10 people who are blind or low-vision and 10 people who facilitate fitness for people who are blind or low-vision. We also conducted a survey with 76 people to learn about outsider perceptions of hypothetical exercise with people who are blind or low-vision. Based on our interviews and survey, we found opportunities for technology development in four areas: 1) mainstream exercise classes, 2) exercise with sighted guides, 3) rigorous outdoors activity, and 4) navigation of exercise spaces. Design considerations should include when and how to deliver auditory or haptic information based on exercise and context, and whether it is acceptable to develop less mainstream technologies if they enhance mainstream exercise. This work was published at ASSETS 2015.

Blind tandem cyclist. Photo credit: By Australian Paralympic Committee, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15865922

People

Kyle Rector
Lauren Milne
Richard Ladner
Batya Friedman
Julie Kientz

Publication

• Rector, K., Milne, L., Ladner, R. E., Friedman, B., & Kientz, J. A. (2015, October). Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges with Exercise Technologies for People who are Blind or Low-Vision. In Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (pp. 203-214). ACM.