Abstract-We propose a vibrotactile interface in the form of a belt for guiding blind walkers. This interface enables blind walkers to receive haptic directional instructions along complex paths without negatively impacting users' ability to listen and/or perceive the environment the way some auditory directional instructions do. The belt interface was evaluated in a controlled study with 10 blind individuals and compared to the audio guidance. The experiments were videotaped and the participants' behaviors and comments were content analyzed. Completion times and deviations from ideal paths were also collected and statistically analyzed. By triangulating the quantitative and qualitative data, we found that the belt resulted in closer path following to the expense of speed. In general, the participants were positive about the use of vibrotactile belt to provide directional guidance.

Both sighted and visually impaired people value having a photographic memento of a place or an event. However, due to the visually oriented nature of photography and the lack of nonvisual cues to indicate the content of the photo, the common belief is that it is difficult for people with limited vision to take, organize and share pictures. However, we did not find a structured study on the photographic practice of those with limited vision. We ran a survey among 54 totally blind, light perception, and legally blind participants to investigate their photo taking, browsing, and online sharing. Based on this survey, we developed a mobile app to help blind persons take and recognize picture content using non-visual cues. The application was tested with five legally and totally blind persons with mostly positive results.

We report an online learning system for adults with developmental disabilities (DD) developed in collaboration with Imagine!, a Colorado based organization that provides support services to people with developmental and cognitive disabilities. Our HTML5 online application includes lessons to teach adults with DD of all ages about numbers, letters and currency. We implemented the application on an iPad to take advantage of the simplicity of touch-based interactions. Our preliminary user evaluation suggests that the system is well-received by its intended users, and unlike competitor systems that teach basic skills, is not considered childish and boring.

Most work on document creators for blind people mainly concentrates on supporting document writing rather than document formatting, even though blind authors' documents are often treated dismissively when they do not match "expected" standards and many blind authors rely on sighted people to check their documents. Through understanding sighted readers' expectations and strategies and problems blind authors experience with current word processors, we compiled a set of guidelines for a formatting tool for blind authors. The guidelines include: the ability for users to control the level of corrections, the timeliness and intuitiveness of the information, and the compatibility with screen readers. We then developed a prototype with which we are conducting a case study evaluation, mainly, to come up with more guidelines. Emerging guidelines include: differentiating voices associated with content and formatting information, the ability to record user preference, and a preview of the surrounding context of the formatted items. Author KeywordsAssistive technology; user interface; blind users; word processors; screen readers; Microsoft Word add-in.

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