Figure 1. We define and compare cursor-based interactions that support non-visual attention to items within a complex visual scene: (a) window cursor, in which the user moves the device itself to scan the scene and receives information about what is in the center of the image; (b) vertical window cursor, a variation of window cursor that sacrifices the granularity on the vertical axis, but potentially facilitates locating the direction of a specific object; (c) finger cursor, in which the user moves their finger on the real world object they want to access and receives information about details near (or under) their fingertip; and (d) touch cursor, in which the visual scene is brought onto the device screen and the user moves their finger on the touchscreen to receive information about what they touch on the live camera image. ABSTRACTThe human visual system processes complex scenes to focus attention on relevant items. However, blind people cannot visually skim for an area of interest. Instead, they use a com bination of contextual information, knowledge of the spatial layout of their environment, and interactive scanning to find and attend to specific items. In this paper, we define and com pare three cursor-based interactions to help blind people attend to items in a complex visual scene: window cursor (move their phone to scan), finger cursor (point their finger to read), and touch cursor (drag their finger on the touchscreen to explore). We conducted a user study with 12 participants to evaluate the three techniques on four tasks, and found that: window cur sor worked well for locating objects on large surfaces, finger cursor worked well for accessing control panels, and touch cursor worked well for helping users understand spatial lay outs. A combination of multiple techniques will likely be best for supporting a variety of everyday tasks for blind users.