LêRótulos: A mobile application based on text recognition in images to assist visually impaired people

Abstract

The autonomy of the visual impaired person can be evaluated in day to day activities like recognizing objects, identifying textual information, among others. This paper features the OCR technology-based LêRótulos application, with the objective of helping visually impaired users to identify textual object information that is captured by the camera of an smartphone. The design of the prototype followed guidelines and recommendations for usability and accessibility, aiming for greater user autonomy. There was an evaluation with specialists and end users, in real situations of use. The results indicated that the application has good usability and meets accessibility criteria for blind and low vision users. However, some improvements were indicated. Related work is presented, the LêRótulos design process, the results of usability and accessibility assessments, and lessons learned for the development of assistive technology aimed at visually impaired users.