Understanding How People with Visual Impairments Take Selfies: Experiences and Challenges

Abstract

Selfies are a pervasive form of communication in social media. While there has been some work on systems that guide people with visual impairments (PVI) in taking photos, nearly all has focused on using the camera on the back of the device. We do not know whether and how PVI take selfies. The aim of our work is to understand (1) PVI selfie-taking experiences and challenges, (2) what information do PVI need when taking selfies, and (3) what modalities do PVI prefer (e.g., tactile, verbal, or non-verbal audio) to support selfie-taking. To address this gap, we conducted interviews with 10 PVI. Our findings show that current selfie-taking applications do not provide enough assistance to meet the needs of PVI. We contribute design guidelines that researchers and designers can implement for creating accessible selfie-taking applications.