Understanding Smartphone-based Online Shopping Experiences and Behaviors of Blind Users

Abstract

Smartphones provide blind users with screenreader as an accessibility tool. However, blind users often experience difficulties accessing online shopping malls via smartphones due to their inconsistent and imagebased layouts. To enable screenreader users to get access to the detailed information about products while they are shopping online, we have developed BarrierFreeShop, an accessible mobile shopping application for people with visual impairments. BarrierFreeShop has three accessibility features: (1) layout automation, (2) review summarization, and (3) optical character recognition. We conducted a user study with 80 participants with visual impairments where they were asked to use BarrierFreeShop for a month. The findings revealed the effectiveness of our app in terms of speed and post interview feedback. We have also discovered typical shopping experiences that participants had during the test. This research suggests that computer vision technologies can improve accessibility issues in online shopping malls. In addition, we have confirmed that extracting contents from images help people with visual impairments to get better access to product information.