A qualitative study on the needs of visually impaired users in Brazil for smart home interactive technologies

ABSTRACT

Assistive technologies have allowed people with disabilities to perform daily tasks with greater independence and autonomy, especially for visually impaired people. Using smart home solutions allows these users to control their homes with less cognitive and physical demand. However, making such applications accessible to meet the needs of visually impaired users, especially in developing countries, remains a challenge. This paper investigates the perceptions of these users about home automation technologies through semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 visually impaired people participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis revealed results concerning the following themes: (1) how people go about their lives at home and around, how people interact with current appliances, objects and environments, (3) how people perceive their attitude to technologies, (4) the Brazilian context of smart homes, (5) what people think smart homes should do and (6) envisaging ways of interacting with smart home systems. The results obtained provide significant insight into the needs of visually-impaired people in Brazil, with analysis of issues that are common with previous studies in more developed countries and specific issues that have important particularities and implications in Brazil and other developing countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Accessibility
• smart home
• disability access

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the participants who contribute with their time and insights to allow the development of this research. We also thank the reviewers for their most valuable contribution to improving the quality of this study and to deepening the understanding of the issues investigated in the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smsrobot.callu&hl=pt_BR

2 Available in: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Lcr2qNWuB_Nue9eAFKcda9H5TbHs_YGMwNQryDC2-Q/edit?usp=sharing

3 https://www.nvaccess.org/

4 https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/

5 http://intervox.nce.ufrj.br/dosvox/

6 https://www.virtualvision.com.br/

7 http://www.looktel.com/moneyreader

8 https://www.bemyeyes.com/

9 https://taptapseeapp.com/

10 https://store.google.com/ca/product/google_home

11 https://www.apple.com/ios/home/accessories/

12 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/light-detector/id420929143

13 https://www.voicedream.com/scanner/

Additional information

Funding

This work received financial support by CAPES, CNPq grant # 315721/2021-9, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [grant # 2020/05187-5], FAPEMIG and FINEP.