Touchscreen Exploration

An accessibility interaction mode where blind and low vision users explore digital content by moving their finger across a touchscreen, receiving audio or haptic feedback about elements beneath their fingertip. Touchscreen exploration has been applied to 2-D interfaces (through screen readers like VoiceOver), images, graphics, data visualizations, and 3-D virtual environments. Research shows that BLV users benefit from both free-form exploration (for spatial awareness) and structured navigation (for predictability and efficiency), and that combining both approaches supports diverse exploration strategies.