Browsing Fatigue

Physical and cognitive exhaustion experienced by users — particularly screen reader users and those with motor impairments — when navigating web content through repetitive, effortful interactions. For blind screen reader users, browsing fatigue results from excessive keyboard presses to navigate through content, the cognitive burden of remembering many different shortcuts, and the information overload of listening to irrelevant content sequentially before reaching desired information. For users with motor impairments, fatigue stems from the physical effort of precise pointing, clicking, and scrolling. Research shows that blind users often take an order of magnitude longer than sighted users to complete tasks like online shopping, and may give up or seek assistance due to exhaustion.