Understanding Challenges and Opportunities in Body Movement Education of People who are Blind or have Low Vision
Madhuka De Silva, Sarah Goodwin, Leona Holloway, Matthew Butler · 2023 · Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2023) · doi:10.1145/3597638.3608409
Summary
This paper provides a comprehensive investigation of the challenges and opportunities in teaching body movement — including dance, sports, martial arts, yoga, and fitness — to people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). The researchers conducted a three-phase study: preliminary surveys of 25 BLV students and 14 teachers, semi-structured interviews with 13 BLV students and 10 teachers, and four focus group discussions with 7 BLV students and 6 teachers. Participants were primarily from Australia and the United States, spanning ages 25-75+, with diverse vision conditions (totally blind, legally blind, low vision) and onset timing (congenital vs. acquired). Body movement activities represented included dance (the most popular interest), sports, martial arts, yoga, circus, and orientation and mobility. The study found that current teaching relies heavily on verbal instructions (used by all 25 BLV survey respondents) and physical guidance (18 respondents), with significant mismatches between what teachers provide and what students actually experience. For example, while 10 teachers use sound-based tools, no BLV students reported using them. The top challenge reported was lack of feedback on whether poses are correct (18 of 25 students), followed by instructions being insufficient for understanding movements and lack of accessible learning materials (both 15 of 25).
Key findings
The study identified ten major themes organized into four key design challenges. Design Challenge 1 (Representation of Body Movement) addresses the inadequacy of verbal instructions alone — teachers struggle to describe movement complexity in words, and metaphors that work for people who lost vision later in life ("wave your arms like a bird") fail for congenitally blind students who have no visual reference. Students proposed a tactile dictionary of poses and 3D-printed movable body models. Design Challenge 2 (Supporting Feedback and Kinesthetic Awareness) highlights that BLV people, especially those congenitally blind, often lack proprioceptive awareness and body posture understanding that sighted people develop through visual observation. Physical contact for feedback is valued but fraught with consent complexities and personal preferences. Sound-based tools for conveying movement fluidity and haptic feedback for quality of movement are underexplored. Design Challenge 3 (Spatial and Social Interactive Learning) reveals that positioning in shared spaces and awareness of others' movements are major barriers, with safety being a key concern. Notably, social interaction is the primary motivation for BLV people participating in body movement. Design Challenge 4 (Accessible Remote Learning) addresses the post-pandemic shift to online content, which lacks feedback mechanisms and accessible video descriptions for BLV learners.
Relevance
This research fills a significant gap by centering the voices of both BLV learners and their teachers in understanding body movement education barriers — most prior technology research has focused on performance enhancement rather than the foundational learning process. The four design challenges provide a clear research agenda for the assistive technology community. For accessibility practitioners, the finding that social interaction is the primary motivator (not fitness or skill) reframes how accessible physical activity programs should be designed — prioritizing community and belonging over individual performance. The consent and personal preference complexities around physical guidance have broader implications for any hands-on accessibility work. The disconnect between tools teachers use and what students actually experience highlights the importance of including both stakeholder groups in technology design.
Tags: blind and low vision · body movement · education · dance · sports · kinesthetic awareness · tactile modeling · haptic feedback · inclusive education