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• Touching Movement: 3D Tactile Poses for Supporting Blind People in Learning Body Movements

  Kengo Tanaka, Xiyue Wang, Hironobu Takagi, Yoichi Ochiai, Chieko Asakawa · 2026 · Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '26)

  Tanaka and colleagues investigate whether 3D-printed tactile models of whole-body poses can help blind learners acquire physical movements that are normally taught through visual demonstration. Verbal descriptions are notoriously inconsistent and struggle to convey nuance, while…

  tactile graphics · 3D printing · blindness and low vision · visual impairment · physical activity

• Eyes on the Palm: Investigating a Ring-Shaped Camera for Seamless Accessible Tactile Exploration

  Ayaka Tsutsui, Xiyue Wang, Hironobu Takagi, Yoichi Ochiai, Chieko Asakawa · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Tsutsui and colleagues ask how the form factor of a camera-based assistive device shapes the way blind and low-vision (BLV) users coordinate their hands during tactile exploration of real museum exhibits. Smartphone apps such as Seeing AI and Be My AI are designed around a…

  wearable technology · assistive technology · blindness and low vision · visual impairment · tactile exploration

• MotionBuddy: Exploring Tactile-Based Motion Learning with a Tabletop Humanoid Robot for Blind People

  Kengo Tanaka, Xiyue Wang, Hironobu Takagi, Yoichi Ochiai, Chieko Asakawa · 2026 · Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '26)

  This HRI 2026 study by the same team behind the earlier 3D tactile-pose work asks whether a tabletop humanoid robot can convey dynamic body movements to blind learners more effectively than audio instruction alone. The motivation is that physical 3D models and tactile graphics…

  human-robot interaction · humanoid robot · assistive robotics · blindness and low vision · visual impairment

• How Does Delegation in Social Interaction Evolve Over Time? Navigation with a Robot for Blind People

  Rayna Hata, Masaki Kuribayashi, Allan Wang, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Hata and colleagues run a three-week longitudinal study of how six blind participants delegate social navigation tasks to a guide robot in the Miraikan science museum. The paper pushes back against the default assumption that accessible navigation robots should be as autonomous…

  assistive robotics · navigation · blindness and low vision · visual impairment · shared control

• Robot-Assisted Group Tours for Blind People

  Yaxin Hu, Masaki Kuribayashi, Allan Wang, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Bilge Mutlu, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  Hu and colleagues investigate how an assistive mobile robot can support blind people's participation in mixed-visual group tours, where blind and sighted visitors share the same guided experience. The motivation is that group activities are central to social life, but blind…

  assistive robotics · museum accessibility · blindness and low vision · visual impairment · group activities

• Multi-Perspective Visual Contrastive Decoding for Reliable Assistance

  Bocheng Pan, Hailong Shi, Xingyu Gao · 2026 · ACM Transactions on Internet of Things

  This technical paper presents MPVCD (Multi-Perspective Visual Contrastive Decoding), a framework designed to address the reliability of AI-generated visual descriptions for people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). The core problem it tackles: when BLV users photograph…

  blindness and low vision · multimodal AI · image captioning · visual hallucination · assistive technology

• Bridging the Gap between Automated Intervention and Actual User Experience: A Mixed-Methods Study on Mobile Accessibility Issues for Screen Reader Users

  Syed Fatiul Huq, Ziyao He, Yirui He, Sam Malek · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper by Huq, He, He, and Malek (UC Irvine) argues that existing automated accessibility testing tools for mobile apps do not faithfully represent what blind screen reader users actually experience, and proposes a user-aware categorisation to bridge the gap. The…

  mobile accessibility · screen readers · TalkBack · automated accessibility testing · software accessibility

• The ORBIT India Dataset: Understanding the Challenges of Collecting a Disability-First AI Dataset in Low-Resource Environments

  Gesu India, Martin Grayson, Cecily Morrison, Daniela Massiceti, Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, Matt Jones · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This paper introduces ORBIT-India, the first teachable object recognition dataset contributed entirely by people who are blind or have low vision in India. It extends the UK/Canada-collected ORBIT dataset (Massiceti et al., 2021) to the Indian context — home of the world's…

  AI · accessibility · datasets · teachable object recognition · vision impairment

• How Multimodal Large Language Models Support Access to Visual Information: A Diary Study With Blind and Low Vision People

  Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Crescentia Jung, Sharon Lin, Ruiying Hu, Shiri Azenkot · 2026 · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

  This CHI 2026 paper reports a two-week diary study with 20 Blind and Low Vision (BLV) participants (ages 19–75, 11 female/9 male, 13 blind/7 low vision) investigating how multimodal large language models (MLLMs) support real-world access to visual information. The authors built…

  AI · accessibility · multimodal large language models · MLLM · visual question answering

• Camera-Based Closed-Loop Fingertip Deflection Guidance: Pilot Demonstrations in Target Acquisition and Object Retrieval

  Tomasz P. Trzpit, Gregory Reardon, Elizabeth M. Gerber, Pedro Lopes, Michael A. Peshkin, J. Edward Colgate · 2026 · Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’26)

  This CHI 2026 Extended Abstracts poster from the Northwestern/University of Chicago team behind the NURing project presents a camera-enabled evolution of their fingertip-deflection guidance wearable. The authors argue that most eyes-free guidance systems for blind and…

  haptics · wearable technology · assistive technology · blindness and low vision · eyes-free interaction

• WanderGuide: Indoor Map-less Robotic Guide for Exploration by Blind People

  Masaki Kuribayashi, Kohei Uehara, Allan Wang, Shigeo Morishima, Chieko Asakawa · 2025 · Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25)

  Kuribayashi and colleagues design WanderGuide, a suitcase-shaped robotic guide that supports blind people in recreational, open-ended exploration of indoor environments — wandering, browsing, window-shopping — rather than getting from A to B. The team frames a clear gap in the…

  assistive robotics · indoor navigation · blindness and low vision · visual impairment · recreational exploration

• Field Trials of Autonomous Navigation Robot for Visually Impaired People

  Hironobu Takagi, Kakuya Naito, Daisuke Sato, Masayuki Murata, Seita Kayukawa, Chieko Asakawa · 2025 · Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '25)

  This paper reports field trials of AI Suitcase, an autonomous navigation robot shaped like a conventional carry-on suitcase and designed to guide blind and visually impaired (BVI) travellers safely through unfamiliar public spaces. The system traces its origins to the CaBot…

  assistive robotics · blindness and low vision · navigation · indoor navigation · wayfinding

• Beyond Omakase: Designing Shared Control for Navigation Robots with Blind People

  Rie Kamikubo, Seita Kayukawa, Yuka Kaniwa, Allan Wang, Hernisa Kacorri, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2025 · Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25)

  Kamikubo and colleagues investigate how autonomous navigation robots for blind users should balance robot autonomy against user control, arguing that current systems default to what they call 'omakase' — a Japanese term meaning 'I leave it to you' — in which the robot makes all…

  assistive robotics · blindness and low vision · human-robot interaction · social robot navigation · shared control

• BentoMuseum: 3D and Layered Interactive Museum Map for Blind Visitors

  Xiyue Wang, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2024 · Communications of the ACM

  BentoMuseum proposes a novel museum map format designed to help blind visitors access the multidimensional information of a complex, multi-floor museum before and during a visit. Unlike conventional tactile maps that depict a single floor layout and struggle to convey volumetric…

  museum accessibility · blindness and low vision · tactile map · audio-tactile interaction · 3D printing

• Snap&Nav: Smartphone-based Indoor Navigation System For Blind People via Floor Map Analysis and Intersection Detection

  Masaya Kubota, Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima · 2024 · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI)

  Snap&Nav is a smartphone-based indoor navigation system for blind travellers that works in any building with a visible floor map, without requiring the building owner to pre-build a digital map, install BLE beacons, or deploy any other localisation infrastructure. The authors…

  blindness and low vision · indoor navigation · wayfinding · map-less navigation · intersection detection

• ChitChatGuide: Conversational Interaction Using Large Language Models for Assisting People with Visual Impairments to Explore a Shopping Mall

  Yuka Kaniwa, Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima · 2024 · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI)

  ChitChatGuide is a smartphone-based indoor navigation system that wraps a GPT-4-powered conversational interface around an existing BLE-beacon localisation stack (HULOP) to support something most blind-navigation research overlooks: casual, purpose-less exploration — the blind…

  blindness and low vision · large language model · indoor navigation · wayfinding · conversational agent

• From the Lab to People's Home: Lessons from Accessing Blind Participants' Interactions via Smart Glasses in Remote Studies

  Kyungjun Lee, Jonggi Hong, Ebrima Jarjue, Ernest Essuah Mensah, Hernisa Kacorri · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Maryland explores using smart glasses as an observational tool in remote usability studies with blind participants. The COVID-19 pandemic forced accessibility researchers to shift from in-person to remote methods, but standard remote setups —…

  blindness and low vision · smart glasses · remote usability testing · user research · assistive technology

• AIDE: Automatic and Accessible Image Descriptions for Review Imagery in Online Retail

  Rachana Sreedhar, Nicole Tan, Jingyue Zhang, Kim Jin, Spencer Gregson, Eli Moreta-Feliz, Niveditha Samudrala, Shrenik Sadalgi · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper from the Wayfair Next team presents AIDE (Automatic Image Description Engine), a multi-modal system that automatically generates alt-text for user-submitted review photos on e-commerce sites. While product images on retail sites sometimes have alt-text, customer…

  alternative text · image description · online shopping · blindness and low vision · computer vision

• IMAGE: A Deployment Framework for Creating Multimodal Experiences of Web Graphics

  Juliette Regimbal, Jeffrey R. Blum, Jeremy R. Cooperstock · 2022 · Proceedings of the 19th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This short paper from McGill University introduces IMAGE (Internet Multimodal Access to Graphical Exploration), an open-source framework for converting web graphics into accessible multimodal outputs including audio, haptic, and text representations for blind and low vision…

  multimodal · web graphics · image accessibility · haptic feedback · sonification

• ThermalCane: Exploring Thermotactile Directional Cues on Cane-Grip for Non-Visual Navigation

  Arshad Nasser, Kai-Ning Keng, Kening Zhu · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents ThermalCane, a white-cane grip augmented with flexible Peltier thermoelectric modules that provide thermal directional cues for blind and visually impaired (BVI) navigation. While existing haptic navigation aids primarily use vibrotactile feedback (vibration…

  visual accessibility · navigation · haptic technology · white cane · assistive technology

• Making Mobile Augmented Reality Applications Accessible

  Jaylin Herskovitz, Jason Wu, Samuel White, Amy Pavel, Gabriel Reyes, Anhong Guo, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper tackles a fundamental accessibility gap in augmented reality: AR applications are overwhelmingly visual, mixing virtual 3D objects with the real world in ways that existing screen readers and accessibility services cannot interpret. The researchers analyzed 105…

  augmented reality · visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · mobile accessibility · screen readers

• Access Differential and Inequitable Access: Inaccessibility for Doctoral Students in Computing

  Kristen Shinohara, Michael McQuaid, Nayeri Jacobo · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper investigates why the pipeline of students with disabilities pursuing doctoral degrees in computing remains so thin, despite increased support at the undergraduate level. In 2018, the NSF reported that only about 3% of math and computer science PhD recipients…

  education accessibility · disability rights · deaf and hard of hearing · blindness and low vision · digital accessibility

• "I can't name it, but I can perceive it" Conceptual and Operational Design of "Tactile Accuracy" Assisting Tactile Image Cognition

  Jiangtao Gong, Wenyuan Yu, Long Ni, Yang Jiao, Ye Liu, Xiaolan Fu, Yingqing Xu · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper introduces "tactile accuracy," a new evaluation criterion for measuring how well blind people recognize objects in raised-line tactile images, replacing the conventional "naming accuracy" borrowed from visual image recognition research. The fundamental problem is that…

  visual accessibility · tactile graphics · blindness and low vision · tactile accessibility · cognition

• Travelling more independently: A Requirements Analysis for Accessible Journeys to Unknown Buildings for People with Visual Impairments

  Christin Engel, Karin Müller, Angela Constantinescu, Claudia Loitsch, Vanessa Petrausch, Gerhard Weber, Rainer Stiefelhagen · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents a comprehensive survey with 106 people with visual impairments (63 blind, 43 low vision; ages 8-77, mean 46; predominantly German) examining how they plan and carry out journeys to unknown buildings. Unlike previous studies that focused on isolated aspects of…

  visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · indoor navigation · wayfinding · orientation and mobility

• Visual Content Considered Private by People Who are Blind

  Abigale Stangl, Kristina Shiroma, Bo Xie, Kenneth R. Fleischmann, Danna Gurari · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper presents the first empirical study investigating what types of visual content people who are blind consider private, in the context of their use of Visual Interpreters or Description Services (VIDS) — services like Seeing AI, Aira, Be My Eyes, and TapTapSee that…

  visual accessibility · blindness and low vision · privacy · computer vision · artificial intelligence