Visual Impairments and Mobile Touchscreen Interaction: State-of-the-Art,Causes of Visual Impairment,and Design Guidelines

ABSTRACT

This article identifies, catalogues, and discusses factors that are responsible for causing visual impairment of either a pathological or situational nature for touch and gesture input on smart mobile devices. Because the vast majority of interactions with touchscreen devices are highly visual in nature, any factor that prevents a clear, direct view of the mobile device’s screen can have potential negative implications on the effectiveness and efficiency of the interaction. This work presents the first overview of such factors, which are grouped in a catalogue of users, devices, and environments. The elements of the catalogue (e.g., psychological factors that relate to the user, or the social acceptability of mobile device use in public that relates to the social environment) are discussed in the context of current eye pathology classification from medicine and the recent literature in human–computer interaction on mobile touch and gesture input for people with visual impairments, for which a state-of-the-art survey is conducted. The goal of this work is to help systematize research on visual impairments and mobile touchscreen interaction by providing a catalogue-based view of the main causes of visual impairments affecting touch and gesture input on smart mobile devices.