Accessibility reviews collected from app stores may contain valuable information for improving apps accessibility. Recent studies have presented insightful information on accessibility reviews, but they were based on small datasets and focused on general accessibility concerns. In this paper, we analyzed accessibility reviews that report issues affecting users with visual disabilities or conditions. Such reviews were identified based on selection criteria applied over 179,519,598 reviews of popular apps on the Google Play Store. Our results show that only 0,003% of user reviews mention visual disabilities or conditions; accessibility reviews are associated with 36 visual disabilities or eye conditions; many users do not give precise feedback and refer to their disability using generic terms; accessibility reviews can be grouped into general topics of concerns related to different types of disabilities; and positive reviews are generally associated with high scores and negative feedback with lower scores.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581315
In this paper, we critically examine the design of mainstream social media platforms from the point of view of autistic experiences and perspectives, drawing inspiration from the neurodiversity movement, the notion of autism as neurodivergence, and the concept of autistic sociality. We conducted 12 participatory design sessions with 20 autistic adult collaborators. Through thematic analysis of qualitative data, we identify seven challenges our participants experienced when using social media, and a set of imagined features that represent their vision of how design could better support their social media use. We discuss how mainstream social media platforms are primarily designed to address neurotypical sensitivities, and fail autistic adults through lack of user control, inadequate mechanisms for expressing tone and intention, and an orientation towards phatic interactions. To close, we outline how autistic sociality can inspire the design of kinder and more considerate social media platforms.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580673
Indoor navigation systems with prebuilt maps have shown great potential in navigating blind people even in unfamiliar buildings. However, blind people cannot always benefit from them in every building, as prebuilt maps are expensive to build. This paper explores a map-less navigation system for blind people to reach destinations in unfamiliar buildings, which is implemented on a robot. We first conducted a participatory design with five blind people, which revealed that intersections and signs are the most relevant information in unfamiliar buildings. Then, we prototyped PathFinder, a navigation system that allows blind people to determine their way by detecting and conveying information about intersections and signs. Through a participatory study, we improved the interface of PathFinder, such as the feedback for conveying the detection results. Finally, a study with seven blind participants validated that PathFinder could assist users in navigating unfamiliar buildings with increased confidence compared to their regular aid.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580687
There has been a growing interest in reproductive health and intimate wellbeing in Human-Computer Interaction, increasingly from an ecological perspective. Much of this work is centered around women's experiences across diverse settings, emphasizing men's limited engagement and need for greater participation on these topics. Our research responds to this gap by investigating cisgender men's experiences of cultivating sexual health literacies in an urban Indian context. We leverage media probes to stimulate focus group discussions, using popular media references on men's fertility to elicit shared reflection. Our findings uncover the role that humor and masculinity play in shaping men's perceptions of their sexual health and how this influences their sense of agency and participation in heterosexual intimate relationships. We further discuss how technologies might be designed to support men's participation in these relationships as supportive partners and allies.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581478
Information services for maternal and child health are increasingly being implemented at scale and integrated into public health infrastructures in Global South countries. These services often disseminate tailored health information and provide channels for families to ask questions to health workers. With increasing uptake, these services are intervening into a highly gendered space and shaping care work and information-seeking in new ways. We present a study of a patient education program and associated WhatsApp-based information service deployed across multiple states in India, drawing on observations, interviews, and analysis of chat records. Building on notions of ``unsettling care'' [63], we examine what it means to deploy such an intervention in inequitable, fragmented health systems. We find that even as the intervention focuses on individual behavior change, it also runs up against structural issues, such as the overburden of health workers, an illegible health system, and gendered power dynamics that extend beyond the realm of the home. We use our findings to unsettle notions of how the intervention provides care, and to reframe how we might think about the design and implementation of health information services to also engage with structural issues.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581553
Social stigma and human exceptionalism have contributed to unsustainable menstrual products and a neglect for the nutrients in menstrual blood that can enrich soil. In a Research-through-Design project, we explored how menstrual care can extend to caring for non-human species and the environment. We describe our design process and insights from three workshops with 20 participants, where we designed tools and technologies and worked with biomaterials to create biodegradable menstrual artifacts that can be composted and bring the nutrients in menstrual blood into soil. By drawing on feminist HCI's quality of ecology and bringing more-than-human design into the domain of intimate care, our research affirms the fertile relations between feminist HCI and posthumanist HCI through the concept of more-than-human bodies. We discuss how our work contributes to inclusive understandings of technology, and to a feminist posthumanist design methodology that centers more-than-human bodies in intimate care.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581083