Shared control is a form of video gaming accessibility support that allows players with disabilities to delegate inaccessible controls to another person. Through interviews involving 14 individuals with lived experience of accessible gaming in shared control, we explore the ways in which shared control technologies are adopted in practice, the accessibility challenges they address, and how the support currently provided in shared control can be automated to remove the need for a human assistant. Findings indicate that shared control is essential for enabling access to otherwise inaccessible games, but its reliance on human support is a key limitation. Participants welcomed the idea of automating the support with software agents, while also identifying limitations and design requirements. Accordingly, this work contributes insights into current practices and proposes guidelines for developing automated support systems.
Virtual collaboration has transformed how people in mixed-ability teams, composed of disabled and non-disabled people, work together by offering greater flexibility. In these settings, accessibility practices, such as accommodations and inclusive norms, are essential for providing access to disabled people. However, we do not yet know how these practices shape broader facets of teamwork, such as productivity, participation, and camaraderie. To address this gap, we interviewed 18 participants (12 disabled, 6 non-disabled) who are part of mixed-ability teams. We found that beyond providing access, accessibility practices shaped how all participants coordinated tasks, sustained rapport, and negotiated responsibilities. Accessibility practices also introduced camaraderie challenges, such as balancing empathy and accountability. Non-disabled participants described allyship as a learning process and skill shaped by their disabled team members and team culture. Based on our findings, we present recommendations for team practices and design opportunities for virtual collaboration tools that reframe accessibility practices as a foundation for strong teamwork.
Blind and low-vision (BLV) employees in mixed-visual ability teams often encounter information (e.g., PDFs, diagrams) in inaccessible formats. To enable teamwork, teams must transform these representations by modifying or re-creating them into accessible forms. However, these transformations are frequently overlooked, lack infrastructural support, and cause additional labour. To design systems that move beyond one-off accommodations to effective mixed-ability collaboration, we need a deeper understanding of the representations, their transformations and how they occur. We conducted a week-long diary study with follow-up interviews with 23 BLV and sighted professionals from five legal, non-profit, and consulting teams, documenting 36 transformation cases. Our analysis characterizes how teams perform representational transformations for accessibility: how they
are triggered proactively or reactively, how they simplify or enhance, and four common patterns in which workers coordinate with each other to address representational incompatibility. Our findings uncover opportunities for designing systems that can better support mixed-visual ability work.
Visually impaired individuals face barriers in online shopping because product details are often conveyed through images, and alternative text is frequently insufficient. The recent advent of Computer-Using Agents (CUA) based on Large Multimodal Models, which can directly manipulate graphical user interfaces, offers new opportunities for such accessibility. However, there is a lack of research that considers how voice-based systems should be designed to support visually impaired users in complex online shopping contexts. Thus, our study qualitatively explores the experiences and needs of visually impaired users as they shop online through voice interaction with a CUA We conducted a Semi-Automatic Wizard-of-Oz study with 12 visually impaired participants, in which they performed shopping tasks with a voice-based CUA system, followed by debriefing interviews. This paper proposes design implications for creating a more inclusive and disability-centered online shopping environment with voice-based CUA for visually impaired users.
This paper presents a practice-based case study that explores personalisation as a design methodology for embodied gestural instruments.
Through a multi-year collaboration with a professional performer with physical disability, we employed research-through-design and co-design methods to iteratively develop a personalised instrument responsive to the performer’s unique movement style and creative vision.
The system enabled real-time control of sound, stage lighting, and visualisations, and was ecologically validated in rehearsals and in an award-winning disability-led theatre production.
Extending beyond the stage, we refined the instrument through workshops with young people with motor, sensory, and communication disabilities, demonstrating its adaptability to diverse bodies and creative practices.
Rather than focusing on generalised solutions, this work advances methods for designing technologies that embrace difference, tailoring interaction to individual capabilities.
We contribute to HCI research by articulating personalisation as a methodological approach to inclusive interaction design, expanding opportunities for creative expression among people with physical disability.
AI hiring interviews, asynchronous video recording platforms that use AI to assess candidate suitability, are increasingly used by employers to streamline hiring processes. These platforms often promise to standardize assessments and mitigate subjective biases in hiring decisions. Yet, little is known about how these technologies are perceived and experienced by people with disabilities, a group historically underrepresented in the workforce and particularly vulnerable to injustices perpetuated by technology. To address this gap, we conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 19 people with disabilities. We found that people with disabilities perceive and experience discrimination by AI hiring interviews that: 1) center normative characteristics, 2) exacerbate information asymmetries, 3) undermine autonomy, and 4) intrude on privacy. We use the analytical frame of surveillance to interrogate the role of AI in reconfiguring social relations between jobseekers and employers. We discuss implications of our work for design and policy.
Neurodiversity and autism research look at the ways in which neurological differences shape people’s lives. Money and finances touch almost all aspects of life in some way, yet there is very little research at the intersection of money and autism. This paper is the first to explore how autistic adults navigate their financial lives by using, adapting, and re-inventing financial technologies and strategies. Drawing on 20 interviews with autistic participants that included a visual mapping activity, the study identifies areas that characterise financial management activities of autistic adults, such as sensory and cognitive overload, executive functioning, and autistic joy. It further explores the technologies and strategies employed by participants and how they make these fit their needs. Using the theoretical framing of neuroqueer technoscience, the study aimed to highlight individual solutions and adaptations that the autistic participants developed, therefore treating them as knowers and makers of financial technologies. This study reveals design tensions that should be considered when creating financial technologies.