A regular publication of the ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing

Photography is a visual way to capture a moment in time. Photos can be used for artistic expression, and to remember significant events. Because photo taking, organizing and sharing traditionally requires visual information, those with no or limited sight often have problems with these activities. Previous work has made photo capturing without sight easier, however, there is little work that makes photo browsing and sharing blindaccessible. My dissertation research aims at facilitating independence for blind persons to take, organize and share photos through user-centered development of a smartphone application that can be used without sight. The work starts with an investigation of current practices of blind persons in these activities, continued with a review of existing applications, and finally the design and long-term evaluation of the application. Introduction/Motivation Photography is an enjoyed pastime of many blind and visually impaired people [1,2,3], however, due to the visually oriented nature of photography, photographs taken by blind people often are lacking, sometimes missing the photo subject entirely [6]. Furthermore, it is difficult for blind people to independently organize and identify a photo after it has been taken [4]. Due to the proliferation of digital photography and the Internet, online photo sharing is becoming increasingly popular [5]. The advent and ubiquity of smartphones provide a customizable framework that can help blind people capture, organize, and share photos. My dissertation research involves building an application for smartphones to assist blind users in capturing, organizing, and sharing photographs.