Understanding the Accessibility of Smartphone Photography for People with Motor Impairments

Abstract

We present the results of an exploration to understand the accessibility of smartphone photography for people with motor impairments. We surveyed forty-six people and interviewed twelve people about capturing, editing, and sharing photographs on smartphones. We found that people with motor impairments encounter many challenges with smartphone photography, resulting in users capturing fewer photographs than they would like. Participants described various strategies they used to overcome challenges in order to capture a quality photograph. We also found that photograph quality plays a large role in deciding which photographs users share and how often they share, with most participants rating their photographs as average or poor quality compared to photos shared on their social networks. Additionally, we created design probes of two novel photography interfaces and received feedback from our interview participants about their usefulness and functionality. Based on our findings, we propose design recommendations for how to improve the accessibility of mobile photoware for people with motor impairments.