research-article

"Accessibility Came by Accident": Use of Voice-Controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants by People with Disabilities

Authors:

Alisha Pradhan,

Leah FindlaterAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 459, Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174033

Published: 21 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

From an accessibility perspective, voice-controlled, home-based intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) have the potential to greatly expand speech interaction beyond dictation and screen reader output. To examine the accessibility of off-the-shelf IPAs (e.g., Amazon Echo) and to understand how users with disabilities are making use of these devices, we conducted two exploratory studies. The first, broader study is a content analysis of 346 Amazon Echo reviews that include users with disabilities, while the second study more specifically focuses on users with visual impairments, through interviews with 16 current users of home-based IPAs. Findings show that, although some accessibility challenges exist, users with a range of disabilities are using the Amazon Echo, including for unexpected cases such as speech therapy and support for caregivers. Richer voice-based applications and solutions to support discoverability would be particularly useful to users with visual impairments. These findings should inform future work on accessible voice-based IPAs.

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Index Terms

"Accessibility Came by Accident": Use of Voice-Controlled Intelligent Personal Assistants by People with Disabilities
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
,
Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Published: 21 April 2018

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CHI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 666 of 2,590 submissions, 26%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3522937
Hwan Jin DMin Kim YLee Y(2025)Investigating the Acceptance of Voice User Interfaces for Users With DisabilitiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.352014913(1055-1069)Online publication date: 2025
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3520149
Peretti SCaruso FValente GPomante LDi Mascio T(2025)Educating artificial intelligence following the child learning development trajectoriesBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2025.2455390(1-17)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2025
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Jaddoh ALoizides FRana OSyed Y(2024)Interacting with Smart Virtual Assistants for Individuals with Dysarthria: A Comparative Study on Usability and User PreferencesApplied Sciences10.3390/app1404140914:4(1409)Online publication date: 8-Feb-2024
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