A Preliminary Study on Accessibility of Augmented Reality Features in Mobile Apps

Abstract

The capabilities of Android applications have been increasing along with the advancements of the underlying mobile devices. This has allowed developers to include features that require more resources and provide more complex functionality inside mobile apps. An example of this is the usage of Augmented Reality (AR) in mobile applications. AR allows developers to experiment with new immersive experiences for their users in a wide variety of application areas. AR content is often visual and it represents a challenge for users with visual impairments, especially if these features are core to the underlying application. In this paper, we present a preliminary study aimed at investigating accessibility of AR functionalities of mobile applications that are not specifically designed for users with visual impairments (i.e., applications of which these users could be part of the intended audience, but they are not the specific audience). To accomplish this, we conducted a case study with 49 individuals without visual impairment and 5 individuals that are visually impaired, who used 5 applications with AR features. Our results demonstrate that the analyzed apps lack accessibility mechanisms within their AR functionalities.