Virtual assistants for mobile interaction: a review from the accessibility perspective

Abstract

The technology of virtual assistants (VAs) is a powerful option to support the interaction of human users with computational systems. These VAs are able, for example, to identify interaction problems and offer recommendations on the execution of commands. This work analyses the use of VAs as a resource of accessibility for mobile devices. This analysis was carried out by means of a literature review, which considered both academic studies and commercial solutions. The results showed that there are very few researches in this area and this fact motivated the development of an evaluation protocol, and related set of tests cases, which can verify if current VAs are in fact able to support the interaction of motor and visually impaired users with their mobile devices.