Low Vision and the Visual Interface for Interactive Television

Viewers with vision impairments often have difficulty seeing all of the content on television and now they have the added task of seeing and interpreting interactive elements that are primarily image or graphics based. We carried out two studies to examine the difficulties partially sighted and blind users have with current interface designs for interactive television. Results indicate that people’s visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and colour perception differences affected their ability to comprehend the displayed information making it difficult to have a standard set of interface designs that would accommodate the large variety of needs. A series of guidelines to accommodate such a heterogeneous user group are thus provided.