Haptic and auditory feedback for supporting blind people: a mixed approach evaluation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37636/recit.v9n2e422Keywords:
Assistive living, Blind people, Heuristic evaluation, SUS, Usability, Mobile apps, eHealthAbstract
Blindness is a highly prevalent health condition worldwide. This situation negatively affects those who suffer from it, impairing both their autonomy and quality of life. Although assistive technology has played a significant role in mitigating this problem, the literature reports that it has not yet achieved high levels of accessibility for people with visual impairments. Furthermore, while assistive technology has applications in various areas, technology to support blind people in everyday instrumental activities, based on personal assistants that use auditory feedback, is scarce. In addition, usability studies are presented as an important tool for evaluating how technology is perceived. This perception indicates the extent to which a system supports task completion. The objective of this study is to analyze the degree to which the overall usability of a technological tool designed to support blind people in carrying out their usual domestic activities is perceived. This paper proposes an application that, through aptic interaction with auditory feedback, helps blind people access household appliances. To develop it, a mixed-methods exploratory research approach was designed that combined qualitative and quantitative schemes. This approach followed an inquiry process based on formally validated instruments. The qualitative phase included two experts, while the quantitative phase involved seven potential users. The results of the qualitative evaluation show a 60% completion rate for heuristics, higher than that reported in other studies in the same field. Similarly, the quantitative evaluation yielded an overall System Usability Scale score of 97.5, indicating the application is "highly usable." These results suggest potential benefits for the quality of life of blind people.
Downloads
References
WHO, «Blindness and vision impairment,» Jul 2025. [En línea]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment. [Último acceso: Aug 2025].
INEGI, «Estadísticas a propósito del día internacional de las personas con discapacidad,» Nov 2023. [En línea]. Available: https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/aproposito/2024/EAP_PCD24.pdf#:~:text=De%20acuerdo%20con%20la%20ENADID%202023%2C%20en,de%20personas%20de%205%20a%C3%B1os%20y%20m%C3%A1s.&text=Seg%C3%BAn%20sexo%2C%2043.3%20%25%20de%20las%20mujeres,ver%2C%20. [Último acceso: Jul 2025].
AFB, «Blindness and Low Vision. American Foundation for the Blind,» Jul 2025. [En línea]. Available: https://afb.org/. [Último acceso: Jul 2025].
O. Lahav, «Virtual Reality Systems as an Orientation Aid for People Who Are Blind to Acquire New Spatial Information,» Sensors, pp. 22, 1307, 2022. doi: 10.3390/s22041307.
S. Real y A. Araujo, «Network QoS Impact on Spatial Perception through Sensory Substitution in Navigation Systems for Blind and Visually Impaired People,» Sensors, pp. 23, 3219, 2023. doi: 10.3390/s23063219.
J. Kilian, A. Neugebauer, L. Scherffig y S. Wahl, «The Unfolding Space Glove: A Wearable Spatio-Visual to Haptic Sensory Substitution Device for Blind People,» Sensors, pp. 22, 1859, 2022. doi: 10.3390/s22051859.
F. Machado, M. Loureiro y R. C. Mell, «A novel mixed reality assistive system to aid the visually and mobility impaired using a multimodal feedback system,» Displays, vol. 79, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.displa.2023.102480.
R. Babu, «Can Blind People Use Social Media Effectively? A Qualitative Field Study of Facebook Usability,» American Journal of Information Systems, vol. 2, nº 2, pp. 33-41, 2014. doi: 10.12691/ajis-2-2-2.
A. Ashraf y A. Raza, «Heuristic Evaluation of Social Websites: For Blind People,» International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering, vol. 2, nº 6, p. 711–714, 2013. doi: 10.7763/IJCCE.2013.V2.280
W. Reuschel, M. McDonnall y D. Burton, «The Accessibility and Usability of Online Job Applications for Screen Reader Users,» J Vis Impair Blind., pp. 117(6):479-490, 2023. doi: 10.1177/0145482x231216757.
D. A. Mateus, M. R. De Almeida Souza y A. Pimen, «Accessibility of Mobile Apps for Visually Impaired Users: Problems Encountered by User Evaluation, Inspections and Automated Tools,» de XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Maceió, Brazil, 2023. doi: 10.1145/3638067.36381
D. Ahmetovic, C. Bernareggi y S. Mascetti, «Zebralocalizer: identification and localization of pedestrian crossings,» de Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Stockholm, Sweden, 2011. doi: 10.1145/2037373.20374
F. Adnan, J. A. Putra, M. D. Agustiningsih, E. Oktaviana y N. A. Robi’atul Adawiyah , «Exploring the usability of platforms for individuals with visual impairments: a systematic literature review,» Front. Comput. Sci., p. 7:1601621, 2025. doi: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1601621.
M. Al-Razgan, S. Almoaiqel, N. Alrajhi, A. Alhumegani, A. Alshehri, B. Alnefaie, R. AlKhamiss y S. Rushdi, «A systematic literature review on the usability of mobile applications for visually impaired users,» PeerJ Comput Sci., pp. 7:e771, 2021. doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.771.
L. M. Turkstra, T. Bhatia, A. Van Os y M. Beyel, «Assistive technology use in domestic activities by people who are blind,» Sci Rep, vol. 15, nº 1, pp. 7486, 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-91755-w.
ISO, ISO 9241-210:2019. Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems, International Organization for Standardization, 2019.
J. M. Ferreira, F. D. Rodríguez, A. Santos, O. Dieste, S. T. Acuña y N. Juristo, «Impact of Usability Mechanisms: A Family of Experiments on Efficiency, Effectiveness and User Satisfaction,» IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 49, nº 1, pp. 251-267, 2023. doi: 10.1109/TSE.2022.3149586
K. Moran y K. Gordon, «How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation,» 2025. [En línea]. Available: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-evaluation/. [Último acceso: 30 Apr. 2025].
A. Bangor, P. Kortum y J. Miller, «An empirical evaluation of the System Usability Scale.,» Int. J. Human–Computer Interaction, vol. 24, nº 6, pp. 574–594, 2008. doi: 10.1080/10447310802205776.
J. Brooke, «SUS: A quick and dirty usability scale,» de Usability Evaluation in Industry, London, U.K., Taylor & Francis, 1996, p. 189–194.
Google, «Accesibilidad de Android. Cómo activar TalkBack,» 2006. [En línea]. Available: https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6007100?hl=es-419#:~:text=TalkBack%20es%20una%20funci%C3%B3n%20de,t%C3%A1ctiles%20y%20comentarios%20por%20voz. [Último acceso: 30 4 2025].
M. Jones y G. Marsden, Mobile interaction design, West Sussex, UK: Wiley, 2006.
J. W. Creswell y C. N. Poth, Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, 4th ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2018.
Flutter, «Build for any screen,» 2025. [En línea]. Available: https://flutter.dev/. [Último acceso: 1 5 2025].
Bluetooth®, «The Bluetooth® Low Energy Primer,» 2024. [En línea]. Available: https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/the-bluetooth-le-primer-v1.2.0.pdf. [Último acceso: 1 5 2025].
ISO, ISO 9241-11:2018(en) Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Part 11: Usability: Definitions and concepts, Geneva: ISO, 2018.
J. R. Lewis, «Measuring Perceived Usability: SUS, UMUX, and CSUQ Ratings for Four Everyday Products,» International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, p. 1404–1419, vol. 35, nº 15, p. 1404–1419, 2018. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2018.1533152.
M. Hyzy, R. Bond, M. Mulvenna, L. Bai, A. Dix, S. Leigh y S. Hunt, «System Usability Scale Benchmarking for Digital Health Apps: Meta-analysis,» JMIR Mhealth Uhealth, vol. 10, nº 8, p. e37290, 2022. doi: 10.2196/37290.
K. Sagar y A. Saha, «A systematic review of software usability studies,» Int. j. inf. tecnol., Vols. 1 de 2, 2017. doi: 10.1007/s41870-017-0048-1.
J. Nielsen, «How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation,» de Usability inspection methods, 1st ed., NY, USA, New York: John Wiley & Sons inc., 1994, p. 25–62..
A. Bangor, P. T. Kortum y J. T. Miller, «An empirical evaluation of the System Usability Scale,» International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, vol. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447310802205776, p. 574–594, 2008.
L. Harrington, C. Parker, K. Ulanday y C. Harri, «Heuristic Evaluation of a Top-Rated Diabetes Self-Management App,» Appl Clin Inform, vol. 12, nº 5, pp. 1014–1020, 2021. doi: 10.1055/S-0041-1736628.
H. Angeles Gonzalez, F. Elizalde Canales y R. Olivares Ordenes, «Accesibilidad de aplicaciones móviles para personas con discapacidad visual,» Paakat: Revista de tecnología y Sociedad, vol. 15, nº 29, p. doi: 10.32870/Pk.a15n29.919, 2025.
T. Álvarez-Robles, Y. A. Orozco Osuna y F. J. Álvarez Rodríguez, «Evaluación UX para sitios web orientados a bibliotecas digitales con usuarios ciegos,» Investigación bibliotecológica, vol. 35, nº 89, p. eib0895845109, 2021. doi: 10.22201/iibi.24488321xe.2021.89.58451.
A. Shera, M. W. Iqbal, S. K. Shahzad, M. Gul, N. A. Mian, M. R. Naqvi y B. A. Khan, «Blind and Visually Impaired User Interface to Solve Accessibility Problems,» Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, vol. 30, nº 1, pp. 285-301, 2021. doi: 10.32604/iasc.2021.018009.
M. Georgsson, C. R. Weir y N. Staggers, «Revisiting heuristic evaluation methods to improve the reliability of findings,» Stud Health Technol Inform., vol. 205, p. 930–934, 2014. PMID: 25160324.
R. Yáñez Gómez, «Tesis doctoral inédita "Evaluación heurística de la usabilidad en contextos específicos",» Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, 2019.
J. Dang, K. M. King y M. Inzlicht, «Why Are Self-Report and Behavioral Measures Weakly Correlated?,» Trends Cogn Sci., vol. 24, nº 4, pp. 267-269, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.01.007.
WBG, «Poverty and Inequality,» The World Bank, NW Washington, 2025. [En línea]. Available: https://pip.worldbank.org/. [Último acceso: 4 4 2026].
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Dantar Alejandro Ortiz Vega, Antonio Fernando Fernandez Cruz, Pablo Armando Alcaraz Valencia, Juan Antonio Díaz Hernández, Elías Humberto Valencia Valencia, Victor Hugo Castillo Topete
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions:
The authors retain the copyright and assign to the journal the right of the first publication, with the work registered with the Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0, which allows third parties to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this magazine.
Authors may make other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (eg, include it in an institutional repository or publish it in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work it was first published in this magazine.
Authors are allowed and encouraged to share their work online (for example: in institutional repositories or personal web pages) before and during the manuscript submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, greater and more quick citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
How to Cite
