The Usability of Augmented Reality Applications for Visually Impaired Individuals: A Systematic Review

This paper explores the usability of Augmented Reality (AR) applications specifically designed for visually impaired individuals, focusing on how these technologies can enhance their accessibility and daily living. AR offers potential benefits in areas such as navigation, object recognition, environmental awareness, education, social interaction, and entertainment. However, visually impaired users face significant challenges, including complex interfaces, reliance on visual cues, and limited access to assistive technologies. This paper identifies key usability guidelines to address these challenges, such as ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers, maintaining consistency in design, providing clear and accessible user interfaces, and integrating alternative sensory cues like audio and haptic feedback. Furthermore, customization options, collision detection, contextual information, and user-centered design principles are emphasized to enhance the AR experience. The study concludes that incorporating these usability guidelines is crucial for creating AR applications that are intuitive, effective, and tailored to the unique needs of visually impaired users. Continuous user testing and feedback are also vital to further refine these technologies and ensure their accessibility.