We report on a study of understanding how blind or visually impaired (BVI) video bloggers (vloggers) use YouTube. To identify BVI vloggers on YouTube, we used combinations of keywords to find the videos that they uploaded. We then conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 BVI vloggers to understand their experiences on YouTube. We identified salient themes regarding how they interact with videos and other users on YouTube through an open coding approach. Our analysis of the identified themes reveals that BVI vloggers use YouTube as an educational tool. While BVI vloggers share their stories with viewers to educate the public about blindness or visual impairments as vloggers, they learn how other BVI vloggers use accessibility tools in their daily life as viewers. Based on the results of this study, we present design opportunities to better support BVI vloggers on video-based social media platforms. To our knowledge, this is the first interview study for exploring the community of BVI vloggers on YouTube.

Understanding the community of blind or visually impaired vloggers on YouTube

Online video is an important information source, yet its pace of growth, including user-submitted content, is so rapid that automatic captioning technologies are needed to make content accessible for people who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing (DHH). To support future creation of a research dataset of online videos, we must prioritize which genres of online video content DHH users believe are of greatest importance to be accurately captioned. Our first contribution is to validate that the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) methodology is able to accurately gather judgments on this topic by conducting an in-person study with 25 DHH users, using a card-sorting methodology to rank the importance for various YouTube genres of online video to be accurately captioned. Our second contribution is to identify video genres of highest captioning importance via an online survey with 151 DHH individuals, and those participants highly ranked: News and Politics, Education, and Technology and Science.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing users' prioritization of genres of online video content requiring accurate captions

This paper focuses on accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people, specifically those who rely on American Sign Language (ASL) for communication, with regards to online videos. In this paper, we propose the idea of "closed interpreting" which allows the interpreter to be toggled on and appear alongside the main video, similiar to closed captioning. While the idea is similar to closed captioning, closed interpreting as described in this paper is more dynamic, allowing viewers to adjust the interpreter as they please. A major factor in differentiating closed captioning from closed interpreting is that many deaf and hard of hearing signers rely on ASL as their primary means of communication and thus English captioning is not satisfactory. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to assess what features and qualities of closed interpreting appeals to deaf viewers.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2982142.2982147

Closed ASL Interpreting for Online Videos

Live streaming refers to the broadcast of real-time videos, allowing people to have synchronous interactions. While researchers' interest in live streaming has increased recently, the accessibility of live streaming for people with visual impairments is still under-examined. Further studies are necessary to gain a better understanding of how streamers with visual impairments (SVI) engage in various activities on live streaming platforms. Based on semi-structured interviews with 14 participants, we identified SVI's motivations for live streaming, their unique interactions with videos and people on live streaming platforms, and the challenges they face during live streaming. Our analysis of the identified themes revealed the absence of an SVI-centered community and accessibility issues for SVI while learning to live stream, use tools, and interact with people. Based on the results of this study, we present design opportunities to better support SVI on live streaming platforms.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3476038

Exploring the Experiences of Streamers with Visual Impairments

This position paper proposes technology opportunities for supporting people with visual impairments (PVI) as content creators, rather than just content consumers While previous studies examined accessibility issues with functions and visual content on various social media platforms, little is known about experiences of PVI beyond just watching visual content Our recent study revealed that there is a community of video bloggers (vloggers) with visual impairments who actively produce multiple categories of video content on YouTube From the perspective of those vloggers with visual impairments, we would like to discuss challenges and opportunities to improve the accessibility of video-based social media platforms to support those video creators with visual impairments

Challenges and opportunities to improve the accessibility of YouTube for people with visual impairments as content creators

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires online lecture creators to caption the videos for deaf and hard of hearing students, or for deaf and low vision (DLV) students who request these accommodations. While current captioned lecture video interfaces are usually accessible to deaf students, it is more challenging to provide full accessibility to DLV viewers who have restricted vision, as they cannot see both the lecture and captions simultaneously. We present an enhanced interface for YouTube lectures (Accessible View Device interface for Low Vision) that provides more accessibility for DLV viewers. This interface provides the ability to pause either the video or the captions with a single key-press, so that the viewer can follow simultaneous audio and video information. This interface is available to anyone and can be used with any captioned lecture on YouTube.

Daniel S. Steed

Papers

AVD-LV: an accessible player for captioned STEM videos