On this page, we describe how we applied the investigation phase of the Natively Adaptive Interfaces (NAI) approach to a specific use case: making online videos accessible for users who are blind or low-vision (B/LV).
Define users and identify needs
In this phase of the process, we focus on identifying our target users and delving into their specific needs, pain points, and behaviors:
Define your target users and the problems to solve.
- Target users:
- Edge user: fully blind, since birth
- Users across the range of visual abilities:
- Fully blind, acquired during lifetime
- Legally blind, since birth
- Legally blind, acquired during lifetime
- Low vision, since birth
- Low vision, acquired during lifetime
- Sighted
Identify the design challenge:
Make watching online videos, such as tutorials, entertainment, and news, fully accessible and engaging for people who are blind or have low vision.
- Target users:
Understand user needs, pain points, and behaviors.
- Feedback from blind users revealed the following significant challenges
with online videos.
- Activating accessibility features: enabling essential features such as screen readers is often difficult, frequently requiring assistance from a sighted person.
- Navigating playback and app settings: Interacting with video controls—play, pause, rewind, etc.—and application settings—dark mode, playback speed, etc.—remains challenging, even when accessibility tools are active.
- Inaccessible visuals: Without access to visual content, blind users only get the audio track, often leading to a critical loss of information and context.
- Feedback from blind users revealed the following significant challenges
with online videos.