Digital privacy of smartphone camera-based assistive technology for users with visual disabilities

Smartphone users with visual disabilities often use camera-based assistive technology applications such as Seeing AI, BeMyEyes, and TapTapSee apps in identifying people and objects. As personal information could be shared, digital privacy issues are critical to those with visual disabilities. However, little is known about user perspectives on digital privacy issues - e.g., the degree to which those with visual disabilities understand user privacy policies and the degree to which they intend to adopt those apps. To address the knowledge gap, this study conducted interviews with a convenience sample of 30 participants with visual disabilities. The results indicate that those with visual disabilities had a lack of knowledge about privacy policies and potential risks of privacy and security breaches of personal information. The results contributed to forming a conceptual framework that contains a list of facilitators and barriers to user adoption, which could serve as a knowledge foundation for many other researchers and professionals to support and enhance users' privacy awareness, accessible to users with visual disabilities.