Paper ‘Understanding Physical Safety, Security, and Privacy Concerns of People with Visual Impairments’ Published in IEEE Internet Computing

Various assistive devices are able to give greater independence to people with visual impairments both online and offline. Significant work remains to understand and address their safety, security, and privacy concerns, especially in the physical, offline world. People with visual impairments are particularly vulnerable to physical assault and theft, shoulder-surfing attacks, and being overheard during private conversations. In the paper ‘Understanding the Physical Safety, Security, and Privacy Concerns of People withe Visual Impairments’ we conduct two sets of interviews to find out how people with visual impairments manage these concerns and how assistive technologies can help. The paper also proposes design considerations for camera-based devices that would help people with visual impairments monitor for potential threats around them.