Research Proposal

Social media has become an indispensable part of human life, creating opportunities for making friends and exchanging ideas. However, people with visual impairments (PVI) face significant challenges in consuming, creating, and sharing information on social media platforms (especially video-oriented ones like YouTube) due to the predominantly visual nature of the content. These challenges pose serious accessibility issues, adversely impacting their quality of life. Therefore, I propose a study to investigate the experiences of PVI on video-sharing platforms. This study aims to understand PVI's motivations, interactions, and challenges in using such technologies. By closely examining the challenges and needs of PVI, I intend to report on their experiences of building their social world using these trending technologies and to identify design opportunities for more accessible platforms. Furthermore, I will delve into the ultimate appeal of these platforms for PVI, providing insights that can inform the development of more inclusive and accessible video-sharing applications.

Topics to explore

Accessibility Barriers: Understanding the difficulties PVI faces in accessing and navigating video-sharing platforms.

Discrimination/Harassment: Investigating instances of unequal treatment from platforms and harassment from online trolls encountered by PVI.

Social Support: Identifying the types and sources of online/offline support PVI receive from their blind peers.

Methodology 

Data Collection: To gather rich, qualitative data, I will conduct in-depth interviews to understand their life experiences.

Data Analysis: The collected data will be analyzed using thematic analysis to identify and interpret patterns and themes within the transcripts. 

Ethical Considerations

Accessibility Consideration: All interviews will be on  Zoom to reduce travel time. Instead of asking them to fill in questionnaire forms, I will gather demographic data during interviews. 

Informed Consent: Before each interview, I will inform the interviewee of the research process, including data collection, storage, and potential privacy risks, and commence the interview only after obtaining consent. 

Privacy Protection: After the interviews, I will transcribe the audio files into text documents, ensuring all identifiable information, such as names or addresses, is removed during transcription.

Research Team