Aziz Zeidieh | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Bespoke Visual Assistance: What and How do Blind and Low-Vision People Create with Agentic Programming?

AI-powered assistive technologies have long supported blind and low vision (BLV) people in everyday tasks, but they are general-purpose and often fall short of meeting complex, individualized, in-situ accessibility needs. Though agentic programming tools, like GitHub Copilot, have the potential to bridge this gap by lowering the technical barriers to building personal AT using natural language, the practical applicability of this creation paradigm has been unknown. We address this knowledge gap through a two-phase longitudinal co-design study with five tech-savvy BLV users using ProgramAT, an agentic programming tool that supports the creation, iteration, and testing of camera-based AT. Overall, co-designers created over 37 tools, with some addressing needs unmet by any existing commercial AT such as identifying Uber rides or interpreting hand gestures. Qualitative feedback from our co-designers and analysis of development logs surface BLV strategies for tool creation, along with key challenges including model capability limits, specification conflicts, and barriers to successful creation. We discuss recommendations to provide appropriate conversational scaffolding, community tool sharing capabilities, and support for specialized models and personal datasets for future agentic programming environments to empower BLV users to create bespoke visual assistance for themselves.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2023

Usability Assessment of the OnlyKey Hardware Two-Factor Authentication Key Among Low Vision or Blind Users

Hardware security keys undoubtedly have advantage for users as "usability" pain is trivial compared to the maximum "security" gain in authentication. Naturally, the hardware factor in the authentication received a widespread adoption amongst average users, as it is ergonomically less demanding than phone texts or authentication prompts. This ergonomic advantage in particular is essential for users who are blind or low vision, as their interaction with a phone is impractical. However, the "usability" for low vision or blind users pain might be much higher than an average well-bodied user for the same "security" gain. In an effort to learn more we conducted a usability assessment with ten low vision or blind users setting up the OnlyKey two-factor authentication key. First, the setup process was insurmountable for more than half of the participants, resulting in a situation where the hardware key was abandoned. Secondly, the lack of tactile orientation led participants to consider it as both impractical, and prone to difficulties locating or loosing it. We discuss the implications of our findings for future improvements in usable authentication for visually impaired users.

cs.HC↗