arXiv subjects

Gene S-H Kim

Publications and source records attributed to Gene S-H Kim.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

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↗

arXiv2025

A11yShape: AI-Assisted 3-D Modeling for Blind and Low-Vision Programmers

Building 3-D models is challenging for blind and low-vision (BLV) users due to the inherent complexity of 3-D models and the lack of support for non-visual interaction in existing tools. To address this issue, we introduce A11yShape, a novel system designed to help BLV users who possess basic programming skills understand, modify, and iterate on 3-D models. A11yShape leverages LLMs and integrates with OpenSCAD, a popular open-source editor that generates 3-D models from code. Key functionalities of A11yShape include accessible descriptions of 3-D models, version control to track changes in models and code, and a hierarchical representation of model components. Most importantly, A11yShape employs a cross-representation highlighting mechanism to synchronize semantic selections across all model representations -- code, semantic hierarchy, AI description, and 3-D rendering. We conducted a multi-session user study with four BLV programmers, where, after an initial tutorial session, participants independently completed 12 distinct models across two testing sessions, achieving results that aligned with their own satisfaction. The result demonstrates that participants were able to comprehend provided 3-D models, as well as independently create and modify 3-D models -- tasks that were previously impossible without assistance from sighted individuals.

cs.HC↗