JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Personal health technologies including wearable tracking devices and mobile apps hold great potential to equip the general populations with the ability to monitor and manage their health. However, being tailored for sighted people, they are largely inaccessible for blind and low vision (BLV) population, threatening the equitable access to personal health data (PHD) and health care services.

Objective:

We aim to understand why and how BLV people collect and use their PHD and what obstacles they face in doing so. Such knowledge can inform accessibility researchers and technology companies of the unique self-tracking needs and accessibility challenges that BLV people experience.

Methods:

We conducted an online/phone survey with 156 BLV people. We reported on quantitative and qualitative findings regarding their PHD tracking practices, needs, and accessibility barriers.

Results:

BLV respondents have strong desires and needs to track PHD, and many of them are already tracking their data despite many hurdles. Popular tracking items—exercise, weight, sleep, and food—and the reasons for tracking are similar to those of sighted people. BLV people, however, face many accessibility challenges throughout all phases of self-tracking, from identifying tracking tools to accessing data. Main barriers our respondents experienced include suboptimal tracking experiences and not enough benefits against the extended burden for BLV people.

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that BLV individuals are motivated users of PHD tracking technologies. However, various accessibility challenges hinder them from effectively gaining the benefits of prevalent self-tracking technologies. We strongly encourage health researchers and tech companies to invest their efforts in making PHD tracking technologies accessible for all, including BLV people.