Implementation and Evaluation of a Voice User Interface with Offline Speech Processing for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired
- Assistive technologies help blind and visually impaired people to manage their daily lives independently. However, they usually have to work with voice user interfaces to use smartphones and tablets. Tasks like managing the calendar, taking notes, or setting an alarm clock require reliable voice recognition, which entails online access for remote computing. However, apart from data privacy and security issues, an online connection is not available in any situation. In this regard, our paper develops and evaluates an offline voice user interface with offline speech processing. The voice assistant was tested with seven blind and visually impaired people. It was found that the assistant was very well received (i.e., pragmatic, hedonic, and general quality) and that no functional limitations could be perceived due to the offline data processing. Based on these findings, the scope of functionality and the level of detail of the evaluation can be extended further to adapt this technology for this specific user group and promote itsAssistive technologies help blind and visually impaired people to manage their daily lives independently. However, they usually have to work with voice user interfaces to use smartphones and tablets. Tasks like managing the calendar, taking notes, or setting an alarm clock require reliable voice recognition, which entails online access for remote computing. However, apart from data privacy and security issues, an online connection is not available in any situation. In this regard, our paper develops and evaluates an offline voice user interface with offline speech processing. The voice assistant was tested with seven blind and visually impaired people. It was found that the assistant was very well received (i.e., pragmatic, hedonic, and general quality) and that no functional limitations could be perceived due to the offline data processing. Based on these findings, the scope of functionality and the level of detail of the evaluation can be extended further to adapt this technology for this specific user group and promote its dissemination.…

