Designing Usable Touch screen Text Entry Interface for Visually Impaired People

Muhammad Hamza Iftikhar; Muhammad Nasir; Zakia Jalil

Authors

Muhammad Hamza Iftikhar Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computing & Information Technology International Islamic University, Islamabad
Muhammad Nasir Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computing & Information Technology International Islamic University, Islamabad https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0035-192X
Zakia Jalil Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computing & Information Technology International Islamic University, Islamabad https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4992-4189

Keywords:

Touch Screen, Visually Impaired, Keyboard Layout , Interaction Techniques

Abstract

Visual impairments affect more than 2.2 billion people worldwide, significantly limiting essential daily activities such as reading and writing on touchscreen devices. This study introduces the EzAccess Keyboard, a specialized text-entry method designed to address interaction challenges for partially sighted and low-vision users. A mixed-method research approach was adopted, including a survey of 50 visually impaired smartphone users to identify design requirements and a comparative evaluation against 16 existing techniques. Quantitative performance analysis showed that the EzAccess Keyboard achieved a typing speed of 5.00 WPM and a mean accuracy rate of 95.20%, representing the highest reported accuracy among compared specialized QWERTY and several Braille-based interfaces. Numerical benchmarking indicates that while EzAccess maintains a competitive speed comparable to systems such as key-magnified keyboards (5.28 WPM) and TypeHap (5.96 WPM), it significantly outperforms established baselines such as Conventional Tap/TalkBack (2.97 WPM, 75.83% accuracy) and BrailleTouch (85.00% accuracy). Statistical validation via the Mann–Whitney U test confirmed performance parity with the state-of-the-art TypeHap system, revealing no significant difference in typing speed (p=0.287) or accuracy (p=0.909). Furthermore, Z-score standardization positions the proposed method above the mean reported in the literature for speed (Z=+0.31) and nearly one standard deviation above the mean for accuracy (Z=+0.99). Qualitative evaluation using the System Usability Scale (SUS) produced a score of 93.9 out of 100, indicating excellent usability and strong user satisfaction. These findings demonstrate that utilizing user-centric affordance principles can significantly enhance typing performance and digital inclusiveness for the visually impaired population.

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Appendix A – Questionnaire for Visually Impaired People: Text Entry Practices, Preferences, Usability & Privacy Concerns

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nXbqpmbAnBLyl1n3rE7zqDuUs0mGZL73/view?usp=sharing