Understanding Peer-to-Peer Instructional Support in an Online Community for Blind Audio Producers

Abir Saha, Darren Gergle, Anne Marie Piper

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Exchange of peer-to-peer support in online Q&A communities plays an instrumental role in helping people learn and use complex software tools. While prior work has documented how disabled people support each other in finding accessible practices and workarounds in different contexts, research on understanding their participation in dedicated online Q&A communities has been limited. Through the analysis of 180 conversation threads consisting of 1140 posts in an online text-based Q&A community of blind and low-vision audio producers, we reveal various strategies members in this community use to formulate their queries and provide effective solutions regarding screen reader based navigation of complex graphical user interfaces. We reflect upon our findings to discuss the complexities blind and low-vision software users face in developing a shared understanding during collaborative troubleshooting through textual conversations and reimagine how online Q&A platforms could enhance peer-to-peer instructional support among screen reader users.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationASSETS 2023 - Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
ISBN (Electronic)9798400702204
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 22 2023
Event25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS 2023 - New York, United States
Duration: Oct 23 2023Oct 25 2023

Publication series

NameASSETS 2023 - Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Conference

Conference25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew York
Period10/23/2310/25/23

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-1901456. We are grateful to Maitraye Das, Lotus Zhang, our colleagues from Accessibility Research Collective at UCI, and our reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank Marcelo Worsley, Shaun Kane, and our colleagues from CollabLab at Northwestern University and Inclusive Design Lab at the University of Washington for their continuous engagement in our research.

Keywords

  • Accessibility
  • Q&A
  • audio production
  • blind
  • low vision
  • online forum
  • screen reader

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Software

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