Ather Sharif, Venkatesh Potluri, Jazz Rui Xia Ang, Jacob O. Wobbrock, Jennifer Mankoff: Touchpad Mapper: Examining Information Consumption From 2D Digital Content Using Touchpads by Screen-Reader Users: ASSETS ’24 (best poster!) and W4A ’24 (open access)
Touchpads are common, but they are not very useful for people who use screen readers. We created and tested a tool called Touchpad Mapper to let Blind and visually impaired people make better use of touchpads. Touchpad Mapper lets screen-reader users use touchpads to interact with digital content like images and videos.
Touchpad mapping could be used in many apps. We built two examples:
- Users can use the touchpad to identify where things are in an image.
- Users can control a video’s progress with the touchpad, including rewinding and fast-forwarding.
We tested Touchpad Mapper with three people who use screen readers. They said they got information more quickly with our tool than with a regular keyboard.







![[An Indian male] wearing a gray hoodie, sitting in a striped multicolor chair. In his arms are two kittens, both orange and white, the one on the left pressing its face into his arm while the other looks to the side. The boy is looking down at the cat on the right.](https://i0.wp.com/make4all.org/wp-content/uploads/personal_photo.jpg?resize=474%2C632&ssl=1)