A Low-Fidelity Prototyping Method for Blind Users: A Case Study on Designing Two-Dimensional Tactile Displays

Design workshops are often inaccessible to blind people due to a strong reliance on visual design methods. This paper presents an adapted low-fidelity prototyping method to enable blind persons to actively participate in the early design stages of developing assistive devices. We chose the development of a 2D tactile display as a case study. Therefore, we conducted four workshops with blind participants to develop a haptic toolkit and adapt the structure of prototyping workshops based on the preferences of the target group. The resulting toolkit and workshop structure were applied in six prototyping workshops with 12 blind participants to design a new 2D tactile display to test the new method. Our findings show that the participation of blind individuals is highly relevant for structuring accessible prototyping workshops, deciding group size, and developing accessible prototyping materials. Furthermore, our work lays the foundation for further investigation of the role of sighted assistants and the design of workshops that truly center blind persons as primary contributors.