ALCOVE: an accessible comic reader for people with low vision

ABSTRACTLow vision is a visual impairment that affects one's capacity to perform daily activities, among others, reading. Since difficulty to access printed materials is an obstacle to education, employment and social activities, adaptations of these material is often required, such as the usage of large print or audio transcriptions. The advent of digital documents, on computers and mobile devices, has enhanced the accessibility of text for people with low vision; however, there is still a lack of supply regarding accessible books for recreation reading. In this work, we study how an accessible reader can impact reader's engagement with comics, for both children and adults. We summarise the results of online surveys that have been conducted about the current usage of comics by reader with low vision and how professional attempt to provide them. This led to the design of ALCOVE, an accessible comic reader for people with low vision. We report the results of a user study with 11 participants with low vision, that examined both the usefulness of the proposed comic reader and the reading presentation mode. Results show that the participants found our application easy and very convenient to use.