Text entry for the Blind on Smartwatches

The interaction challenges presented by touch-screen enabled devices for blind and visually impaired people has been addressed extensively in the literature. However, the emergence of wrist-worn devices with small screens, the so-called smartwatches, exacerbates such challenges. This paper presents an evaluation of text entry methods for smartwatches, covering three existing approaches—Voice Input and two QUERTY methods: GBoard, and A4Keyboard—and three Braille input methods proposed by the authors. Nine blind users and a low-vision participant composed sentences with the six methods. Speed and error rates are presented and preference data are analyzed, showing the approval of two Braille methods and a positive reception to one of the QWERTY methods, followed by the Voice Input. Each modality has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, which suggests room for improvement before the widespread adoption of smartwatch text entry as a reliable and accessible method for blind people.