Accessibility-Driven Information Transformations in Mixed-Visual Ability Work Teams

2026-01-29

AI Summary

This study addresses the collaboration barriers and additional burdens faced by blind and low-vision professionals in mixed-visual-ability teams, where inaccessible information formats—such as PDFs and charts—impede equitable participation. Through a one-week diary study and semi-structured interviews, the research analyzes 36 instances of representational transformation across 23 visually impaired and sighted professionals spanning five industries. It systematically uncovers the triggers of representational incompatibility, identifies simplification and enhancement strategies employed by practitioners, and delineates four archetypal collaboration patterns. Beyond elucidating practical pathways for mitigating representational mismatches, this work provides empirical grounding and novel design directions for intelligent assistive systems that move beyond ad hoc accommodations toward sustained, inclusive collaboration.

Technology Category

• Computer Vision: Representation Learning for Vision
• Humans and AI: Human-AI Collaboration / Human-AI Teaming
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Diagnosis and Abductive Reasoning

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy

Abstract

Blind and low-vision (BLV) employees in mixed-visual ability teams often encounter information (e.g., PDFs, diagrams) in inaccessible formats. To enable teamwork, teams must transform these representations by modifying or re-creating them into accessible forms. However, these transformations are frequently overlooked, lack infrastructural support, and cause additional labour. To design systems that move beyond one-off accommodations to effective mixed-ability collaboration, we need a deeper understanding of the representations, their transformations and how they occur. We conducted a week-long diary study with follow-up interviews with 23 BLV and sighted professionals from five legal, non-profit, and consulting teams, documenting 36 transformation cases. Our analysis characterizes how teams perform representational transformations for accessibility: how they are triggered proactively or reactively, how they simplify or enhance, and four common patterns in which workers coordinate with each other to address representational incompatibility. Our findings uncover opportunities for designing systems that can better support mixed-visual ability work.

Problem

• accessibility
• mixed-visual ability teams
• information transformation
• representational incompatibility
• blind and low-vision employees

Innovation

• accessibility-driven transformation
• mixed-visual ability teams
• representational incompatibility
• collaborative accessibility
• information transformation