Emotionally Oriented Analysis of the Experiences of Visually Impaired People on Facebook

Abstract

With technological advancements, there has been a vast increase in the number of companies that fight over their market share. In search of a differentiating factor, companies are investing more and more in their products’ emotional designs. This researched work has evaluated the affects that are caused in visually impaired people when using Facebook's features and then compared them with the experiences of sighted users. To do that, these two types of Facebook users were subjected to a questionnaire that was based on the PANAS affect scale. Once the information was collected, statistics were employed so as to evaluate both users’ feelings. The results have shown that there were significant statistical differences between the sighted and the visually impaired users when the “affects” were evaluated by using the PANAS tool. The five “negative affects” that were selected (Irritability, Uselessness, Frustration, Sadness, and Confusion) were largely more relevant for the blind people in most of the evaluated features. This has indicated some serious accessibility problems. However, a high frequency of the five “positive affects” that were considered (Satisfaction, Pleasantness, Surprise, Excitement, Interest, and Determination) were additionally observed for both of these two groups. These results were interpreted as feelings of both social inclusion and social exclusion, indicating the possibility of exploring technological devices that were unavailable not long ago. After analyzing their experiences in their usage of the Facebook features, the findings have also highlighted the many differing emotions that are felt by the visually impaired and the sighted users. The resulting outcomes have indicated that there are some issues that are still open to problems and difficulties. Moreover, these issues involve human-computer interactions. Nevertheless, fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as will be revealed.