"It Brought Me Joy": Opportunities for Spatial Browsing in Desktop Screen Readers

Blind or low-vision (BLV) screen-reader users have a significantly limited experience interacting with desktop websites compared to non-BLV, i.e., sighted users. This digital divide is exacerbated by the incapability to browse the web spatially—an affordance that leverages spatial reasoning, which sighted users often rely on. In this work, we investigate the value of and opportunities for BLV screen-reader users to browse websites spatially (e.g., understanding page layouts). We additionally explore at-scale website layout understanding as a feature of desktop screen readers. We created a technology probe, WebNExt, to facilitate our investigation. Specifically, we conducted a lab study with eight participants and a five-day field study with four participants to evaluate spatial browsing using WebNExt. Our findings show that participants found spatial browsing intuitive and fulfilling, strengthening their connection to the design of web pages. Furthermore, participants envisioned spatial browsing as a step toward reducing the digital divide.