Promoting Self-Efficacy Through an Effective Human-Powered Nonvisual Smartphone Task Assistant

Accessibility assessments typically focus on determining a binary measurement of task performance success/failure; and often neglect to acknowledge the nuances of those interactions. Although a large population of blind people find smartphone interactions possible, many experiences take a significant toll and can have a lasting negative impact on the individual and their willingness to step out of technological comfort zones. There is a need to assist and support individuals with the adoption and learning process of new tasks to mitigate these negative experiences. We contribute with a human-powered nonvisual task assistant for smartphones to provide pervasive assistance. We argue, in addition to success, one must carefully consider promoting and evaluating factors such as self-efficacy and the belief in one's own abilities to control and learn to use technology. In this paper, we show effective assistant positively affects self-efficacy when performing new tasks with smartphones, affects perceptions of accessibility and enables systemic task-based learning.