"If We Had the Information That We Need to Interpret the World Around Us, We Wouldn't Be Disabled:" Barriers and Opportunities in Information Work among Blind and Sighted Colleagues

2026-04-23

AI Summary

This study addresses how inaccessible information representations—such as PDFs and charts—impede collaboration for blind or low-vision employees in the workplace, thereby reducing the collaborative efficiency of mixed-visual-ability teams. Through a diary study, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups analyzed via thematic analysis, the research identifies four interrelated failure modes in information work and corresponding coping strategies, while also examining how workplace stigma and social dynamics shape collaborative practices. The work proposes the first empirically grounded framework for information representation use in mixed-ability teams, delineating key dimensions of accessibility barriers and documenting adaptive workarounds. These findings offer theoretical insights into accessible knowledge work and provide actionable guidance for designing inclusive collaborative tools.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Diagnosis and Abductive Reasoning
• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Imperfect Information

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Psychology-informed user models and recommender systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding

Abstract

Despite recognition of the value of diversity, the way work takes place can fail to support blind or low-vision employees, especially in collaborative work settings. This paper examines how professional teams with diverse visual abilities use information representations (e.g., PDF documents, spreadsheets and charts). A diary study with follow-up individual interviews (23 participants with mixed abilities from 5 teams) and 2 separate focus groups (7 participants from 2 other teams) allowed us to characterize key dimensions of the role of representations in the workplace into four types of interrelated failures and workarounds, influenced by workplace stigmas and shaped by evolving social dynamics towards interdependent information work. We contribute this new empirically supported conceptual understanding of representation use in workplaces that can help design and improve the experiences of mixed-ability teams doing knowledge work in the current technological landscape.

Problem

• information representation
• blind employees
• collaborative work
• workplace accessibility
• mixed-ability teams

Innovation

• information representations
• mixed-ability teams
• collaborative work
• accessibility
• workplace inclusion