Investigate the impact of assistive interfacing technology on productivity and work engagement of people with visual impairment in workplace

Abstract

The employment of people with visual impairment (PVI) represents a profound socioeconomic challenge, reflecting systemic inequity and untapped economic potential, particularly acute in rapidly digitizing workplaces. Assistive Interfacing Technology (AIT), such as screen readers and gesture-based navigation tools, serves as a vital bridge enabling PVI to access digital devices and participate in modern work environments. Despite its transformative potential, research on AIT’s functional mechanisms and impacts on the productivity and work engagement of PVI remains fragmented. Addressing this gap, this dissertation employs mixed-methods and applies Affordance Theory and Person-Environment Fit (P-E Fit) theory to investigate AIT's role in influencing productivity and work engagement of PVI.
Study 1 adopts an interpretive, qualitative approach to delineate the functional affordances of AIT. Collaborating with a leading AIT developer and conducting field observations and semi-structured interviews with PVI, the study identifies four core functional dimensions of AIT and their associated affordances: (1) Interface Operation (affording simplicity, fluency, compatibility, configurability), (2) Information Location (affording comprehensiveness, precision), (3) Information Interpretation (affording sequencing, accuracy), and (4) Information Broadcasting (affording consistency, personalization). This taxonomy reveals how AIT reconfigures human-computer interaction by overcoming input (operation) and output (location, interpretation, transmission) barriers for PVI, enabling access to common digital devices and applications used by sighted colleagues.
Study 2 draws on P-E Fit theory to quantitatively investigate how AIT functional usage impacts workplace productivity among PVI. Utilizing survey data from employed PVI in China, the study examines the mediating roles of information processing speed and information processing accuracy. Results demonstrate that the usage of location, interpretation, and broadcasting functions significantly enhances productivity by improving both the speed and accuracy of information processing. In contrast, the operation function showed no significant direct or mediated effects. This suggests that the efficacy of operation functions—which require active user interaction (e.g., gesture execution)—may be constrained by user-dependent adaptation demands or potentially offset by compensatory strategies developed over time. This study establishes crucial causal pathways linking specific autonomous AIT functions (location, interpretation, broadcasting) to productivity outcomes through their impact on core information processing capabilities.
Study 3 further explored the impact of using AIT on the psychological aspects of PVI, specifically their work engagement. Grounded in P-E Fit theory's focus on psychological needs, the study theorizes dual mediating pathways: (1) IT self-efficacy, and (2) stigma consciousness. Analyzing survey data from the same cohort of 256 PVI using SEM, the findings reveal that operation and broadcasting functions bolster IT self-efficacy, which positively impacts engagement. While operation function use also reduces stigma consciousness, broadcasting function use unexpectedly heightened stigma consciousness. Location and interpretation functions showed no significant effects on these psychological mediators. Both heightened IT self-efficacy and reduced stigma consciousness were significantly associated with greater work engagement. This complex pattern highlights that AIT's functionality can simultaneously empower users through enhanced self-efficacy and stigmatize through heightened visibility of difference, challenging assumptions of uniformly positive psychosocial outcomes and revealing a nuanced, sometimes paradoxical, psychological impact.
Theoretical contributions are multifaceted: (1) It establishes a novel functional taxonomy of AIT and empirically demonstrates their differential impacts on productivity and work engagement, providing a nuanced understanding beyond viewing AIT monolithically. (2) It advances Affordance Theory by codifying a comprehensive set of the visually impaired-specific AIT affordances within digital environments and elucidating their perception and actualization barriers, moving beyond a focus on non-disabled users. Practical implications offer actionable guidance for AIT developers, findings emphasize prioritizing autonomous, high-visibility functions (location, interpretation) and refining broadcasting features (e.g., accuracy, customizable output modes like adjustable speed/pitch, privacy modes) while simplifying and streamlining operation gestures. Mitigating the stigma potential of broadcasting functions is crucial. For organizations, implementing AIT effectively requires not just providing the technology but also fostering an inclusive culture that reduces stigma consciousness. Strategies include user training, promoting psychological safety, and framing AIT use as a normative professional tool rather than a marker of disability.

Date of Award	15 Nov 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Nottingham
Supervisor	Jie Fang (Supervisor), Zhao Cai (Supervisor) & Patrick Chau (Supervisor)