Understanding blind or visually impaired people on You Tube through qualitative analysis of videos

Abstract

In this paper, we analyzed videos to explore blind or visually impaired (BVI) people on YouTube. While researchers found how BVI people interact with contents and other people on social media platforms (e.g., Facebook), little is known about the experience of BVI people on video-based social media platforms (e.g., YouTube). To use videos as a mean of identifying the needs of BVI people on YouTube, we collected and analyzed a specific type of video called Visually Impaired People (VIP) Tag video. This Tag video has a set of structured questions about eye condition and experience as a BVI person. Based on the qualitative analysis of 24 VIP Tag videos created by BVI people, we found how they create videos and why they joined YouTube. In conclusion, we present how video-content analysis can be used to create an inclusive video-based social media platform.