Kiosk accessibility challenges faced by people with disabilities: an analysis of domestic and international accessibility laws/guidelines and user focus group interviews

Abstract

A kiosk is a device that provides users with information or helps them trade goods/services using a touch screen; it is widely used because of its high availability, fast service, and short waiting time. Despite these advantages, users with various impairments currently face significant difficulties in using kiosks. Therefore, this study analyses the factors influencing the design of accessible kiosks to make them available to all users without discrimination. The literature analysis and focus group interviews with people with disabilities were conducted to explore the factors influencing kiosk accessibility design. Various global accessibility methods/standards related to kiosks were analysed and the major guidelines were identified. Moreover, kiosk accessibility problems experienced by people with disabilities were collected to derive accessibility functions that should be considered first. The main accessibility guidelines were classified into hardware size and space, complementation and replacement of input method, complementation and replacement of vision, and complementation and replacement of cognition. From the focus group interviews, we observed that visual impairment was highly related to voice support provision, high contrast function, and card input port design; hearing impairment was highly related to providing feedback other than voice and providing sign language personnel when using help buttons; and physical impairment was highly related to wheelchair-accessible kiosks and kiosk height control functions. This study analysed the main methods/standard guidelines of kiosk accessibility through a systematic literature analysis, analysed the accessibility problems when using kiosks, and compared them with major laws/standard guidelines.