Experiences and Perceptions of Blind and Low-Vision (BLV) People with Retail Self-Checkout Systems

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 has required retailers to ensure the accessibility of their stores to all consumers. However, consumer-facing in-store technology has rapidly grown and has not always been developed to be accessible to blind and low-vision (BLV) people. We surveyed 86 BLV respondents to understand current concerns with in-store technology and found self-checkouts (SCOs) were frequently used but also presented accessibility barriers. Next, we conducted a set of 10 contextual inquiries with BLV participants using SCOs. We found current SCOs negatively affected independence, self-efficacy, and equality for our BLV users. In addition to our findings, we present a design for an accessible SCO addressing the concerns of BLV while keeping retail corporations’ needs in mind.