Although AR technology has been largely dominated by visual media, a number of AR tools using both visual and auditory feedback have been developed specifically to assist people with low vision or blindness - an application domain that we term Augmented Reality for Visual Impairment (AR4VI). We describe two AR4VI tools developed at Smith-Kettlewell, as well as a number of pre-existing examples. We emphasize that AR4VI is a powerful tool with the potential to remove or significantly reduce a range of accessibility barriers. Rather than being restricted to use by people with visual impairments, AR4VI is a compelling universal design approach offering benefits for mainstream applications as well.
Keywords: Artificial; H.5.1 [Multimedia Information Systems]; H.5.2 [User Interfaces]; Haptics; Interaction Style—; accessibility; augmented and virtual realities—; blindness; low vision; tactile graphics; visual impairment.