ACM UIST 2025 2025

VIP-Sim: A User-Centered Approach to Vision Impairment Simulation for Accessible Design

Max Rädler, Mark Colley, Enrico Rukzio

VIP-Sim, a vision impairment simulator, was created in a user-centered design process in collaboration with participants with visual impairments. During this process, VIP-Sim was first built upon existing work and then extended and optimized towards a closer representation of the perception of our participants. This was done in a process where each participant underwent an initial assessment (left) to identify blind spots in their visual fields and descriptions of their perception, combined with vision tests. Subsequently, participants were shown shaders designed to simulate visual impairments (middle). Discrepancies between the participants’ actual perceptions and the shader simulations were identified. These differences were either integrated into the existing shaders or used to develop new ones. This process led to the creation of VIP-Sim (right), a symptom-based simulator that can be overlaid on any design tool.

Abstract

People with vision impairments (VIPs) often rely on their remaining vision when interacting with user interfaces. Simulating visual impairments is an effective tool for designers, fostering awareness of the challenges faced by VIPs. While previous research has introduced various vision impairment simulators, none have yet been developed with the direct involvement of VIPs or thoroughly evaluated from their perspective. To address this gap, we developed VIP-Sim. This symptom-based vision simulator was created through a participatory design process tailored explicitly for this purpose, involving N=7 VIPs. 21 symptoms, like field loss or light sensitivity, can be overlaid on desktop design tools. Most participants felt VIP-Sim could replicate their symptoms. VIP-Sim was received positively, but concerns about exclusion in design and comprehensiveness of the simulation remain, mainly whether it represents the experiences of other VIPs.

Contributions

VIP-Sim: a user-centered vision impairment simulation tool for accessible design
Opinions and reflections about the usage of VIP-Sim in design processes by VIPs

Citation

@inproceedings{10.1145/3746059.3747704,
author = {R\"{a}dler, Max and Colley, Mark and Rukzio, Enrico},
title = {VIP-Sim: A User-Centered Approach to Vision Impairment Simulation for Accessible Design},
year = {2025},
isbn = {9798400720376},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3746059.3747704},
doi = {10.1145/3746059.3747704},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology},
articleno = {47},
numpages = {20},
keywords = {visual impairments, design methods, accessibility, vision impairment simulator, participatory design, user-centered design},
location = {
},
series = {UIST '25}
}