Using Embossed QR Codes on Product Packaging for People with Visual Impairments

Vision impairment severely impacts quality of life among adult populations. People with vision impairment often have to deal with a number of problems in their every-day life. One of them is related with their shopping and after sales experience. They need assistive tools so that they can get information about the products they shop and store in their home. QR codes is a well-known technology that contains a link and directs mobile users to a specified website. This website can include various and multimodal information related to a product that can easily be received through audio from peopled with visual impairments. In this paper we propose a solution for people with visual impairments in order to improve the way they shop. From the company's side, QR code labels are printed and placed on the product's packaging while on the same time a mobile application that supports QR code reading has been implemented. The users, scanning the QR code of a product using the mobile application, can seamlessly be redirected to the product-related audio information. The proposed approach and the implemented mobile application were tested by a group of people with vision impairment in order to assess its usability, satisfaction and intention to use. The evaluation results revealed that people with vision impairment find the provided mobile application useful and easy to use, while they are totally satisfied with the proposed approach, and they intend to use it in the future.