Empowering Autonomy and Agency: Exploring and Augmenting Accessible Cyber-Physical Systems

People with Vision Impairments face various barriers in physical activities that are highly visual (e.g., cooking, visiting art museums), which strongly impact their agency, autonomy, and quality of life. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) provide opportunities for people with vision impairments to better interact with physical space. In this research, we first explore current practices and challenges of the adaptation of CPS by people with vision impairments in physical activities. We then establish a comprehensive design space and design guidelines for CPS to satisfy the needs of blind individuals. Finally, we integrate the user-centered design guidelines, implement CPS for people with vision impairments to reduce the barrier of interacting with physical space, and conduct deployment studies to validate our design. Overall, our research provide a roadmap of augmenting accessible CPS for people with disabilities in the physical space.