Designing an accessible home-based muscle strengthening program for blind and low-vision adults

Blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals are prone to physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour, largely due to limited access to exercise opportunities in rehabilitation and community settings. However, despite these challenges, muscle strengthening intervention offers substantial health benefits for this population, including improved balance, reduced fall risk, and greater independence in daily living.

This study aimed to develop and preliminarily validate accessible instructional content for muscle strengthening exercises adapted to BLV individuals and to implement a web-based, voice command-controlled audio delivery system to support home-based exercise participation.

Our study process involved three key steps: 1) development of instructional scripts by exercise specialists, who selected and described muscle strengthening exercises appropriate for BLV individuals; 2) evaluation and refinement of these scripts based on feedback from 277 BLV adults, who assessed whether they could understand and follow the exercises using the instructional scripts alone via an online survey; and 3) development of a web-based, voice command-controlled audio player that delivers the instructions as audio guidance for BLV users.

Scripts for 25 muscle strengthening exercises demonstrated acceptable cognitive load and supported independent practice among BLV participants. Additionally, the developed audio player system was assessed by a blind software developer as having a high level of accessibility. However, further evaluation with BLV end users is required in future studies.

Our findings highlight the significance of systematically designed exercise instructions and accessible system interfaces in developing effective home-based exercise programs for the BLV population.