Typing Haptically: Towards Enabling Non-auditory Smartphone Text Entry with Haptic Feedback for Blind and Low Vision Users

DOI

Text entry on smartphones remains challenging for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) users, particularly in environments where audio feedback is impractical due to noise, privacy, or social stigma. We present TypeHap, a new system that enables BLV users to type confidently on smartphones using only haptic feedback without relying on audio. Through formative interviews (N=20), we identified the key user needs and iteratively designed a compact, attachable system combining phoneme-based haptic cues delivered through piezo actuators embedded on both sides of the smartphone and a tactile overlay on a touchscreen for differentiating rows in a keyboard. In a four-day study (N=11), BLV participants trained with TypeHap achieved text entry speeds and accuracies comparable to typing with conventional audio feedback. Participants described TypeHap as liberating in public, noisy, and private contexts where audio feedback falls short. Our findings highlight haptic feedback as a promising alternative to audio-based interaction for enabling more private, accessible smartphone use of BLV users in diverse everyday contexts.