Accessibility as lived experience: Understanding low vision across physical, digital, and emerging interaction contexts through ECAM-VI

Abstract

Accessibility efforts have traditionally addressed low vision through feature-based solutions and compliance guidelines, with less attention to how accessibility is experienced across physical, digital, and emerging environments. This study investigates the lived experiences, coping strategies, and technology expectations of people with low vision to develop an experience-centred understanding of accessible interaction.Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that accessibility emerges from five interrelated dimensions: perceptual variability,emotional and social experience, coping behaviours, technological mediation, and socio-environmental context. Participants described accessibility as a continuous experience shaped by personalization, adaptive practices, environmental negotiation,and integrated technologies. Although participants’ views of immersive technologies largely reflected perceived assistive potential rather than direct experience, the findings identify considerations for future immersive accessibility design. We introduce theExperience-Centred Accessibility Model for Visual Impairment (ECAM-VI), an empirically grounded framework that conceptualizes accessibility as a relational, experience-centred phenomenon and informs the design of inclusive interactive systems.