How Do Blind People Use QR Codes?
Are QR Codes an "Invisible Wall" or a "New Door" for People With Visual Impairments?
A QR code is something you look at with your eyes and read with a smartphone camera. Since it is a technology that relies on sight, surely blind people cannot use it? People tend to think so, but in reality it is a little more complicated.
For people who are totally blind, the biggest challenge with QR codes is "not knowing where the QR code is." The QR code itself can be read by the camera, but they do not know where to point the camera in the first place. This is not a problem of "being unable to read QR codes" but of "being unable to find QR codes."
On the other hand, for people with low vision, QR codes can actually be a convenient tool. Even if reading small text is difficult, scanning a QR code displays the information in large text on the smartphone screen, and they can also listen to the content with the text-to-speech function.
Conveying the Location of QR Codes With Tactile Markers
To solve the problem of "not knowing where the QR code is," efforts to place tactile markers (marks that can be identified by touch) near QR codes are advancing.
A sticker with raised bumps, like tactile paving blocks, is attached next to the QR code so that touching it with a finger tells you "there is a QR code here." Or a raised frame is set around the QR code so that tracing it with a finger tells you the position and extent of the QR code.
Some local governments in Japan are running pilot tests that place QR codes with tactile markers on information boards at public facilities. Scanning the QR code plays guidance about the facility as audio. "Find it by touch, scan it, and listen." Ways of using QR codes that do not rely on sight are spreading little by little.
Finding QR Codes With Smartphone Voice Guidance
Many smartphones have a function that notifies you with a sound or vibration when the camera detects a QR code. If you launch the camera with iPhone's VoiceOver (screen reading function) turned on, a voice announces "QR code detected" when a QR code comes into the camera's field of view.
Using this function, people with visual impairments can also look for QR codes while slowly holding up their smartphones. When the "beep" detection sound plays, they scan it right then. It is not perfect, but if they roughly know where the QR code is (for example, if they know "it is on the restaurant table"), they can scan it on their own with the help of voice guidance.
On Android, the division of roles is different. Detecting the QR code is a function of the camera app, and in Google's camera app, pointing the camera displays a banner that opens the linked page (only on supported models). Reading it aloud is the job of a screen reader such as TalkBack, and the screen reader itself does not search for QR codes for you.
Why NaviLens Did Not Use QR Codes
Outside Japan, there are code systems designed specifically for people with visual impairments. NaviLens, which comes from Spain, is a proprietary color code that arranges highly saturated colors on a black background, and it is a standard separate from QR codes. According to the official description, no focusing or framing is needed, and it can be detected while walking, even from more than 30 meters away or at an oblique angle.
When read, the guidance registered for that code is played as audio. It becomes an "audio signpost" indoors where GPS does not reach, along the lines of "Go 5 meters ahead to the right for the elevator." However, users need to install a dedicated free app, and those installing the codes must sign a license agreement for businesses. It is not something completed by "just printing the code and sticking it up."
The same company also offers an "accessible QR code" that surrounds a conventional QR code with this color marker. The camera first catches the outer marker from a distance, and once you get closer, it reads the inner QR code as usual. It is a design that takes the clear view that the hard part for people with visual impairments is not "reading" but "finding the code."
The Road to "QR Codes Everyone Can Use"
Since its invention in 1994, the QR code has developed mainly on the assumption of "people who can see." However, now that QR codes have spread to every part of society, achieving "QR codes that blind people can also use" is an important accessibility challenge.
Tactile markers, camera detection sounds, indoor audio navigation. Technical solutions are steadily advancing. However, what matters most is the awareness of "those who place the QR codes." When putting up a QR code, think even for a moment, "How would a person with a visual impairment find this QR code?" That small act of imagination is the first step toward QR codes everyone can use.