Mental model of blind users to assist designers in system development

The vast growing technologies for blind users has attracted many researchers to get involved in developing and improving software and system applications useful for the blinds. However, the challenge before such development is in understanding how the users behave and interact with the system. This paper presents a mental model for blind users to assist designers in developing better systems for blind computer users. An explanation on mental model as generally is presented. Related papers on mental model for blind user were reviewed to examine the strengths and weaknesses. Kurniawan and Sutcliffe's work was chosen as a basis to investigate on mental model of blind users. This paper also provides a discussion on the implication of the proposed mental model to designers in designing system applications for the blinds. This includes the need to get domain experts involvement in the design phase of the mental model proposed.