"I Don’t Really Get Involved In That Way": Investigating Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals’ Experiences of Joint Attention with Sighted People

Joint attention (JA) is a crucial component of social interaction, relying heavily on visual cues like eye gaze and pointing. This creates barriers for blind and visually impaired people (BVI) to engage in JA with sighted peers. Yet, little research has characterised these barriers or the strategies BVI people employ to overcome them. We interviewed ten BVI adults to understand JA experiences and analysed videos of four BVI children with eight sighted partners engaging in activities conducive to JA. Interviews revealed that lack of JA feedback is perceived as voids that block engagement, exacerbated in group settings, with an emphasis on oneself to fill those voids. Video analysis anchored the absence of the person element within typical JA triads, suggesting a potential for technology to foster alternative dynamics between BVI and sighted people. We argue these findings could inform technology design that supports more inclusive JA interactions.