Tactics Applied by Blind and Sighted Users: Initial Exploration of a Digital Library

This study investigates types of tactics that blind and sighted users applied in their initial exploration with a digital library (DL). Sixty participants with 30 blind and 30 sighted novice users were recruited for the study. Multiple data collection methods were employed to collect data: questionnaires, think-aloud protocols, and transaction logs. The findings of the study show that sighted participants focused on browsing DL content when blind participants concentrated on browsing DL structure. As the first study of its kind, it has both theoretical and practical implications.