Essential, Yet Overlooked: Identity Verification Barriers for Blind and Low Vision People in Government Services
For BLV individuals, the paper highlights overlooked accessibility breakdowns in government identity verification, showing that current designs undermine access, security, and autonomy.
This paper investigates how blind and low vision (BLV) individuals face systemic accessibility barriers in identity verification for government services, based on analysis of 219 Reddit posts and 16 interviews. The findings reveal that inaccessible workflows restructure security practices and exacerbate exclusion, with participants viewing AI as both an aid and a fraud risk.
Identity verification is a critical gateway to accessing government services and public benefits, yet contemporary systems are typically designed around visual interaction, leaving blind and low vision (BLV) individuals disproportionately burdened. In this work, we examine how BLV users navigate identity verification in government services and how current designs shape their access, security, and autonomy. Through a mixed methods study combining analysis of 219 Reddit posts and semi-structured interviews with 16 BLV participants, we uncover systemic accessibility breakdowns across both digital and in person verification processes. Our findings show that inaccessible verification workflows do not merely inconvenience users, they restructure how security is achieved in practice. We also identify how repeated verification demands, inaccessible physical infrastructure, and policy changes exacerbate exclusion from essential services. At the same time, participants articulate complex perspectives on AI, viewing it as both a critical accessibility aid and a growing vector for identity fraud.