Acknowledgments đź’ś
First and foremost, I would like to say thank you to everyone involved in the process of writing this thesis.
My deepest appreciation goes to my partner, family, and friends for their unwavering support, encouragement, and motivation throughout this thesis journey. I could not have made it without you.
A special thank you goes to all the study participants who generously shared their free time and experiences, providing invaluable insights crucial to this research. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity.
Additionally, I would like to thank the organisations, institutions and individuals for their assistance in participant recruitment. Especially the BSVT , the SBVSFA , Werner Rosenberger of the Hilfsgemeinschaft , Martin Tree of the BSVWNB , Judith Faltl of the BBSB , Philipp Müller of the Blindeninstitutsstiftung – anders sehen , Sarah Skerbinjek of the BSVSt and Joschi Kupahl.
Furthermore, I sincerely thank my dedicated supervisors, Jakub Sypniewski and Maria Ă…kesson, for their expert guidance, insightful feedback, and continuous support in completing this thesis.
A special appreciation goes to Manuel Matuzović, Rachele DiTullio, Aidan Bryant, Katriel Paige, Dr. Martina Svyantek and Alex Tait for their invaluable contributions in defining the thesis topic and scope and serving as external supervisors. Your experience, insights, and feedback greatly enriched this work, and I deeply appreciate it.
I extend my gratitude to Susanne Buchner-Sabathy, Sina Bahram, Chris Schmidt, and Lionel Wolberger for their interview availability, enriching this work with their comments.
I would also like to thank Dirk Ginader for sharing his thoughts on the setting of user studies and Karl Groves for sharing my call for participation in the user study with his network and putting me in touch with various people who have enriched this work. Additionally, I also thank Niklas Egger for taking the time to discuss his previous research.
Furthermore, I thank Ksenia Scharr for her translation services during a user study session and Gehörlos Tirol for facilitating the connection to Ksenia.
I would like to thank UserWay for providing a free month of their subscription and the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences for funding the translation and technical services, which helped overcome the limited financial capabilities of this thesis. I am also grateful to have received a sustainability scholarship from the AK Salzburg , which will financially support this thesis after its completion.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Louise for her invaluable help in proofreading, ensuring the linguistic and grammatical quality of this thesis.