  Visual arts play an important role in cultural life and provide access to
social heritage and self-enrichment, but most visual arts are inaccessible to
blind people. Researchers have explored different ways to enhance blind
people's access to visual arts (e.g., audio descriptions, tactile graphics).
However, how blind people adopt these methods remains unknown. We conducted
semi-structured interviews with 15 blind visual arts patrons to understand how
they engage with visual artwork and the factors that influence their adoption
of visual arts access methods. We further examined interview insights in a
follow-up survey (N=220). We present: 1) current practices and challenges of
accessing visual artwork in-person and online (e.g., Zoom tour), 2) motivation
and cognition of perceiving visual arts (e.g., imagination), and 3)
implications for designing visual arts access methods. Overall, our findings
provide a roadmap for technology-based support for blind people's visual arts
experiences.
