Inclusive Design
Standards
- BS8878 - ISO 9241 Parts 12 - 17 - HHS 207 research-backed guidelines - WCAG 2.0
User Testing: Physically Impaired
- Do not move mobility aids. Some people are uncomfortable if the aids are out of reach. - Remember seating for a personal attendant - Have a clipboard available to hold the consent form and instruction sheet. - Remember space for a wheelchair, a cane or other mobility aids - Make sure they can reach and operate equipment
Why Inclusive Design / Accessibility?
- Economic - Demographic - Usability - Legal - Moral/Ethical Not doing inclusive design can lead to tech exclusion which can lead to a lack of societal cohesion. Inclusion's goal is to prevent differences bfrom becoming impairment
Accessibility Evaluation Methods
- Guidelines/Standards - Expert-Based - Automated tools (conformance checkers) - Models (e.g. empathic modelling) - User-based - Log Analysis - Demand/Exclusion Assessment
Design Considerations: Cognitive Impairments
- Make sure the page/interface is readable by a screen reader - Allow the user to turn off any animated or timed elements - Use consistent layouts and formats - Use left-justification - Use clear and concise language and easy to understand graphical cues - Use judicious white space - Use blocking to aid with organisation
Personas: Pro/Con
- Personas are "hypothetical archetypes" of actual users and they include specific characteristics, demographics, and experience level from user profiles, traditionally used in UCD - Inclusive Design follows UCD but considers accessibility at every step. Hence it makes sense to produce Personas which include accessibility i.e. Nature of limitation (e.g., blind, unable to use mouse, operating in noisy environment), Special tools or assistive technology (AT) used (e.g., uses screen magnifier to read text < 16 pt), Experience and skills with the relevant tools or AT. Issues: - Variability of disabilities and interactions - Designers may assume that information from one persona with a disability applies to all people with disabilities - Personas usually cover the "most important" user groups
Persona: Aphasia
- minimise use of language - use icons and visual language - minimal distractions, reminders and prompts - might only use one hand (stroke affects one side) - direct mappings
5 facets of gender differences in software use
-Motivation -Risk -Tinkering -Info processing -Self-efficacy
Universal Design Principles
1 / Equitable Use 2 / Flexibility in Use 3/ Simple and Intuitive Use 4 / Perceptible Information 5 / Tolerance for Error 6 / Low Physical Effort 7 / Size and space for approach and use
Hofsteders Cultural Dimensions
1 / Power Distance 2 / Masculine vs. Feminine 3 / Individual vs. Collective 4 / Uncertainty Avoidance 5 / Short vs. Long term orientation
Inclusive Design Principles
1 / Provide a comparable experience 2 / Consider situation 3 / Give Control 4 / Offer Choice 5 / Be Consistent 6 / Prioritise Content 7 / Add Value
7 diversity factors that affect design
1 DISABILITY + IMPAIRMENT (CAPABILITIES) 2 SKILL LEVEL 3 SOCIAL ISSUES 4 COGNITIVE FACTORS 5 CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC 6 AGE 7 GENDER
Accessibility Heuristics
1 Navigation & wayfinding 2 Structure & semantics of pages 3 Language & readability 4 Color contrast & legibility 5 Error prevention & error states 6 Account for multiple interaction methods 7 Alternatives to visual and auditory content 8 Provide enough time and preserve info 9 Predictability & consistency 10 Control of movement & flashing
3 views on disability
1) Medical Model: casts variations as impairments, failure sor flaws that demand normalization through technology or other measures 2) Social Model: Society as oppressing the disabled by unnecessarily isolating and excluding them from full participation 3) Relational/Materialist Model: Disability as the result of an interaction between individual bodies and the social environment (Moser, 'good/bad passages')
User Testing: Children
Ability to verbalise thoughts limited Motor skills (might not have dexterity needed) Need more time Might need help communicating thoughts or regulating emotions
Accessible Tech
Accessibility is an underlying goal or design objective incorporated into the design process e.g. IT designed to be accessible
Requirements Gathering: Elderly
Age-related impairments are sensitive personal matters that people are reluctant to discuss. Older adults often mistrust technologies in general, which makes them reluctant to participate in design experiments On the other hand, designers and developers often cannot grasp the extent of the effects that age-related impairments have in the activities of older people. To overcome these difficulties, researchers have been adapting and adjusting existing traditional design techniques so that they ease the process of involving this user group in the early stages of the design process.
Gesture Recognition
An alternative to language-based, voice or text input: Current areas of application focused on driving, gaming and other areas not related to accessibility
Inclusive Design
An attitude or orientation to design that rethinks difference versus deviance.
Requirements Gathering: Cognitive Impairments
As cognitive disabilities are so diverse, it is difficult to abstract and generalise the issues involved in researching user requirements. An effective approach to address this lack of generalisability is to work with a small number of users initially, designing a system targeted to their needs, and subsequently evaluating the system with a broader group. Communication difficulties between the design team and participants mean that multidisciplinary teams are required - involving a psychologist, language therapist, and other rehabilitation specialists. Design methods are preferred that do not require the direct involvement of users in requirements analysis. Alternatively, relatives and caretakers can also be involved as proxies for design input. To navigate the ethical implications of involving people with cognitive disabilities in research, experts propose user-sensitive inclusive design (instead of standard user-centred design) as an approach targeted to capturing individual differences related to disability Limited communication and cognitive skills may have the potential for misunderstandings and the difficulties in clarifying misconceptions. High willingness to agree with the analyst, potentially limited social and interaction abilities.
Assistive Technologies: Pro/Con
Assistive technologies (AT) are specialised pieces of equipment or software that facilitate access to IT. They are used to increase or maintain capabilities of individuals with disabilities. Pros AT are powerful, as they are designed to meet a specific need. Therefore can be used by people even with severe or multiple disabilities Cons Majority of AT are very costly Must undergo training to use AT properly, which can be very time consuming Technology can not always be relied on. If the AT doesn't work, the user cannot perform their tasks. Accessible technology incorporates the underlying design goal of catering to a wide range of human capabilities and removing barriers to participation, into the UCD process (e.g. IT designed to be accessible). While AT can be methods or specific technologies used to make tech more accessible, accessible technology is a more general term used to describe places, environments, technology and technology-mediated environments. Accessible technology pros Cheaper and easier to use, as users do not need to buy additional equipment Removes the stigma of using AT Accessible technology cons Needs to fit with range of ATs Is not highly specialised, therefore may not cater to people with severe needs
Value of BS8878 to web accessibility
BS8878 is "process-oriented" so it makes no claims about the output - i.e. you could go through BS8878 and still come up with an inaccessible website. Point is that at each stage accessibility is considered. This means that everyone in organisation needs some understanding on it, decisions are documented etc. This also means it's potentially easier to prove that you have taken "reasonable steps" towards providing the service (i.e. not fall foul of Equality Act). However, it's a formalisation of Inclusive Design in which we are trying to add accessibility at every UCD stage. Agreed standard that everyone is working to.
Robust
Content must be robust enough to be interpreted by a large variety of user agents, including assistive technology; as technology evolves, content must still remain interpretable 1 Compatible
Design Considerations: Visual Impairments
Declining vision .. lead to difficulties reading small text, text surrounded closely by other elements, complex font styles, or low contrast Guidelines stress use of larger fonts, high contrast and increased spacing between text elements Descriptive page title Skip link(s) Minimise screenreader "noise" Descriptive ALT text for informative images Null ALT text for decorative images Headings (inc. invisible headings) Descriptive links (front-loaded) Use lists for menus Resizable text Visible font resizer Text not embedded in images Large headings High contrast links Sufficient colour contrast Minimise large areas of white space Use colour blocking to aid navigation and location feedback Multimodal feedback (auditory, visual, haptic) to provide cues to users can improve the performance by providing a "different sensory feedback" + reinforce message Adhering to certain guidelines of good design, such as providing reference points on the screen that are easy to identify and not changing reference points very often, can enhance the quality of haptic-based design for the visually impaired.
Disability + The promise of Tech (Moser)
Disabled is not something one is, but something one becomes. This article questions what role technology plays in enabling or disabling interactions. In this context, the use of new technologies works to build an order of the normlal and turn disabled people into 'competent normal subjects'. However, this strategy based on compensation achieves its goals only by continuing to reproduce boundaries between abled and disabled, normal and deviant, which constitute some people as disabled in the first place. There are thus limits to normalization. Notwithstanding their generative and transformative power, technologies working within an order of the normal are implicated in the (re)production of the asymmetries that they seek to undo.
User Testing: Physically Disabled
Do not move mobility aids. Some people are uncomfortable if the aids are out of reach. Remember seating for a personal attendant Have a clipboard available to hold the consent form and instruction sheet. Remember space for a wheelchair, a cane or other mobility aids Make sure they can reach and operate equipment
Design Considerations: Elderly
Don't use artificial Speech to meet the needs of older users bc of: (1) problems understanding synthetic speech, (2) long messages, (3) exacerbated by faulty memories + erroneous navigation models Do not rely on sound alone to get their attention. Cognition slower depending on task, so give more time for tasks that req. Cog. processing but not as much for those where knowledge is important Provide memory aids, don't rely on their working memory Do not use too many visuals - it takes them longer to process ... same goes for large blocks of text. Break things up. Provide guidance through tasks Better to rely on recognition than recall for this group Difficult for them to focus for a long time or quick continuous scanning. Behaviour change: Increased cautiousness - longer reaction times, inefficient central nervous system functioning ... Providing assurance to older users that they're is in the right place can alleviate lack of confidence
Are there gender differences? 3 Responses
Essentialist view: Yes, there are innate differences between men and women with respect to how they think, behave, etc. That's the way things are so we need gendered designs. Cultural View: No, men and women are very similar, but society shapes and controls behaviour. That's why we need a feminist agenda and gender neutral designs. Pragmatic response: There are differences, but we are not sure if they are due to nature or nurture. However, we need gender-inclusive designs that cater to a variety of people.
Uncertainty Avoidance
Extent to which people feel anxiety about uncertain or unknown matters High: Simplicity, reveal results, navigation designed to prevent people from getting lost, redundancy to reduce ambiguity Low: Encourage wandering, stigma on over-protection, less control of navigation, mental models used to understand concepts not narrow tasks.
Feminist Disability Studies (Garland-Thompson, 2005)
Feminist disability studies (FDS) ... challenges dominant assumptions about living with a disability... situates the disability experience in the context of rights and exclusions ... illuminates the social process of identity formation .. TL;DR reimagines disability. FDS questions assumptions that disability is a flaw, lack, or excess. To do so, it defines disability broadly from a social rather than a medical perspective. Argues disability is a cultural interpretation of human variation rather than an inherent inferiority, a pathology to cure, or an undesirable trait to eliminate. In other words, it finds disabilities significance in interactions between bodies and their social and material environment Critical cultural work 1) understands disability as a system of exclusions that stigmatizes human differences. 2) It uncovers communities and identities that the bodies we consider disabled have produced 3) It reveals discriminatory attitudes and practices directed at those bodies 4) exposes disability as a social category of analysis 5) It frames disability as an effect of power relations Thesis: FDS shows that disability (like race + gender) is a system of representation that marks bodies as subordinate, rather than an essential property of bodies that supposedly have something wrong with them.
WAI Easy Checks
First, - select representative set of pages Then, test the pages/screens with a range of browsers for the following: 1/ Check title - frontloaded, informative 2/ Turn off images - check alternative text for problems or disappearing "text" (i.e. text embedded in images) 3/ Turn off sound - check same information is transmitted 4/ Test grayscale/contrast/colour - disappearing text 5/ Not use mouse, only use keyboard - reachable/operable/focus 6/ Resize text - nothing pixelates or gets pushed out of view 7/ Quick source code check - look out for tables for formatting, heading structure 8/ Check multimedia alternatives - are they provided?
Design Considerations: Culture
For advertising/language... Higher power distance = authority or expert telling you; lower = humour, highlight citizens and diversity For individual societies, emphasize materialism/consumerism , ne w and unique .. for collective societies, emphasize political/social , history and tradition. Masculine = quicker results, utilitarian, navigation oriente Feminine = blurring gender roles, poetic visuals, less structured navigation High uncertainty avoidance: Structure simple, clear metaphors, reviews, results oriented Low uncertai nty: less control of navigation, more new and unique things, change is see positively Long-term believes inequality in relationships is key to societal stability ... virtue is acquiring new skills, frugal, patient // short-term promotes equal relationships and individualism ... long-term focus on practical value , patient , and achieving goals ... for short-term , content-focused, and truth / certainty of beliefs / rules are sources of information, desire for immediate achievement of goals
BS8878
Formalisation or framework of inclusive design to add accessibility at every UCD stage. An agreed upon standard everyone is working towards. Process-oriented, doesn't necessarily lead to accessible website, but requires that accessibility considered at each stage. More documentation. Easier to prove compliance with Equality Act.
Gender
Gender is a social construct where gender identification and performance may or may not align with biological sex. Gender choice affects people's behaviour, their actions and the way they think.
User Testing: Aphasia
Give very specific tasks Use visual aids to communicate e.g. post test questions No think alouds Post test questionaires should include visual cues and graphic rating scales Do not use any jargon, keep vocabulary as simple as possible Allow some time between tasks Do not rush participant to answer, allow time to think about what they want to say Support from a language professional is advised.
Keyboard Inputs
Hardware: Alternative layouts: reduced-movement or one-handed layouts Software: Sticky keys, slow keys, word prediction
Long vs. Short-term Orientation
Important in Asian countries. Stable society requires unequal relations High: Focused in practical value, credibility of sources, patience in achieving goals Low: Content focused on truth and certainty of beliefs, rules are a source of info, immediate results.
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Individualism: expected to look after one's self or immediate family vs. Collectivism: integrated into strong, cohesive groups High: Motivation on personal achievement, images of success, sense of morality, values uniqueness Low: Underplayed personal achievement, social agendas, values relationships, importance to tradition and history
Empathic Modelling
Informal technique for designers to simulate impairments to gain empathy for impared users and do a low-cost accessibility check. HOW? No set procedure but specifically consider: • Length/duration • Level of fidelity needed • Specific tasks + situations • Data recording
Understandable
Information and the operation of controls must be understandable 1 Readable 2 Predictable 3 Input Assistance
Perceivable
Information and user interface controls must be presented in ways that users can perceive 1.1 Text alternatives 1.2 Time-based media 1.3 Adaptable 1.4 Distinguishable
User Testing: Deaf
Invite sign language translators and ask that participants speak at an appropriate pace, providing translators the needed time. Alternatively a sign language translator may not be necessary if the user is comfortable with lip reading. Since many with hearing disabilities also have problems with reading and writing, any written material should be kept as simple as possible Record both participant and interpreter. instruct interpreter to not change or modify anything said by participant.
Mouse Inputs
Keyboard only, joystick, Eyegaze, Headmouse switches with scanning software
Assistive Tech: Input Types
Keyboard, Mouse, Voice, Gesture
Social Model Impact on Designing for Accessibility
Looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people. When barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives.
Design Considerations: Cognitive Impairments
Most diverse category, main goal to provide ability for individual users to customise product to meet their own set of unique needs Provide consistent page navigation content supported by images, structuring browsing to guide through a limited number of choices Can benefit from text-to-speech tech that reads web count aloud Pages should have relatively little content viewable at one time to reduce distractions Providing memory supports (e.g. for passwords) Allow user to control text options such as color contrast, font size, and space between words and lines of text Don't use or minimise use of animated elements For tasks w/ multiple steps provide contextual information about stage of process to keep users oriented In hierarchically structured sites, use breadcrumbs Supplement text labels w/ icons or page thumbnails Make sure the page/interface is readable by a screen reader Allow the user to turn off any animated or timed elements Use consistent layouts and formats Use left-justification Use clear and concise language and easy to understand graphical cues Use judicious white space Use blocking to aid with organisation Descriptive headings and link text 1 idea per paragraph & front-loaded Lists
Facets of gender that affect software use
Motivation: Females tend to be more motivated to use tech. because it enables them to accomplish a goal while males are motivated by their own enjoyment. This affects which features females vs. males tend to use. → Information processing styles: Females are more likely to use comprehensive information processing styles gathering fairly complete information before proceeding. Males are more likely to use selectiveness and following the first promising information and backtracking if necessary. → Computer self-efficacy: A person confidence about succeeding given specific tasks. It matters to problem-solving because influences their use of cognitive strategies, effort, persistence and coping with obstacles. Females have lower efficacy than males. This can be due to stereotype threat and non-inclusive work environments. → Risk aversion: Females tend to be more risk-averse than males. this influences which feature sets to use on software. → Tinkering: Females are statistically less likely to playful experiment (tinker) with new features compared to men. Studies show, however, that when women tinker they are more reflective during the process and benefit more. This impacts design when there are features that will require tinkering and exploration to use them. These facets play important role in problem-solving situations: features females and males choose to use, ways they use them.
Medical Model Impact on Designing for Accessibility
NOT INCLUSIVE. Looks at what is 'wrong' and not what the person needs. Creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their own lives.
Design Considerations: Mobile
No explicit guidelines, aspects o WCAG relate because content across devices becoming more similar. Not everything covered though. P - 1 / Small screen size 2 / Zoom 3 / Contrast O - 1/ Keyboard control 2 / Touch target sizing 3/ Touchscreen gestures 4 / Placing buttons U - 1 / Changing screen orientation 2 / Consistent layout 3 / Positioning important elements, clear indication that elements are oeprable R - 1 / Set virtual keyboard to type of data entry required 2 / Provide easy method for data entry 3 / support characteristic properties of platform
Non-visual / non-auditory output
Non-auditory: Signing, captions Non-visual: Screen readers Non-auditory & non-visual: Braille displays, tactile pictures, screen magnifiers
Assistive Tech: Type of outputs
Non-visual / non-auditory output
Masculine Vs. Feminne
Perception of gender roles and expected behaviours from each gender. High: Family, age, tradition, nav oriented, attention through games and competition, utilitarian images Low: Emphasis on blurred gender roles, cooperation, support, attention gained through poetical aesthetics
How do you conduct a design oriented ethnography?
Plan for research to be investigative and exploratory, not driven by hypotheses → e.g. Vonnie Lee Be open to study following new trajectories and evolving as new areas of interest and themes develop Scope the fieldwork tightly at first, leaving room for the scope to alter, broaden, and deepen Select type and number of participants with the aim of observing and detailing a setting as socially organized not with the aim of generalizing to large populations Consider alternatives to recruiting participants, such as simply observing a setting/activity or autoethnography Leave plenty of time for getting access to empirical site and recruiting participants as effort easily underestimated
Power Distance
Refers to the extent to which less powerful members expect and accept equal power distribution and treatment High: Highly structured websites, emphasis in morals, symbols, logos, experience Low: Transparency, freedom, importance of "normal"citizens and students, less structured
Design Considerations: Children (Piaget Stages)
Sensori-motor (birth—2 years) cannot use mouse, attracted by audio, video and animation, Pre-operational (ages 2-7) brief attention span, hold one thing in memory at a time, difficulty with abstractions, pre-literate but likes play, Concrete Operational (ages 7-11) starting to be able to able to group like items and categorize but careful about groupings in interface, Formal Operational (ages 11 and up) thinking is generally similar to that of adults but skills still developing so may have problems following processes or need help with reasoning).
Transient Impairments
Situationally induced impairments (Transient) Caused by environment - Bright sunlight makes screen difficult to see Caused by tech itself - Too small screens render users vision impaired in that specific situation
Assistive Tech
Specialised piece of equipment or software which facilitates access to using IT Used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities
Design Considerations: Deaf
Speech needs to be presented in other means Captioning is the most common alternative for representing speech Video based methods are the ideal for sign language users
Voice Inputs
Speech recognition/dictation, Translation, Conversational assistant
Design Considerations: Dyslexia
Text options on screen such as color contrast, font size, and space between words and lines of text Left-align text, and keep a consistent layout Use images and diagrams to support text, avoid large blocks of text Provide text in alternative formats such as audio or video Keep content, short, cler, simply Don't force people to remember, provide memory aids Don't rely on accurate spelling, provide suggestions or autocorrect
Requirements Gathering: Children
There are existing power structures, biases, and assumptions between adults and children that need to be overcome Children often have difficulty expressing their opinions and thoughts, especially when it comes to abstract concepts and actions
Accessibility Laws
UK - EQUALITY ACT OF 2010 - Original law, Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 (DDA). UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Signed 2007): USA Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990 USA Section 508 of the Rehab. Act (1998) USA 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010
Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable, must not require interactions that a user cannot perform 1 Keyboard Accessible 2 Enough Time 3 Seizures 4 Navigable 5 Input Modalities
Good Passages, Bad Passages (Moser and Law, 1999)
Very abstract and highly theoretical. Basically, wants to analyse disability within its specificities, how it requires reliance on assistive technology or a modification of existing tools or procedures, and that these mini interactions or navigations of interactions constitute 'passages', and depending on how they go they can be good or bad. The way these passages are shaped produce continuity and relative autonomy for the disabled subject. Everyone made up of a million specific abilities. Passages are movements between specificities Movement bw specificities is a specificity in its own right How are they done, or not done (the passages) Disability is about specific passages between equally specific arrays of heterogeneous materials
WCAG
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, now made up of 4 sections (POUR), each has it's own sub-sections 12 points total, scores compliance from A to AAA.
User Testing: Visual Impairments
Written material should be provided to blind and visually impaired users in Braille or in accessible assistive digital software or hardware. Low-vision participants would benefit from printouts in large fonts and high text-background contrast. Color-blind participants should be provided with the use of appropriate typography and not meaning conveyed through color. All material should be explained to blind and visually impaired people orally. Watch keyboards as it is a big part of the interaction for the user. Screen reader and participant's voice need to be recorded separately as they will probably think aloud at the same time as reader
a good assistive tech
is designed for device independence with minimal dextermity demands, clear navigation mechanisms, and error recovery mechanism. A good universal design should optimize both ease of keyboard access and ease of direct selection.
GenderMag
method for evaluating problem-solving software from a gender-inclusiveness perspective. The method includes a set of faceted personas that bring five facets of gender difference research to life, and embeds use of the personas into a concrete process through a gender-specialized Cognitive Walkthrough. → Supports systematic evaluation of how a first-time user would carry out the task by using interface features. → A team of evaluators "walks through" the interface step by step, evaluating the interface's usability and learnability. it is done in two stages: o Preparatory phase: describe target user, task for evaluation and ideal/correct sequence of goals, sub-goals. o Analysis phase: use a prototype of the system to systematically work through the idea subgoal sequence as if they were target user. → For each of the action steps, the evaluators ask three questions: (1) whether users will note that the action is available to them (2) whether they will associate the intended effect with the action and (3) whether they will understand that they have made progress toward completing the task. —> Using gender-specialized cognitive walkthrough > references the facets through the personas
Norman's "Culture doesn't matter for product design"
product design is now global and does not differentiate between cultures anymore. Country of design and manufacture does not influence how the product is designed, neither is there much (cultural) diversity in how designers are taught. He argues that culture only influences social activities. Technology supports activities but it's a matter of style not fundamental differences. However, another view is that design still matters - how information gets interpreted is culturally influenced. Also, how technology is used and co-opted by users to fit into their activities may differ culturally.
Design Considerations: Motor Impairments
web pages be designed for device independence, meaning without the assumption that the user has both a pointing device and a keyboard W3C - Pages shouldn't use event handlers that are triggered only by mouse events, because this makes them inaccessible to a keyboard-only or speech-only user. ensure that everything can be accessed and controlled via keyboard. To accommodate slower typing rates, reduce the amount of free text entry to a minimum, providing preselected defaults wherever possible. And providing enough time. Difficulty using a mouse and keyboard due to limited dexterity (also includes the elderly)... having larger targets on screen and making them easier to see and click Clear focus states!
