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Cognitive walkthrough with profiles of users with accessibility needs

Summary

 

When designing products and services we need to include users with accessibility needs. While working at a project at the UK Department for Education we faced a shortage of users, specifically users with accessibility needs. I developed a methodology to help a multidisciplinary team learn to empathize with the experiences and needs of people with different accessibility needs, while designing in an agile framework. It was a first for the Department for Education and a digital services agency. The methodology consists in doing a cognitive walkthrough of a product or a service using profiles of people with accessibility needs.

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The gov.uk Central Digital & Data Office site offers user profiles that highlight the accessibility barriers that people with accessibility needs face when accessing digital services. These profiles include partially sighted, rheumatoid arthritis, deafness, dyslexia and multiple conditions. Notably, none of these profiles are representative of non-binary people. There is an additional profile that is about Asperger’s, which is now an outdated term because it is no longer diagnosed and it is a term that has unethical implications, please do not use that profile. Instead, I have designed an up-to-date profile of a non-binary autistic person. I have also co-designed a profile of a non-binary user experiencing perimenopause. And I have designed a template agenda so you can run a cognitive walkthrough with your team.

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Insights

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  1. Multidisciplinary teams found the methodology useful to learn about accessibility needs.

  2. The methodology helped my team ground accessibility needs to actionable design decisions.

  3. Other teams designing services and products within the Department for Education tested the methodology effectively and found it useful.

  4. The profiles in gov.uk will not cover all possible scenarios regarding accessibility needs because in the real-world, people have intersections with other types of disabilities, chronic illnesses, and mental health problems.

  5. I used the profile of Rory to think about all the changes I could make in my research practice to make user research accessible to people experiencing perimenopause and menopause. For example, brain fog and joint stiffness and pain.

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Recommendations

 

  1. The methodology does not and should never replace real users with accessibility needs.

  2. Swap the profiles of people with accessibility needs in each cognitive walk/test. This will allow your multidisciplinary group to become incrementally better in understanding different types of user profiles with different accessibility needs.

Serene Horizon

Skills

Innovation

Cognitive walkthrouh

Profile or persona

Influencing

Disability design and innovation in computing research in low resource settings

Summary

 

80% of people with disabilities worldwide live in low resourced settings, rural areas, informal settlements and in multidimensional poverty. Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) leverages technological innovations to deliver programs for international development. But very few do so involving people with disabilities in low resource settings. Most studies focus on publishing positive stories and not the learnings and recommendations regarding research processes. Researchers rarely examine what was challenging in the process of collaboration. Therefore, we thought it was necessary to present our reflections from our research in the field across four studies.

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Our contributions are: (1) an overview of past work in computing with a focus on disability in low resource settings and (2) learnings and recommendations from four collaborative projects in Uganda, Jordan and Kenya over the last two years, that are relevant for future HCI studies in low resource settings with communities with disabilities. We do this through a lens of Disability Interaction and ICT4D.

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Recommendations

 

  1. Thorough scoping and exploratory work is very important because it enables the development of working relationships. This is the door to understanding capacity building needs, potential partners and understanding contractual factors.

  2. Acknowledge your own biases and positionality before starting the research and invite others in the research team to do the same. Seek community representatives and if possible, establish a steering group formed by community members. They are your partners in research.

  3. Seek to understand expectations from each and all stakeholders. Identify misalignments and resolve these as soon as possible.

  4. Building relationships takes time and effort. Communication is crucial and a two sided process. Be flexible in trying different things to maintain effective communication.

  5. Ethics and data protection expectations vary, uphold the criteria that the highest protection to research participants. Agree on how to organize and protect data.

  6. Scope the timeline and processes for drafting contracts, transferring funds between countries and take this into account in the planning of the research.

  7. Encourage local researchers to keep research and reflections diaries.

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most viable plan for research with partners in low resource settings

Skills

Literature review

Collaborative reflection

Journey mapping

Assistive Technology for Ugandan children with visual and/or hearing disabilities

Summary

 

UX methods employed to assess the usability of Assistive Technology (AT) deployed by UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) for primary school children with visual and/or hearing disabilities in Uganda. They created accessible curriculum teaching material and provided technology (laptops, video projectors, speakers, Victor Readers and tactile dots) for use in classrooms. It also provided training for teachers to use such technology.

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UNICEF asked the GDI Hub help in evaluating their assistive technology programme in primary schools in Uganda. I represented the GDI Hub in performing this evaluation. I co-designed the plan for the one-week evaluation, requested interviews with stakeholders and wrote a report. The report is approved by UNICEF and has been published open access. This work further demonstrated the GDI Hub CIC expertise and strengthened the relationship with UNICEF.

 

Overall, the project established that it is possible to create inclusive education environments within schools in

Uganda. In some instances, this has worked well, creating dynamic spill overs in learning, and allowing disabilities

to become irrelevant in communication and thereby levelling of the playing field in education. However, this was not always the case and there remain challenges which should be addressed in the future.

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Insights

 

  1. Initial teacher training was perceived by the trainers and teachers to be beneficial and helpful.

  2. In most cases, teacher and school engagement with the project was high.

  3. Teachers recognise the usefulness of the accessible materials, not only for children with disabilities.

  4. Students embrace the technology very quickly and recognise its usefulness.

 

Recommendations

 

  1. The current hardware is not optimal. An increase in budget to ensure that the laptops used are of a sufficiently high specification and run on an operating system that teachers can use would have a significant impact on usability.

  2. The power systems, speakers and video projectors provided need to be upgraded. In future, consideration needs to be given to not just cost, but also usability and reparability.

  3. A decentralised new management structure of stakeholders and AT is recommended.

  4. Teacher support. The system in place to manage the project is insufficient for teachers’ needs. Use of mobile communication tools (e.g., WhatsApp) should be further embraced by the project management team.

  5. There is a need for greater technical support, which we detail in the report.

Photo of teacher and children inside a classroom in Uganda

Skills

Rapid UX Ethnography

Formative Interviews

Audit of technology

Audit of a system

Audit of a process

Lived experience of people with upper limb loss in Jordan and Uganda - focus on prosthetic devices

Summary

 

Scoping lived experience of people with upper limb absence and scoping of upper limb prosthetics provision in urban Uganda and Jordan. Mixed with patient and public involvement. Piloted studies looking at the lived experience with upper limb absence and to track daily life activities. The main aim of the project is to set the context and the needs to inform the design of an upper limb prosthetic that is fit-for-purpose, affordable and sustainable. Funded by Global Challenges Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK.

 

I led the first piloting of user-centred design methods in Uganda and Jordan in the topic of upper limb prosthetics. I co-led the first qualitative study looking at the life experience of people with upper limb loss in the same countries.  The recognition of my work is represented in this publication for the first global assistive technology consultation led by the UN - World Health Organisation. The acceptance of my work in this event is significant in that it has had global recognition and impact.

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Insights

 

  1. People with upper limb loss have a strong desire for prosthetic devices, however, they have limited to no access to prosthetics devices and information about the devices.

  2. Ableism affects the embodiment of a prosthetic device.

  3. Ableism affects prosthetic device choices

  4. There is dissatisfaction with existing prosthetic devices designs available in Uganda.

  5. There is a general lack of awareness of prosthetic devices, which in turn impairs agency of Ugandans

  6. Comfort is the most important attribute for Ugandans

  7. Other dominant priorities are functionality, appearance, aesthetics, and reliability.

  8. Service provision of upper limb prosthetic devices is not fit for purpose.

 

Recommendations

 

  1. Identify new prosthetics service delivery models.

  2. Leverage local capacity and materials.

  3. Invest in appropriate and sustainable prosthetics development within Uganda.

  4. Access to information and communication technology could improve the functioning and participation of people with upper limb absence.

Chord plot of design priorities with functionality, appearance and aesthetic dominating over material, reliability, embodiment weight, fitting and comfort.

Skills

Rapid UX Ethnography

Semi-structured interviews

UX exploration

Media diaries (video, audio, photos)

Wearable activity trackers

Asynchronous online data processing and analysis

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Multicultural teamwork

Power assist devices for manual wheelchair users

Summary

 

Power assist devices help manual wheelchair users to propel their wheelchair thus increasing their independence and reducing the risk of upper limb injuries due to excessive use. These benefits can be invaluable for people that already have upper limb joint pain and reduced muscular strength. However, it is not clear if the way that assistance is provided by such devices is what manual wheelchair users need and expect. 12 manual wheelchair users were interviewed to understand: the situations in which they find it difficult to propel their wheelchairs; situations they considered paramount to have power assistance; their experience or knowledge of power assist devices; and likes and dislikes of commercially available power assist devices.

 

This is the first published paper in ASSETS 2017 (premier accessibility in Human-Computer Interaction conference) giving voice to manual wheelchair users regarding power assist devices and challenging the deep-rooted problem of power assistance design that is not user centred.

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Insights

 

  1. Most users are comfortable with wearing a wrist band to control the device and interact with mobile applications. But chairable input and output devices that allow users to control the wheelchair power assist device without the need of a mobile phone or a wearable device are required

  2. Power assist devices installed at the hub of the wheels suffer from fatigue failure, are too heavy and fragile for daily use.

  3. The ideal power assist device is installed below the seat of the wheelchair and enables the detachment of batteries. This is something that is not offered by power assist devices in the UK market.

  4. The expected characteristics of hardware are: concealed below the wheelchair, lightweight, attach to the user’s chosen manual wheelchair regardless of its weight, size and type of wheels, optional backup batteries.

  5. The expected functions are: control power like volume, tipping risk prediction, downhill break feeding battery, automatic low power set at low battery with notification to user, user selectable downhill and forward downhill resistance, intuitive, location and journey tracking with intelligent journey memory.

  6. The expected interactions are: mobile and no-mobile app control options, portable Pi computer attached to wheelchair frame, tactile buttons below the seat for speed, power and on/off control, track wheelchair pushes, distance travelled, set fitness program, pain tracking, statistics of user work versus power assist, customizable notifications, warnings and reports, battery status in percentage apart from LEDs or visually interactive on one handrim, smart weather forecast and transport information based on location, journey feasibility prediction based on battery status, propulsion patterns identification with notification to user, handrim tapping gestures.

 

Recommendations

 

  1. Perform more research that monitors emotions during manual wheelchair propulsion.

  2. Design an open source do-it-yourself wheelchair propelling assistance device which we believe is required equally in developed and in developing countries.

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Power assist form factor: drawing of a manual wheelchair showing a hypotheticla power assist device below the sit and detachable battery, with a battery status indicator above a castor wheel

Skills

Semi-structured interviews

Research of existing products in the market

Form factor design

Paper sketching

Questionnaires

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