Aspects of Digital Interactions and Experiences of various disabilities

Hello all, welcome back to our course on digital Accessibility. In the previous session, we spoke about what is poor versus good accessibility. What are the various design elements and design decisions that affect access? And we went through a lot of examples in order to understand what elements of design, what um aspects of interaction help in making a system more accessible. We will keep discussing such examples throughout the course along with some case studies as well. Uh in today's session, what we'll try to understand is uh various aspects of digital interactions and experiences of various disabilities and we'll try to focus on uh primarily four commonly known kinds of limitations uh in this session. So in one of the previous sessions we have uh discussed in detail about what is the meaning of disability and uh I'm sure you can uh you know check those uh sessions and get an idea. In a gist, uh I would like to reiterate that earlier the WH organization uh itself defined disability as a personal attribute that it is a uh the person who has the disability. It is their uh the onus was on them to uh make sure that they are able to reach places or they are able to access. If they are unable to do it, it's their problem. But uh now it has evolved into uh a context dependent definition and now even WH kind of recognizes uh disability as not just a health problem but a complex phenomena where a lot of in fact majority of the external factors uh play a role which cause hindrance in effective interaction and just not limiting the definition to a person's limitation and This has induced a shift in the mindset, the frameworks around accessibility, the guidelines around accessibility, consortiums, special interest groups, they have shifted the focus to uh make sure that the environment, the technologies, the products, the services are tailored to ensure access by a wide variety of users having different kinds of limitations. So there is another this concept uh which is called as mismatch of interactions. So we are not uh looking at disability as a person's limitation but rather uh we are looking at it as a mismatched human interaction. What is the meaning of that is uh that uh disability happens at points of interaction. So for example, what would be a point of interaction if say I want to click a button on a phone or a website app and uh I either I am supposed to do it uh through a touch based medium or I'm supposed to do it using a mouse or a cursor based interaction. So this kind of an interaction by itself is assuming a couple of abilities. This also by the way we have discussed in one of the se uh previous sessions which is called ability bias. So based on that ability bias uh designers and engineers they u you know define some aspects of interaction. So what are the assumptions we are making in uh when we are assuming that okay uh the user will be able to click this button. It is just a simple clicking. So we are assuming that they will be visually able to locate the button to begin with. So a uh an ability which is vis which is a visual perceptual ability is assumed to be haved by the um uh user and then we are also uh expecting that the user has some fine motor skills or motor dexterity so that either they are able to um use the mouse drag it to a particular position and click the button or you know have move their hand to that position of that button and uh press it with their uh finger. So these two u combination of these two abilities is being assumed when a simple button click is designed or incorporated in any application or website. But what happens if a person has limited dexterity or what happens if the person has limited visual ability? So that is what we mean by mismatched interaction. So uh places where um you know the designer and the system assumes certain abilities that this is how it will be used as or interacted with but the user uh has certain limitations because of which uh they are not able to interact with the system in an expected or intended way. then that is termed as mismatch of interactions and it is our role to inquire how our designs affect and uh affect interactions and create mismatches. Right? So again those frameworks around uh ability biases assumptions that we make when we make design decisions. So all of those things have to be taken care of. So for example uh the the aspect that if I have a limited visual ability then how do I locate the button? So there may be other ways to do it. So for example your system can be screen reader compatible. So or the button signifier can be more than click here something similar to which we discussed in the previous session right. So it can say submit or whatever the function of the button is. So in order to make it more audio friendly. So when the screen reader comes uh so there is a backend uh coding aspect which is related to compatibility with a screen reader. We will discuss it in an upcoming session. Um and then there is a visual design aspect where the signifier can be a little bit more verbose or uh have a meaningful signifier rather than just say click here or click or uh okay. So because these are generic words. So with with uh as per the context of your interface it can be a little bit more meaningful have a semantic meaning in order to make it more accessible to an audio uh output or feedback system which is like a screen reader. Then there can be other uh ways to click it or enable it. So maybe you can also uh incorporate uh audio input. So for example, if the if the user is not um ability does not have the motor skills or the dexterity to move the mouse or their hand, they should be able to speak into the mic and say submit and the button is recognized and clicked for example. So we will understand how our designs can be evolved in order to make uh ensure that these interactions happen as per the intended purposes with with or without the abilities that it presumes the user to have. So the first step is definitely to acknowledge these mis uh mismatches and have the conscious understanding of where and at what points these mismatches are happening. So as we discussed uh different types of uh impairments and abilities uh can affect or bring about these mismatches. So it is essential to understand different types of abilities and what are their specific needs. So we will try to first start with the terminology related to different types of abilities. So definitely the first is age related impairments. So which refers to people with age related who are aging and um you know they have age related impairments I such as compromised fine motor skills, compromised visual uh acquitty, compromised hearing. So all of those aspects can be associated with uh age related impairments. They can be multiple disabilities. So some people have a combination of different kinds of disabilities which may limit their approaches for interaction. So somebody uh may have um you know blindness as well as u deafness. So then that how how would you then communicate your uh information? How would they interact with the system? And here is where uh you know emerging technologies like brain computer interaction and other uh you know such technologies can play a very critical role. And uh in one of the sessions later in the course we will also uh discuss uh you know such uh topics um different health conditions. So uh which may affect uh their stamina, their dexterity or their concentration. So the the when when we say health conditions so it's not just that people who have uh permanent disabilities which are identified as blindness or hearing impairment etc are the only ways they may face uh hindrance in interaction or a mismatch in interaction. There may be some ongoing health issue which may be causing uh you know certain limitations in their stamina. They may be feeling tired because of some uh illness. They are not able to concentrate. If there is too much information, then they're not able to concentrate. Uh and uh they they are feeling weak. They are their their dexterity is compromised for a for some duration because of the health conditions. So um and similarly uh those kind of impairments uh can be termed as temporary impairments. So some people as we said that maybe because of health conditions uh due to an accident or medication uh so they may be experiencing temporary impairments uh in their uh abilities and they may not uh know about accessibility solution because they're not permanently disabled. So they may not be part of such cohorts and they may not be part of groups which uh you know talk about assistive technologies or they may not be a regular user of assistive technology then uh and they may not even know how to use an accessibility feature in their uh you know commonly used technology like a smartphone. So um I think I we we've discussed it earlier in the course also that uh for for instance uh if you go into the accessibility features of your phone there are a lot of these screen readers close captioning uh enlarge font all of these features are available in your phone but most of us most of the people don't use them because they don't probably need them at many of the times but in case because of some temporary ary impairment. They want to use it. They need to use it. Uh they don't know, they're not aware of it despite it being available, readily available on their uh phone. So then of course that itself uh is also a gap which can be looked at as a problem or an opportunity that how to make uh you know such people aware about uh different accessibility um uh plugins and accommodations which are there in the existing technology. Then there is there can be situational limitations. So some people may be experiencing constraint due to surround due to their surrounding or due to the due to their other situational aspect. So for example they may be in a loud environment like an airport or a railway station and they're unable to hear audio. I'm sure you might have also um fe felt this uh limitation at a railway station. It's so crowded and it's so noisy sometimes that you're unable to hear the u announcement which is coming over the speakers about the trains which are coming which platform it is going or probably in bright sunlight they're unable to see a screen and I think that is also something I'm sure you all might have commonly experienced that uh during uh you want you are exploring your phone but if the sun is shining brightly. You are unable to see anything on your screen or maybe because of their situations they are not able to afford some of the assisted technologies. So that is also a situational limitation. So just we'll try to understand a little bit more about the temporary and situational exclusions. So things like short-term injury uh affects the people in uh affects the way people interact with uh the world around them. And like think about looking into a bright light or wearing a cast for example your hand is broken for uh and you're asked to wear a cast for 6 weeks that's one and a half months where you cannot use your hand in an intended way. So then how do you uh you know operate doors? How do you operate latches? How do you operate two hand uh systems such as cooking or washing dishes and all of that? It becomes an issue or such as ordering dinner in a foreign country where you are not familiar with the language that they speak or you're unable to read the menu. And in terms of situational exclusion uh you know b as we spoke earlier people may face certain limitations because of their environment and their abilities based on the environment their abilities can also dramatically changed change. So for example in a loud crowd you cannot hear well. Uh new parents sometimes spend a lot of their time holding one baby uh holding a baby in one of their hands and they have to do a lot of their chores single-handedly. Uh so they are uh they can be situationally handicapped for a period of time. Then there can be reasons around overwhelming day which can uh be like a sensory overload and you're not able to concentrate as well. You're fatigued. your brain is not able to uh process as much cognitive information as it would be able to do in a uh daytime uh or when you are awake or not tired. So even that is something which is an situational exclusion. So this is something like more so we are trying to uh place disability on a spectrum rather than saying that it's a definitive uh thing where uh you know if a person is amputate they'd definitely have a permanent disability. But we are also saying that people who have an arm injury, people who have uh you know holding uh a child in one of their hands, all three are experiencing the world in the similar manner because all three have to uh limit themselves with one hand operation. So we are basically what we are doing is extending the disability uh definition into a spectrum and we are saying that it can range from permanent to situational types of disability and thus this also can help us understand why and also help us uh move away from the ability biases that we have discussed earlier. So where we are assuming where we are assuming that a person who is supposedly able to see who is supposedly able to hear who is supposedly able to walk and uh at all times is also able to uh you know use both both their hands at all times. So which is not the case. There may be situations where you are temporary limited or uh situationally limited in your uh with abilities and you are not interacting with the technologies around you in the same manner. So when we extend this idea of disability to a wider set of audience, it becomes even more clearer that why it is critical to understand uh accessibility from a broader lens of disability spectrum rather than limiting it to specific uh types of people. We are we are broadening the definition to mismatches in interaction. We are not saying that it's the any product that we will make uh which is touch enabled will only help u you know people with vanam or which is u um you know voice enabled will only help people who are blind. It will also help people who have catact. It will also help uh a distracted driver come back to u the direction of the road because of uh audio feedback or it is not just going to help a person who is deaf. It is also going to help people who have ear infection for the time for a duration they're not able to hear properly or it will also going to help uh it is also going to help people who are in um crowded or loud situations like an airport or a bartender who's serving drinks in a bar. Uh all of these uh uh additionally like it's you you're not just helping people who are mute or nonverbal but we're also helping people with laryngitis who are unable to speak for a duration or people who have a heavy accent and they you don't understand what they are saying right so um the communication if you if you can build a form of communication uh with people who are unable to speak you're also helping these people as So the idea is that more people benefit because number of people who uh who may be amputed or who have permanent disabilities may be only a few thousands but people who have temporary disabilities maybe a few in millions. So uh that is uh what we're talking about when we say uh broadening the spectrum. We're also broadening our customer base. We are also looking at profitability in our product development. We are not just saying that we doing it for charity. We are not accessibility is not charity. We are saying that we're trying to build a more inclusive world in order to enable people who are temporary or even situationally um uh limited to access all technologies available to them. So uh you know people who may be having situational limitations may be much larger in number. So we are we are serving a total a much bigger total than just uh you know people who are permanently disabled or classically defined as people with disabilities. So the idea is that inclusive designs can benefit a larger chunk of people. So this is what uh the the gist of all of these aspects is that digital technology which is designed for people with a broad range of abilities. It benefits everyone, right? uh including people without any disabilities and it is therefore important to consider the broad diversity of functional needs rather than categorizing people according to medical classification. So we are not just categorizing people in u definitions of disability but we're also trying to understand as designers and as engineers that what are the functional limitations those disabilities are causing and how we can enable those uh functionalities and features to overcome those limitations rather than just saying that we are doing it for this particular section of the society.