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Joseph Schauer, Kitch Barnicle, Gregg C. Vanderheiden
Ph.D.
Trace Research and Development Center
5901 Research Park Blvd
Madison, WI 53719
Email: schauer@trace.wisc.edu
Increasingly, companies are facing the need to make their
products accessible to a broader range of users. The objective
of this project is to create a Toolkit to assist designers and
manufacturers in maximizing the accessibility of their
products. The Toolkit will allow designers to (1) identify
access issues and browse through strategies and ideas for
making designs more accessible; (2) see examples of accessible
design in products currently available; (3) review a design for
accessibility; (4) find further information on various topics;
and (5) find components that could be used in accessible
designs.
Background We look to technology to open doors and increase
opportunities. Yet, at the same time, technology can create
barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from
capitalizing on these new opportunities. If technology is to be
of benefit to all potential users, then all users must be
considered throughout the development phase. For users with
disabilities, that means that accessibility concepts must be in
place early and throughout the development process.
While some companies have moved forward in this regard, most
have been slow to recognize the consumers' need for accessible
design. Even when companies have been made aware of
accessibility issues, many lack the expertise required to build
accessibility features into their products and to evaluate
those features from the perspective of users with
disabilities.
Yet, the need for information on accessible design will only
increase. Federal legislation has been introduced in recent
years that will raise industry awareness and require that
manufacturers become actively involved in accessible design. In
1999 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules
to implement Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
(http://www.fcc.gov/dtf). These rules require manufacturers of
telecommunications and customer premises equipment to ensure
that equipment is designed, developed, and fabricated to be
accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if
readily achievable.
In addition, the Federal procurement process is being revised
to strengthen the government's commitment to buying electronic
and information technologies that are accessible. Companies
that wish to sell electronic and information technology to
Federal agencies will have to take new steps to ensure that
their products are accessible to people with disabilities as
outlined in section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of
1998 (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508home.html).
In early 2000, the U.S. Access Board is scheduled to release
standards for Section 508 based on the recommendations of the
Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee
(EITAAC) (http://www.access-board.gov/pubs/eitaacrpt.htm);
within 6 months of this release the Federal procurement
processes should be updated to take these standards into
account.
These Federal requirements, together with market forces (such
as the aging population), are increasing the pressure for
manufacturers of electronic products to make their products
accessible. More and more companies are asking for readily
available, easy-to-access, authoritative and focused
information that can help them efficiently address
accessibility issues.
To better assist industry with the complex task of creating
more accessible products, we looked at many questions and
issues, including:
What is the most practical way of gathering information and
presenting it to designers? How can we help the designer
discover the accessibility issues relevant to a particular
product design? How can we best illustrate techniques that can
be implemented to improve the accessibility of a product? How
can we most effectively guide the designer and facilitate the
design process? How can we take advantage of current technology
to make this information both easily accessible and manageable?
Product Design / Interface Evaluation Toolkit
To address these questions and support designers in the
process of developing accessible and usable products, we have
begun development of a web-based Product Design / Interface
Evaluation Toolkit. The objective of the Toolkit is to help
designers:
find resources for additional or more in depth information on
related topics, find strategies and solutions for making
designs more accessible, review examples of accessible design
in products currently available, find out where to purchase
selected product components that promote accessibility, and
review the accessibility of a product or feature This Toolkit
will consist of the following five components.
Resource Library
Design Ideas Browser
Exemplar Portfolio
Accessible Component Database
Evaluation Instrument
Resource Library Many excellent resources exist that are
relevant to the topic of accessible design including standards,
design strategies, research, laws and regulations, and
guidelines. However, these resources are scattered, hard to
identify, and often not formally published. Designers, facing
limited resources, rarely have the time to find and gather such
resources.
The Resource Library is a fully searchable bibliographic
database containing references to background documents,
summative documents, underlying research papers, training
materials, and other materials or resources relating to the
design of products to make them usable by a more diverse
population. It brings together in a single database, references
to topics which include Universal Design and Ergonomics,
Standards and Guidelines, Telecommunications, Computer Access,
Disability Statistics, and Laws and Regulations, among others.
These topics are covered by a wide range of materials including
books, journal articles, chapters, meeting notes, working
papers, conference papers, and videotapes.
Many entries include links to extended information such as an
abstract and information on where the item can be found or
purchased. If a resource is available in electronic form, and
we have permission to make it available to Library users, that
resource item is placed on-line or linked to at its home
site.
Product Design Ideas Browser Despite the existence of many
different guidelines that offer recommendations for making
accessible products, few mainstream products are considered to
be accessible today. Although there are many contributing
factors, one barrier that has been reported in the application
of these guidelines is that designers must search through too
much information, much of it not relevant to their specific
needs, and not organized in a way that makes it easy to use.
The time and cost involved in tracking down relevant, precise
information can preclude many organizations and companies from
seriously embracing accessible design during the development
process.
The Product Design Ideas Browser is meant to provide easy
access to guidelines, strategies and techniques that are
responsive to the needs of designers and consumers. This is
accomplished in a number of ways. The Ideas Browser is
organized around topics that are relevant to specific
constituencies. For example, for the telecommunications
industry, we have organized the information in a manner
consistent with the FCC Telecommunications Act Guidelines; and
for Federal Government purchasers and vendors the information
in the Ideas Browser will be organized around the EITAAC
guidelines. In this manner, the particular target group or
industry can review the strategies and ideas in a way that is
most relevant to their unique challenges and specific needs. In
addition, the information will be in a form that they will
already be familiar with because they must deal with those
regulations in the normal course of their work.
Within each topic the Browser provides specific ideas that
designers can review as they design their product. Guidelines,
strategies, and recommendations published in the field of
accessible design were reviewed in order to generate the list
of ideas offered in each section. These guidelines and
recommendations were collected, categorized and condensed to
into a format that will make it easier for designers to find
specific ideas. As new guidelines are published, they will be
added to the Toolkit.
In addition to strategies and ideas, the Browser contains
resource sections with supporting information that can be
easily accessed or passed over as needed by the user. These
sections include:
Access Issues: The Access Issues section describes the
accessibility issue surrounding a given topic and describes
real life situations where product users with disabilities are
confronted with access barriers. This information helps the
designer with little disability experience or knowledge to get
a better understanding of the issues and challenges the design
must address.
Analysis: The Analysis section provides an "expert" analysis
of the accessibility issues that pertain to a particular
guideline or topic. This information is intended to provide
designers with little experience in accessible design with a
"big picture" perspective.
Examples: This section highlights features and products from
the Exemplar Portfolio (see below) that address the specific
accessibility issues related to the guideline. In order to best
illustrate the product or feature, examples are presented in
the form of pictures, text or multimedia.
Exemplar Portfolio The Exemplar Portfolio includes examples of
products that distinguish themselves from other products in the
area of accessible design. This component is meant to show
designers how other commercial products have successfully
incorporated accessible features into their design. Showing
designers that accessible designs are possible and commercially
viable can be much more effective then just telling a designer
that he or she must make a product accessible. Users will be
able to "tour" the collection of exemplars, which will be
organized by product category (e.g. phones, pagers) and
accessibility features.
Accessible Component Database The fourth component of the
Product Design / Interface Evaluation Toolkit is the Accessible
Component Database. This database will include contact
information or direct links to manufacturers or vendors of
products, parts and services that may be of use to designers.
Products and services in the Component Database might include
such things as handsets with built in volume control for use
with kiosks and ATMs, captioning or audio description services,
or commercial braille services.
Evaluation Instrument The fifth and final component of the
Product Design / Interface Evaluation Toolkit is the Evaluation
Instrument. The Evaluation instrument will help both designers
and purchasers evaluate the accessibility of a product. The
Evaluation Instrument, still in the concept stage, is
envisioned as an on-line interactive tool that will query users
about specific aspects of the product under review and point
out aspects of the product design that may be problematic to
users with disabilities.
Conclusion The Product Design / Interface Evaluation Toolkit
puts background information, design ideas, examples of
accessible products, and relevant contact information in a
central location that is easily accessible to product
designers. By making all of these resources available in a
single location, the Toolkit can provide support to designers
recently introduced to the concept of accessible design as well
as to designers who currently practice accessible design but
need to be kept up-to-date on newly developed design
techniques. In addition, the Toolkit can serve as a resource to
other organizations and individuals interested in accessible
design including, consumers with disabilities and their
advocates, federal regulators, researchers and purchasing
agents.
Significant progress has been made on the Product Design /
Interface Evaluation Toolkit. Initial versions of two of the
five components, the Resource Library and the Product Design
Idea Browser, are currently available on-line
(http://trace.wisc.edu/world/tool_nav.html). The Exemplar
Portfolio and Accessible Component Database are scheduled to go
on-line in 2000, followed by the Evaluation Instrument in 2001.
Development plans call for field tests of the Toolkit so that
we can determine if the structure, format and content of the
Toolkit are truly meeting the needs of product designers.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Until universal and accessible design practices are fully
incorporated into the research and trade literature, textbooks,
and undergraduate and graduate curriculums, designers who wish
to develop products that are usable by the full range of users
will need access to information on accessible design. The goal
of the Product Design / Interface Evaluation Toolkit is to help
provide comprehensive and convenient access to that
information.
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