Accessibility for the Differently Abled (User Research)

Accessibility for the Differently Abled

This project was a part of my Diploma Project at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. I was genuinely curious about the different perceptual world of the visually disabled. I visited the Blind People's Association(BPA), Ahmedabad and learned that the visually disabled people refrain from going out of their known environments because of the inaccessibility of public places in India. This was the main trigger I took up this project. Also, Ford Foundation matching grants for digital inclusion at the National Institute of Design had opened up sponsorship possibilities for design research. My project proposal was accepted and the next 6 months I got to work on my dream project :).

Govind and Harish are students of Blind Peoples Association. They are trying to identify the denomination of the currency note. Both of them have severe visual impairment.

Challenge

In this project I attempted to look into the lives of the Differently Abled individuals and the problems they face when it comes to mobility and accessing the public places. Since shopping is a social experience and a practical necessity, I focused my research on the issues the visually disabled face when accessing the malls.

Visually disabled individuals trying to find their way through the inaccessible Indian roads

My Role

My role as a user researcher was to understand the needs, motivations, perceptions, psychology and physiology of the special user group. Field studies and 1:1 interviews comprise a major part of this project. I believe they are among the most powerful and flexible ways to gain user insights. It was necessary to understand and learn about the different mobility and orientation techniques, assistive devices, accessible technology and way finding techniques used by the visually disabled. The solution I came up with was built on a comprehensive understanding of the research findings.

Braille writing is laterally inverted while writing is out. This shows their spatial skills.

Research Methodology

The research method used in this project is ‘Ethnography’.

This includes primary research: participant and passive observation, photography, artifacts, and material collection, oral histories, semi-structured interviews, group interviews, and, secondary research: archival and document collection.

Haptic skills and knowledge is applied to perform the daily activities.

Process

Define design objectives

Since the spectrum of problems faced by visually disabled in India is huge, I decided to focus on the problems faced by them when accessing public spaces.

Shopping being a practical necessity, I decided to focus my research on the problems they face when shopping in malls.

Primary Research

When I started the project I had many questions in my mind. I brainstormed to come up with a list of questions and then focused my research on the following aspects:

- Physiology of the visually disabled (function of an eye, categories of visual impairment, causes of visual impairment and demographic details)

- Implications of blindness

- Psychology of the blind

- Attitude towards the visually disabled

- Accessible technology

- Assistive devices

- Way finding

Types of visual impairments.

Perceptions

Learning about their ‘perceptions’, both ‘haptic’ and ‘auditory’, was one of the most interesting part of the project. The visually disabled individuals are not born with a heightened sense of these alternate perceptions, but, the practice it to perfection.

Haptic Perceptions: Visually, an object appears different when we place it near to us or far from us, it appears different in shade and in sunlight, and it also appears different on a different background.

But when we hold the same object in our hand, the experience does not change.This is haptic perception.

Keeping a Diary

I kept a diary with myself at all times. Noted down all the finding, insights, pointers etc. This helped me a lot to keep a record of the details of my research and the way it unfolded. It also provided a context for reflecting on the research and the problems it throws up.

My diary

Initial rounds of chatting and familiarizing with the users

It was crucial to understand their daily routines, their needs, their wants, their motivations etc. but before that it was important that we familiarise with the users, make friends. I visited many organisations, NGO’s and institutes to strike conversations and getting to know the users. I spoke with the users regarding the assistive software’s they used, the games they played in their spare time, their interests, their currency usage etc.

Pathan bhai, teacher at the BPA, showing his collection of games for the visually disabled children.

Brainstorming

Individual brainstorming exercise at this point helped me put my ideas, information gathered after primary research and initial visit at the Blind People’s Association, on paper. It helped me prepare a thorough questionnaire.

Brainstorming exercise

Questionnaire

After reading upon these aspects and the initial rounds of conversations with the special user groups, I got a fair idea of what my next steps for the research should be. I was then better equipped to design questionnaires for my user study.

Some points I included in it were:

Finding their likes and dislikes

- Mobiles

- Computers

- Mobility

- Using Currency

- Favorite pastime

- News

- Studies

- Indoor Games

- Outdoor Games

Questionnaire

Field Studies (Initial)

After conducting 1:1 interviews I carefully made notes of all the conversations and later made notes on the findings I gathered. These interviews were semi structured. Also, I gathered information on contact details of experts in this area.

Labho ben works in BPA. She learnt chair making in the technical school of BPA, and now she has mastered the technique. She weaves nylon threads with careless ease, and can make one chair in just two days.

Expert Interviews

After the initial round of interviews I got to know about few experts in this area. Experts like Head of Department at blind school, visually disabled doctor, senior psychologists, and Principal of School for Blind. Expert interviews needed to be structured. Initial field studies and Primary research gave me insights on explaining the research questions to the experts in the field. A lot of planning went into scheduling the interviews. These interviews gave precious insights which were recorded for further use.

Prof. Kavi (Education Officer, BPA), Prof. Soni (Principal, BPA), Vimal Thavani (Project Coordinator, BPA)

Questionnaire (focusing on shopping activity)

I made questionnaires focusing on shopping activity. Some questions included in it were:

- Where do they usually shop? Malls or Shops/Stores. Why?

- How is the experience?

- Whether they go alone or they are accompanied by a sighted companion

- How do they choose from different brands?

- Information on new products

Questionnaire focused on shopping activity.

Field Studies

The questions this time being more focused on shopping, the data collected gave design implications which helped in deriving features of the accessible space I intended to design.

Interviews with visually disabled users at Blind People's Association.

Shadowing

I accompanied a visually disable user in a super shop and observed his shopping activity. This activity was done basically to understand the users existing behaviour so as we can adapt the design to those behaviours. I requested my user to think aloud as much as possible. I performed the role of an observer. The insights were very enriching.

Accompanied a visually disabled friend, Damji bhai, to a shopping store. He preferred pulling the shopping cart rather than pushing it, he could recognise most of the food grains.

Doodling

After gathering valuable inputs from the ‘shadowing’ activity I visited several malls in the city and anticipated the problems a visually disable individual will face in the absence of accessibility features and how can those problems be taken care of.

Doodles

Layout Study

With a clearer perspective, I went to few more shopping center's and observed the way the space was laid out.

Layouts of different shopping spaces.

Affinity Diagram

To distil findings and develop insights from my research, I wrote down user studies findings and key concepts on sticky notes, and created an affinity diagram.

Affinity diagram

Results of Affinity Diagram

Since I was now analyzing a large amount of data and discovering relationships and common themes, I penned these clusters of information on paper so as it will be easier for documentation and storage.

Affinity clusters detailed out on paper

Features of the Shopping Space

I made sketches of the features of the shopping space for the visually disabled. These features were derived from the findings from the affinity diagram. Also, I made a list of design guidelines.