mLearning for Veterans: Designing for Diverse Audience and Accessibility Handout Background VA for Vets is the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) exciting, new career outreach program for Veterans and Military Service Members. Managed by VA’s Veterans Employment Services Office (VESO), its goals are to:
• Recruit Veterans to work for VA. • Retain Veterans currently employed at VA. • Reintegrate VA’s service member employees seamlessly after deployments. • Recognize and honor Veteran service. • Educate VA’s supervisors, hiring managers, HR professionals and coworkers about Veteran-‐specific
issues and support resources. The program includes a Career Center, military skills translation tools, live career coaching services, training, job aids, and many other useful tools. VA for Vets is transforming the way VA recruits, retains and reintegrates Veterans and service members. For more, visit VAforVets.VA.gov or direct any questions to Rob Parrott at Robert.Parrot@serco-‐na.com or Michelle Chin at [email protected]. Veteran Interviewing Aid (VIA) With VIA, VA for Vets has a mobile app that explains the federal hiring process and helps Veterans prepare for interviews “VIA” their smartphone. The app will be available through the Apple App Store and Google Play following the completion of User Acceptance Testing. Design Features The following design features were incorporated to account for motor skill, visual and cognitive impairments. Motor Skills
The main menu uses easy-‐to-‐select, wide buttons to access each of the five sections.
Playlists allow users activate videos without focusing their finger on the little blue button.
Tapping, instead of swiping, allows all users to have the same experience when some are unable to control their hand movements.
Minimal scrolling means limiting text to what can be viewed on a typical screen and using multiple pages that through tap-‐based, arrow navigation.
Motor Skills Continued
Simple interactions make pages intuitive, such as the “Uncheck All” button on Checklist screens.
Visual Impairments
Larger font sizes for content and button labels cater to users with visual impairments.
Video descriptions narrate the actions in a video using plain text that can be accessed by the smartphones’ default screen reader.
Visually impaired users can play Elevator Pitch activity audio samples. Someone who is hearing impaired can read it.
Cognitive Impairments
Clearly-‐labeled menus and simple navigation reduce confusion. The Main Menu follows a typical interview process.
Features follow a logical flow to guide users through procedural steps.
Buttons of primary importance are yellow and less priority ones are white. Arrows and buttons to clearly direct users.
Writing short and simple to help users clearly understand content.
