human factors and accessibility · 2014-06-18 · 6/17/2014 2 agenda •foundations •how concepts...

6/17/2014

1

Aaron Bangor, Ph.D., CHFP

AT&T Corporate Accessibility Technology Office

Daryle Gardner-Bonneau, Ph.D.

Bonneau and Associates

Human Factors and

Accessibility

Consider the User in Design

2Human Factors and AccessibilityBangor and Gardner-Bonneau

6/17/2014

2

Agenda

• Foundations

• How concepts in human factors and accessibility work together

• In Practice

• Including people with disabilities in user research, experimental

design, and usability testing

• Building the Profession

• International standards for accessibility

3Bangor and Gardner-Bonneau Human Factors and Accessibility

Concepts in Human Factors

and Accessibility


6/17/2014

3

Human Factors & Usability

• Human Factors (or “ergonomics”) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and their surroundings in order to make them compatible with the needs, capabilities, and limitations of people.

(HFES & IEA)

• Usability: the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

(ISO 9241-11)

Note that this definition does not pertain to a specific technology nor to a person’s physical and/or cognitive abilities.


Accessibility

• accessibility: extent to which products, systems, services,

environments, or facilities can be used by people from a

population with the widest range of characteristics and

capabilities to achieve a specified goal in a specified context of

use(ISO 26800)

• Note that overall accessibility is not a “Yes/No” issue.

Something can be more accessible or less. Determining if

something is “accessible” depends on the person, their specific

type of disability, what task they’re doing, and the context of

use.


6/17/2014

4

Accessibility & Compatibility

Accessibility Concepts:

• Flexible, Multi-Modal Input / Output Options

• Individualization / Customization for the User

• Well-Known, Standard Designs and Protocols

• Consistency

• Alternative Formats for Documentation and Help

• Ease-of-Use (both Physical and Cognitive)

• Compatibility: the ability to effectively and efficiently work with

another device or system (usually called “assistive technology”)

without modification, which increases accessibility for an

individual


Assistive Technology

• Assistive technology (AT): anything that improves the functional capabilities of people with disabilities.

• Assistive Technology augments the capabilities of existing products and services to better fit the technology to their individual needs.

Examples of Dedicated Assistive Technology:

• Screen reader (vision and learning/cognitive)

• Captioning (hearing and language)

• Eye-gaze tracker (physical)

Examples of Adapted Assistive Technology:

• Computer (All)

• Texting (hearing and speech)

• Spellchecker (learning/cognitive)


6/17/2014

5

• Universal (or Inclusive) Design isthe concept and process of makingthings usable by people with thewidest possible range of abilitiesand within the broadest range ofenvironments/circumstances aspractical

• This means:• Designing for people with disabilities (i.e., accessibility)

• Designing for all users in limiting conditions (i.e., a “situational” disability)

• Making products flexible enough to accommodate a diverse population and the different ways in which people use them

• Where a product cannot itself support all users, it is designed so that it can work in conjunction with other technologies that can make it usable – “compatible” with assistive technology

The Meeting of Usability and Accessibility

9Human Factors and AccessibilityBangor and Gardner-Bonneau

Recipe for Universal Design

• Human Factors’ focus on Users and Needs

• Usability’s focus on performing Tasks

• Accessibility’s focus on Flexibility and Robustness

• Assistive Technology focus on Making People More Powerful

• Standards’ focus on Best Practices

• Mix them all together and you get…

• Better, More Inclusive Designs

It’s not extra work – it’s doing the right work the first time


6/17/2014

6

User Research with People

with Disabilities


Research Benefits

• People with disabilities are part of most representative

user groups identified by a product/service

• In the United States, people with disabilities make up 18.7% of the

population and are members of about one-third of households

• Help evaluate accessibility of the product/service being

tested

• Provide usability feedback whose diversity is likely to

uncover more usability issues, especially during formative

evaluations


6/17/2014

7

Recruiting

• Where to find participants

• Wherever you find participants without disabilities (e.g., market research firms, email lists, social media, etc.)

• Disability organizations

• Government agencies that focus on disability

• Recruit for a specific type of disability related to the research

• Web sites may need a focus on accessibility for visual disabilities

• Hardware products may need a focus on physical disabilities

• As part of screening process, the recruiter may need to understand level of disability (e.g., low vision vs. blind; hard-of-hearing vs. Deaf; hand-tremor vs. no use of hand)

• Ensure this is done in a respectful way

• May need to pay more for participants due to more targeted recruiting criteria and additional travel or other costs borne by participants

• Guard against selection bias in recruiting methods


Surveys

• Ensure that the accessibility of the survey tool(s) do not screen out people with disabilities

• Over-the-phone surveys tend to miss those who find voice calls problematic, such as those with hearing and speech disabilities

• Web-based surveys need to ensure that the survey form is accessible, particularly those with visual and physical disabilities

• Hard-copy surveys can be difficult for those with visual and physical disabilities

• Internet-based surveys may lead to underrepresentation of low-income users (i.e., the “digital divide”)

• Electronic surveys have the best potential to be accessible, but ensure that the research accounts for those who may be offline

• Good survey design validity and usability supports accessibility too


6/17/2014

8

Study Logistics

• Ensure that the facilities are accessible to participants• Lab: physical access to lab

• Remote: test system hardware, software, and communications

• It could be difficult to reproduce the participants’ assistive technology (AT) setup(s) and so remote and/or contextual testing may be needed

• If using a lab-based testing protocol, ensure that assistive technology is available that is appropriate for the participant’s disability and nature of study• This may also require ASL interpreting for Deaf participants

• Plan for additional time that may be needed for sessions

• Ensure experimenters are aware of proper disability etiquette


Research Design

• Provide test materials that are accessible:

• Accessible electronic documents tend to support many types of disabilities

• Large print versions are relatively easy to create

• If the experimenter interacts with a participant with a disability differently than for participants without a disability (e.g., read test materials, record responses, etc.), additional care must be taken to avoid bias

• Task selection should be the same for participants with and without a disability, although if accessibility is a specific focus of the study, then other tasks may be considered to validate unproven accessibility solutions or other areas of concern for the design team

• Dependent measures of effectiveness and satisfaction are most often valid to collect and include with data from participants without a disability

• For efficiency, appropriate benchmarks need to be established that may or may not be the same as for participants without a disability


6/17/2014

9

International Standards for

Accessibility


Who’s doing international standards

on accessibility?

• Standards can be found throughout the “big three”

standards development organizations – ISO, IEC, and

ITU

• So many that the Special Working Group on Accessibility

(SWG-A) of ISO / IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC-

1) developed an inventory of standards, published in

2009.

• An online updated version of this inventory has just

become available free of charge.


6/17/2014

10

Accessing and Using the Inventory

• Go to: www.iso.org/obp

• Enter “accessibility inventory” into the search field.

• The first entry that appears IS the inventory.

• Just click on the document icon and you will have access

to the entire inventory.


What’s in the inventory?

• Contains information about and links to both national and

international standards and other guidance documents

that:

a) are focused on accessibility; or

b) contain accessibility provisions

• Many standards cost money, but some are free – most

notably standards from the European Telecommunications

Standards Institute (ETSI).

• So…don’t reinvent the wheel. Check to see what’s out

there before embarking on a research or standardization

project.


http://www.iso.org/obp

6/17/2014

11

Categorization of the Standards

• Listing is broken into ten categories:

a) High-level standards

b) Hardware-oriented/equipment-oriented standards

c) Software-oriented standards

d) Content-oriented standards

e) Management/development-oriented standards

f) User abilities-oriented standards

g) Environment-oriented standards

h) Communications services-oriented standards

i) Application-specific standards

j) Other relevant standards (e.g., packaging)


Examples

• ISO 9241-171 – Software Accessibility

a) listed under software-oriented standards that are focused on accessibility

b) developed by ISO / TC 159 – Ergonomics, and harmonized with the U.S. standard ANSI / HFES 200.2

• ISO 9241-154 – Interactive Voice Response User Interfaces

a) listed under application-specific standards that contain accessibility provisions

b) developed by ISO / TC 159 – Ergonomics, and based on the U.S. standard ANSI / HFES 200.4, with which it will be harmonized


6/17/2014

12

Two Other Important Documents

• ISO / IEC Guide 71 – Guide for Addressing Accessibility in

Standards (to be published later in 2014)

• ISO / TR 22411 – Ergonomics data and guidelines for the

application of ISO / IEC Guide 71 to products and

services to address the needs of older persons and

persons with disabilities


ISO / IEC Guide 71

• Originally published in 2000

• Not very user-friendly and had some technical issues

• Has been completed revised

• IEC, ISO, and ITU all approved it in the initial ballot, and it

is currently undergoing a final ballot

• Will be available for free from ISO and IEC


6/17/2014

13

What’s in ISO / IEC Guide 71?

• This document is targeted toward standards developers

and provides a process for addressing accessibility in

standards

• Two approaches

a) top-down “Accessibility Goals” approach

b) bottom-up approach based on design considerations

based on human abilities and characteristics


Strategies described in Guide 71

• Regardless of whether a bottom-up or top-down approach

is used, the document describes eight strategies for

addressing user needs or design considerations:

a) multiple means of information presentation and user

interaction

b) setting fixed parameters to accommodate the widest

range of users

c) setting adjustable parameters to accommodate the

widest ranges of users

d) minimizing unnecessary complexity

(continued on next slide)


6/17/2014

14

Guide 71 Strategies (continued)

e) Provide individualized access to a system

f) Eliminate unnecessary limits or constraints on user

interaction with a system

g) Provide compatibility with assistive products and

assistive technology

h) Provide alternative versions of a system


ISO / TR 22411

• Technical Report (TR) with ergonomic guidance on

designing for older adults and people with disabilities

• Published about five years ago, it is currently undergoing

a major revision, dividing it into two parts

a) a compendium of ergonomic data for older adults and

people with various disabilities (the “new” TR 22411);

and

b) a second document, probably a Technical

Specification, which will contain design guidance


6/17/2014

15

Contents of ISO/TR 22411

• Current version is stronger in terms of data relating to

consumer product accessibility and building accessibility.

• Plan for the future is to standardized the formatting of

entries in the compendium and to enhance it with

additional data, as it becomes available.


New area of standardization – health

care and medical devices

• The medical systems area was initially exempt from much

of the legislation related to accessibility. This is changing.

• U.S. Access Board is about to issue its final rules on the

accessibility of medical instrumentation, which cover

primarily accessibility of examination tables and chairs,

imaging equipment, weight scales, and a number of other

things.

• The first standard in this area is a section devoted to

accessibility in ANSI / AAMI HE - 75, a comprehensive

human factors standard for medical devices.


6/17/2014

16

Drivers for standards in the medical /

health care area

• More health care is occurring in the home, and more

medical devices are being used in the home by lay users.

• Until 5-8 years ago, most medical devices involved little in

the way of user-facing software. This is changing.

• Changes in the way health care is being delivered is

necessitating greater attention to usability of medical

devices and services, and accessibility is receiving

greater attention.


Questions?


6/17/2014

17

Contact Information

Aaron Bangor, Ph.D., CHFP

Lead Accessible Technology

Architect

AT&T Corporate Accessibility

Technology Office

[email protected]

Daryle Gardner-Bonneau,

Ph.D

Principal

Bonneau and Associates

[email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]