A Model-Based Approach to Decision Support for Designing Inclusive Services

Abstract

A service that is inclusive is usable regardless of the functional abilities of its users. Increasing the inclusiveness of critical services such as higher education contributes to reducing disparities and can be viewed as an institutional value proposition for society as a whole. However, the notion of inclusion is becoming more multifaceted and contextdependent. Addressing it at scale often takes the "watering can" approach, which is resource-intensive and may not be effective. As a basis for better service design decisions, as well as planning and allocation of resources, we introduce an approach to representing, analysing and communicating the structure of institutional service environments. In an ontological model of inclusion in a service, we demonstrate that inclusion problems result from a mismatch between environmental factors and user characteristics. Using public higher education as a case of application, we characterise the mismatch in a phenomenological model of a service -a university course. The viability of the approach has been validated by a group of practitioners with expertise in the design of university programmes and holding the power of organisational decision-making. The approach we propose enables service designers to identify and systematically address inclusion problems in their respective service environments and can be applied to services other than the one under consideration.