Designing for designers: Towards the development of accessible ICT products and services using the VERITAS framework

Abstract

Among the key design practices which contribute to the development of inclusive ICT products and services is user testing with people with disabilities. Traditionally, this involves partial or minimal user testing through the use of standard heuristics, employing external assisting devices, and the direct feedback of impaired users. However, efficiency could be improved if designers could readily analyse the needs of their target audience as part of a highly iterative design process. The VERITAS framework simulates and systematically analyses how users with various impairments interact with the use of ICT products and services. Thus, facilitating an efficient approach to design and testing. This article reports qualitative insights into the use of the framework by 72 evaluators drawn from five application domains: infotainment-games; workplace design; smart living spaces; healthcare; and automotives. The findings show that the VERITAS framework is useful to designers, offering an intuitive approach to inclusive design. However, several key areas present challenges to designers; notably, their lack of technical knowledge made the interface difficult to comprehend and their lack of familiarity with virtual user modeling or simulation software made the workflow difficult to follow. Furthermore, designers had a number of expectations in terms of features and feedback which were not fulfilled. This article reviews these concerns and presents recommendations which will inform the design of future inclusive design tools.

Accessibility in Web Development Courses: A Case Study

“…One of the main limitations of our study was its connection to one university only, which might affect the generalizability of our results, although most of the results confirmed previous work conducted on this topic [30,31,[38][39][40]. Another limitation is that we only had 19 respondents, which might pose some threats to validity; however, we tried to mitigate this by using interviews, which helped us confirm some of the results and revealed some new insights.…”

“…For instance, the authors of [38] reported that only 16% of the participants were familiar with WCAG, and 13% and 7% were familiar with ATAG and UAAG, respectively. A lack of knowledge about WCAG among web developers has continued to be the trend, even in more recent surveys [39,40].…”

Usability of Mobile Applications: A Systematic Literature Study

“…One of the most recognized UEMs concern the family of user testing methods [26]- [28], in particular think-aloud protocol [29]- [31], question-asking protocol [32]- [34], performance measurement [35]- [37], log analysis [38]- [40], eye tracking [41]- [43], and remote testing [44]- [46]. Secondly, inspection methods, intended to be used by experts [47], refers to heuristic evaluation [48]- [50], cognitive walkthrough [51]- [53], perspective-based inspection [54]- [56], and guideline reviews [57]- [59]. Thirdly, inquiry methods, designed to gathering subjective data from users, utilize both quantitative (questionnaires [60]- [62]) and qualitative (interviews [63]- [65] and focus groups [66]- [68]) techniques.…”

Tecnologías de información y comunicación para el turismo inclusivo

“…La accesibilidad universal se refiere a la condición de los entornos, procesos, productos, servicios, objetos, instrumentos, herramientas, dispositivos, etc. para ser comprendidos y utilizados por todos de manera cómoda, natural, autónoma y segura, lo cual requiere que el diseño desde el principio tenga en cuenta la funcionalidad de las personas, cabe notar que los criterios de diseño dependen también del entorno y del avance tecnológico (AENOR, 2007), sin embargo este proceso es difícil en la práctica en cuanto a la determinación de requisitos y la realimentación con este segmento poblacional (Scott, Spyridonis & Ghinea, 2015), dependiendo de la naturaleza de la discapacidad las técnicas de diseño se hacen difíciles de usar, en el caso de diseño de TIC, no existe técnica algunas de diseño para individuos con discapacidad (Dekelver et al, 2015), los diseñadores deben superar éstas limitaciones, pues el turismo accesible es un derecho social y significa facilitar el acceso para las personas, sin importar género, edad, condiciones físicas, etc. con el objetivo del disfrute de experiencias turísti-cas (Menzel & Weldig, 2011).…”