Foregrounding accessibility for user experience design

textI am interested in creating generative tools and techniques for designing accessible user experiences for end users. As a user experience designer, I am working on embracing the web accessibility standards and guidelines and including them from the beginning of the User Experience (UX) design process. My projects are directed at facilitating design students and professionals to understand two things: that the broad concept of web accessibility is important, and how they can embed web accessibility into the UX design process at a very early stage. To do this, I used different media (website, posters and videos etc.) to create awareness and educate designers in an interesting, simple and engaging way. In this report, I will discuss the definition and role of accessible design, identify limitations in existing tools and methods, and demonstrate how future designers might research, prototype, analyze, and implement their designs for all users.Desig

Weaving Lighthouses and Stitching Stories: Blind and Visually Impaired People Designing E-textiles

We describe our experience of working with blind and visually impaired people to create interactive art objects that are personal to them, through a participatory making process using electronic textiles (e-textiles) and hands-on crafting techniques. The research addresses both the practical considerations about how to structure hands-on making workshops in a way which is accessible to participants of varying experience and abilities, and how effective the approach was in enabling participants to tell their own stories and feel in control of the design and making process. The results of our analysis is the offering of insights in how to run e-textile making sessions in such a way for them to be more accessible and inclusive to a wider community of participants

Improving fairness in machine learning systems: What do industry practitioners need?

The potential for machine learning (ML) systems to amplify social inequities and unfairness is receiving increasing popular and academic attention. A surge of recent work has focused on the development of algorithmic tools to assess and mitigate such unfairness. If these tools are to have a positive impact on industry practice, however, it is crucial that their design be informed by an understanding of real-world needs. Through 35 semi-structured interviews and an anonymous survey of 267 ML practitioners, we conduct the first systematic investigation of commercial product teams' challenges and needs for support in developing fairer ML systems. We identify areas of alignment and disconnect between the challenges faced by industry practitioners and solutions proposed in the fair ML research literature. Based on these findings, we highlight directions for future ML and HCI research that will better address industry practitioners' needs.Comment: To appear in the 2019 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019

Working on Disability in Country Programmes

[Excerpt] The World Bank estimates that 20% of the world’s poorest people are disabled. This means that disabled people comprise one of the largest single groups of excluded and chronically poor people in the developing world. Challenging exclusion is central to reducing poverty and meeting the MDGs. So promoting the inclusion, rights and dignity of disabled people is central to poverty reduction and to achieving human rights

Ready? Set. Grow! A Starter's Guide for Becoming Culturally Competent

Workforce development organizations must recognize and value a diverse set of skills and abilities from their employees and job seekers and provide a workplace environment that is nurturing. CJC believes that creating a nurturing environment and addressing racial, ethnic, and other cultural issues, will lead to more productive workers and better opportunities and outcomes for job seekers.This guide is provided to assist you as you begin to explore diversity training and pursue the building of a more culturally competent organization

Human Rights, Persons with Disabilities, ICF and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - Training Toolkit

No abstract available

Case studies on Inclusive Innovation: Engaging hard-to-reach target groups

Der Bericht schildert am Beispiel von zwei Fallstudien Wege, Methoden und Resultate kooperativer Innovationsprozesse (Co-Creation) mit Zielgruppen, für die spezifische Beteiligungsformen in praktischer und inhaltlicher Perspektive notwendig sind. Dabei handelt es sich zum einen um einkommensschwache Familien, zum anderen um blinde und nur eingeschränkt sehfähige Menschen. Der Bericht verdeutlicht die Potentiale für Innovationen durch inklusive Co-Creation, die neue Marktchancen für Unternehmen durch bedürfnisgerecht gestaltete Produkte und Lösungen eröffnet

How to move from Inclusive Systems to Collaborative Systems: the Case of Virtual Reality for teaching O&M

International audienceInclusive systems can be used both by people with and without impairments. This creates new opportunities for sighted and visually impaired people to collaborate with the same tool. Audio-tactile maps and virtual reality (VR) represent a safe and controlled environment for Orientation & Mobility (O&M) classes. These classes aim to teach visually impaired students to move safely and independently, in particular in urban environments, and can be seen as collaborative activity between teachers and students. To go further regarding collaboration in the classroom, the same virtual environment could be used in parallel by several users. The question of collaboration through awareness from CSCW (Computer Supported Collaborative Work) is extended to VR and accessible interaction. By implementing various facilities for mutual awareness sharing the virtual and physical environment, for users with and without vision, we open the question of inclusive collaboration