Aditi Singh
Table of Contents
Problem Statement
While discussing the guidelines for web accessibility, the interesting point that stood out in my interview with Dr. Charudutta Jadhav was the need to go beyond the guidelines to make the web accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities.
“ You can’t go and apply the WCAG guidelines as it is. Based on the context and requirements, these guidelines should be interpreted differently. Compliance is not sufficient to ensure that they serve everybody. Because we know that these guidelines are falling short. The blend of technical and empathy skillsets is required to understand the underlying principles and philosophies of accessibility and universal design guidelines.”
Jadhav
This led to my further literature study in understanding the interplay of different factors that prevent the web from being accessible. Three patterns emerged:
- The limitation of the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- The complexity of the situation arising from the diversity of need of the user and contexts.
- The lack of empathy and inconsistency of understanding of the guidelines among stakeholders.
What are the limitations of the WCAG?
Regardless of the awareness for the need for accessible web applications, a number of studies have found that a large number of websites and web applications still remain inaccessible to the people with disabilities. Some of these reasons can be attributed directly to the limitations of the guidelines. The limitations of the WCAG in the literature are:
- Ambiguity: Significant degree of subjectivity is involved in interpreting the guidelines in a particular context
- Complexity of the structure of guidelines and the spectrum of possible interpretations.
- Logical flaws of the guidelines
- Level of understanding of accessibility issues required: Significant cognitive demand on understanding the principles.
Will fixing the guidelines fix the problems?
The dissemination of accessibility standards and adoption of accessibility guidelines by web authoring tools are required but not enough.
“The needs of a visually impaired and a hearing impaired person are completely opposite and so is the feedback required. At the very initial level you need to manage this conflict and cross check if the solution is conflicting with the need of the mainstream user.”
Jadhav
Designing for a truly accessible web poses many such challenges that cannot be combated by objectively following a set of guidelines. Human intervention is required at each stage to critically evaluate the interaction between the user and the website.
The key challenges are effective and appropriate implementation of accessible Web design techniques and perceived complexity and cost of the task of making a Website Accessible. Unambiguously defining what is actually meant by “accessible,” understanding what is required to develop a Website to be considered to have met that definition, and evaluating it with an expectation that it meets the specified level of accessibility.
The above key challenges are mostly faced by the stakeholders in the application development lifecycle. Hence, it is important to understand their needs to enable them to overcome these challenges. The subjectivity of the guidelines and their inability to foresee and cater to unexpected and complex situations puts the onus on stakeholders to be technically and empathetically adept to approaches for an accessible and inclusive web.
As it is important to look at the user from multiple perspectives, it is equally important to look at the stakeholders from different perspectives to address the challenges they face in the application development lifecycle. The social science perspective is an interesting angle to understand the core motivation and values of these stakeholders in the inclusive design process of applications.
“Perhaps it is just not sensible to expect such guidelines to anticipate every solution and provide for it.”
Nevile
Schwartz Theory of Basic Values
10 basic human values
Self-Direction; Stimulation; Hedonism; Achievement; Power; Security; Conformity; Tradition; Benevolence; Universalism.
These values are likely to be universal because they are grounded in one or more of three universal requirements of human existence with which they help to cope. These requirements are needs of individuals as biological organisms, requisites of coordinated social interaction, and survival and welfare needs of groups. Individuals cannot cope successfully with these requirements of human existence on their own. Rather, people must articulate appropriate goals to cope with them, communicate with others about them, and gain cooperation in their pursuit. Values are the socially desirable concepts used to represent these goals mentally and the vocabulary used to express them in social interaction.
These values have distinct motivations. They have been proven to be universal across different cultures but their interplay and interrelation are dynamic and unique to different individuals.
Human Values for Inclusive web
To support the stakeholders to make the right decision in the inclusive design process, appropriate tools and applications are required. It is important to empathize with the stakeholders at this stage so that the cognitive load of executing inclusive and accessible design is minimized. Making the process of inclusive design as easy as possible is one of the ways to include as many stakeholders as possible. Thus, it is important to understand the core motivation and goals of different stakeholders to formulate the requirement of these accessible application development tools.
Human values of Project Leaders
Jadhav et. al. conducted a survey to understand what project leaders in the software development life cycle valued; the following human values were found to be important to them:
Schwartz Basic Values Involved
- Leadership: Leading a group of people and inspiring them to perform well.
- Power: Control or dominance over people and resources (Schwartz 2001).
- Stimulation: Internal and external factors that stimulate desire in people to be continually interested and committed to a job.
- Awareness: Knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.
- Watchfulness: Process of paying close and continuous attention.
- Cooperation: Assistance to perform a task.
Implications
Minimal overhead in making applications accessibility compliant. Effective two way communication with other stakeholders. Being informed and updated.
Human values of Developers
Mahamuni et. al. conducted a survey to understand what developer team members in the software development lifecycle valued, the following human values were found to be important to them:
Schwartz Basic Values Involved
- Appreciation: Recognition of anything good.
- Benevolence: Preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent contact.
- Achievement: Personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
- Stimulation: Internal and external factors that stimulate desire in people to be continually interested and committed to a job.
- Accomplishment: Activities which a person can do well.
- Learning: Acquiring new knowledge or modifying existing knowledge.
- Traditionalism: respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion has set down in the past (Schwartz 2009).
Implication
Minimal deviation from the usual way of doing things. Being motivated, informed and updated.
Human Values of Designers
“I am working on the core issues of how we can come up with a knowledge base, with innovative processes, that help designers give a larger canvas to design, without curtailing their creativity. “
Jadhav
Based on the requirement of the designer that Jadhav talks about, the following human values stand out in designers in the inclusive design process:
- Self Direction—derives from organismic needs for control and mastery and interactional requirements of autonomy and independence
- Stimulation— derives from a varied life, an exciting life, daring.
Implications
Provide designers with tools that enable them to practice inclusive design without curtailing their creativity.
Human Values of Users
For inclusive and accessible design, users are involved in the process of the software development cycle and after that. Also, the whole purpose of inclusive and accessible design pivots around the user. Hence, it is important not to just understand the special needs of the user but also the expectations and desires. This is where the human values of the users come into the picture.
“Empathy building is a difficult task. To really see what the users need if you involve the right users in the process and empathize with them. You make sure that you are designing appropriately.”’
Jadhav
Jordan (2000) argues that in today’s consumer market “good” human factors and “good” design are expected and usability is no longer a satisfier, but a dissatisfier i.e. usability is a prerequisite and if it is poor the user is dissatisfied. An approach that goes beyond usability, one that incorporates pleasure into the designed artefact is required. What about the pleasure of people with disability while using the web?
Schwartz Basic Values Involved
- Self-Direction: requirements of autonomy and independence
- Stimulation: excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.
- Hedonism: pleasure, enjoying life, self-indulgent.
- Achievement: personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards.
Implications
Design of technology that is considering not just accessibility, but also considering an engaging and pleasurable experience for people with disabilities.
Discussion
It is critical to think beyond complying with the guidelines, a holistic approach is required to understand what the whole design and development cycle demands from stakeholders and users to be able to ship products that are accessible and pleasurable. The social science perspective is required to understand the deeper motive of the users and stakeholders to understand their needs and desires while designing, developing, evaluating and using the software.
References
- Jordan, PW (2000). Designing pleasurable Products, Taylor and Francis, London
- Mahamuni, R., Sharma, S., & Jadhav, C. Web Accessibility–Realizing Human Values of Development Team.
- Nevile L. (2005) User-centred accessibility supported by distributed, cumulative authoring. In Proceedings of AusWeb Conference 2005. Retrieved November 1st 2005: http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw05/papers/refereed/nevile/http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw05/papers/refereed/nevile/
- Porter, C. S., Chhibber, S., Porter, J. M., & Healey, L. (2005). RealPeople; encouraging inclusive design through empathy. Include 2005.
- Schwartz, Shalom H. “An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values.” Online readings in Psychology and Culture 2, no. 1 (2012): 11.
- Sloan, D., Heath, A., Hamilton, F., Kelly, B., Petrie, H., & Phipps, L. (2006, May). Contextual web accessibility-maximizing the benefit of accessibility guidelines. In Proceedings of the 2006 international cross-disciplinary workshop on Web accessibility (W4A): Building the mobile web: rediscovering accessibility? (pp. 121-131). ACM.
ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSIVE DESIGN CASE STUDIES 