Madness or Method? Usability as a Mechanism for Universal Design

Chris Hass, Senior Research Scientist, American Institutes for Research (AIR), USA

Madeleine Rothberg, Director of R&D, Media Access Group at WGBH, USA

Abstract

The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media and the American Institutes for Research will present evidence from a U.S. Department of Education sponsored study that audio navigation techniques designed to enable DVD and TV set-top box use by vision-impaired persons are successful and that these accessibility techniques may also enhance use efficiency and satisfaction among sighted audiences. Contradicting pervasive beliefs within the DVD and broadcast industries that accessibility features are "off-putting" to sighted users, this presentation will demonstrate how accessibility innovation, supported by human factors research methodologies, can lead to the development of real-world products that exemplify Universal Design.

Introduction

Product developers may dream about creating a simple, universally acceptable solution to complex user interactions - a single approach that enables a product to be used by all persons regardless of age, instruction, or limiting condition - but is real-world universal design possible?

In the realm of consumer electronics, selecting a television program or playing a DVD is a complex interactive experience - one that relies on the user's ability to navigate through on-screen menus via one or more remote controls. TV and DVD interfaces present users with graphics-rich menus that offer many choices: between channel selections, chapter selections of a movie or documentary and a host of interactions including bonus materials such as games, music videos and commentary. Similarly, digital set-top boxes are the keys to a kingdom of news, entertainment and other services, all at your fingertips as long as you can view the options of the electronic program guides to make your selections.

Blind and visually impaired users must be able to easily track available program and service options, and accessibility solutions must anticipate how users interact with graphic-rich user interfaces. Envisioning and building these capabilities into consumer electronics and DVDs provides unparalleled access to news, entertainment and cultural literacy for blind and visually impaired users and offers significant technical challenges for developers concerning audio prompts, remote control interactions, usability, and interface architecture. To further complicate matters, TV and DVD accessibility features raise concerns among media corporations about the negative impact these features might have on sighted users.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media and the American Institutes for Research have recently researched evidence that audio navigation techniques designed to enable DVD and television set-top box use by vision-impaired persons are successful. Moreover, these accessibility techniques may also enhance use efficiency and satisfaction among sighted audiences. These findings flatly contradict current beliefs within the DVD and broadcast industries that accessibility features are "off-putting" to mainstream users. The very features that make these devices accessible may make them exemplars of Universal Design.

Madeline Rothberg of the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media will present the project that led to the development of the world's first commercially available accessible DVDs and to the creation of free published guidelines for developing talking menus for TV set-top boxes and DVDs. Given the complex interactions required to facilitate DVD use, or to tune a TV set-top box, these guidelines represent a significant enhancement to blind, visually impaired, and sighted users' ability to interact with these pervasive technologies.

Chris Hass of the American Institutes for Research conducted lab-based usability tests of the evolving DVD interfaces with blind, low-vision and sighted users. In doing so he rediscovered the confluence between usability methodologies and accessibility techniques. Chris will provide research study highlights and discuss how traditional human factors and usability methods supported the evaluation and enhancement of these significant contributions to the advancement of accessibility as an essential component of consumer electronics.

Top