Enabling Interfaces: Designing for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

The focus of accessibility should be nurturing what people can do, rather than focusing on what they can’t. Chris will show how Tobias & Tobias designed a communication tool that helped students with learning disabilities exceed their teachers’ expectations and fulfill their potential. Chris will then explain how using a similar approach was equally effective when designing for people in demanding situations – in this case, the teachers themselves – ensuring their system was designed to meet a range of contextual and environmental accessibility considerations.

Chris Kaminski is a Principle UX Designer at Tobias & Tobias, and has had a special interest in accessible design since the early 2000s when he worked for Aktion Mensch, the German accessibility advocacy organisation.

Wayfindr: A Collaborative Approach to Solving the Accessibility Challenge

The ability to travel independently on The Tube is something many of us take for granted, but is a major challenge for users with low vision. The Wayfindr project takes on this challenge using both an innovative use of technology and involving end-users during the entire design and development process. Katherine will discuss the participatory nature of this project and how she helped representative users from the Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB) communicate both their accessibility challenges to the design team and how they envisaged the implementation of their desired solution.

Katherine Payne is Wayfindr’s Marketing and Communications Lead. Previously she worked as Campaigns Officer at the Royal London Society for Blind People. Amongst other projects at RLSB she supported their Youth Forum to launch their Youth Manifesto, which led the collaboration with ustwo that created the Wayfindr project.

Inclusive Design for the Ageing Population

The concept of inclusive design is well established but it is not just about designing products that can be ‘used’ by all just in the practical sense  It must consider meeting a host of users’ additional emotional and psychological needs and aspiration. The impact of a truly inclusive design approach starts when a product communicates ‘what it is’ and ‘what it can do’ to users. An artefact, in this case, digital devices, ought to fit with the prospective buyers world view that made the product appeal to them in the first instance, to ensure full adoption and integration into users’ lives.

In this talk we will consider how designing technology for ageing users means considering a full spectrum of products’ functionalities and attributes as well as users’ perception. Coping strategies and learning mechanisms will be reviewed to explore how we can reduce the dreaded ‘digital divide’.

Gabriella Spinelli is a Reader in Design Innovation in the Department of Design at Brunel University London. She is interested in research that explores the relationship between identity, behaviour and artefacts. In the last 5 years her research has focused on how the design of products, services and systems can support the wellbeing of the ageing population. Gabriella’s research is people-centred to ensure integrity and inclusion.

Have I Got a Bit More Accessibility for You: Accessibility at the BBC

At the BBC, accessibility is not ‘just’ an additional requirement, or considered a burden which is addressed at the end of each project. It is a core objective, placed at the heart of each project from the very start.

In his presentation, Gareth will explain why and how ‘accessibility’ starts with UX at the BBC. It will explore the BBC’s approach to accessible UX design placed in the context of specific projects and give you tips on how to be the ‘accessibility champion’ in your organisation!

In 2005 Gareth founded the BBC’s Digital Accessibility Team. Their work on iPlayer resulted in a product which is considered an exemplar for accessibility and led to development of the world-renowned BBC Accessibility Standards and Guidelines in 2006. Gareth has since worked on the accessibility of IPTV platforms and returned to the BBC Future Media’s User Experience and Design Team to head-up both the Usability Research and Accessibility teams. He oversaw the accessibility of the online 2012 Olympic coverage and has worked to embedded accessibility into every product team, supporting a network of over 75 Accessibility Champions.