Inclusive Design in the Digital Context

Definition of Inclusive Design
Inclusive Design is design that is inclusive of the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.
Inclusive Design in the digital context
Related concepts
Digital Inclusive Design (DID) is considered to be an extension of and related to a number of concepts that have preceded it. Universal design is the concept of design that promotes the production of environments that are accessible to the greatest possible number of people. In contrast, DID promotes the concept that digital technologies afford the opportunities and possibilities to design digital products and digital environments that are accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. DID considers the affordances of digital technology to be capable of achieving this goal.
e-Inclusion is a term used in a European context to describe the goal of including all people in the information society. As such it is closely related to DID. DID embraces the goal of e-Inclusion while focusing on the practicality of the digital design-work that will allow the goal to be realized. In its focus, DID is informed by the concepts of multiculturalism and diversity. Diversity considers the large variation in the capacities of humans, in part due to their varying degrees of physical, cognitive, economic, cultural, and other relative states. Multiculturalism appreciates this diversity, and advocates equal respect for all cultures. DID embraces these two perspectives by designing for individual needs. It values individual needs as a means by which to serve collective needs, seeing the value in diversity and advocating respect for all human capacity variations. In one sense, DID is an application of the principles of multiculturalism to the digital environment, based upon an acknowledgement of human diversity.
Other related concepts include personal learning environments (PLEs) and personal accessibility interfaces (PAIs). A personal learning environment is a digital environment where a learner takes control of their own learning. The learner determines what interfaces (e.g. social media, feeds etc.) by which to interact with the web. In a similar fashion, a PAI is a personalized digital interface between a user and the web, designed for individualized interactions between the two and customized to the needs of the user.
Barriers addressed by inclusive design
Inclusive design approaches and methods
Examples of inclusive design
For a design to be inclusive, it is imperative that designers and developers have a thorough understanding of the users’ needs at the start of the design process. They much then correctly translate these needs into all stages of the iterative process.
Inclusive designs offer advantages to all people by including some previously or potentially excluded users and by offering enhanced functionality to more able users. Some examples of inclusive design are listed below:
* Sensory water, hand soap, antibacterial and toilet paper dispensers
* Automatic door sensors
* Cordless kettles
* Electric toothbrushes with time and pressure alerts
* Flip top toothpaste tube
* Expandable ramps on buses and other forms of transportation
* Videos with auditory feedback and subtext
* Street signs and billboards with high visual contrast
* Online documents that clearly outline headers, main content and describe images concisely
* Elevators with easily accessible buttons, audio output and tactile display of numbers or text
* Cars with automatic parking features
* Magnetic and automatic can openers
Inclusive design projects and organizations
Tools and resources to support inclusive design
Tools and resources that support inclusive design may be of benefit to various stakeholders including developers (who play a direct role in creating new technologies), those who oversee and train developers, and those who commission the design of technologies (who have a stake in understanding how functional the product will be for the desired audience).
General Tips and Information
The WAI Web Accessibility Initiative and WebAIM of the W3C World Wide Consortium and Utah State University, respectively, are both aimed at enhancing accessibility of the World Wide Web for people with disabilities. Both initiatives offer a wide range of useful information for those who are interested in learning more about inclusive design. The WAI and WebAIM resources are suitable for a wide audience (including those who do not have extensive knowledge of or experience with development). The Designing for Inclusion webpage maintained by the WAI and the Introduction to Web Accessibility webpage maintained by WebAIM include helpful collections of information ranging from discussion of common barriers that people with disabilities face when using the Web, to relevant laws and standards, and technical support. Additional useful resources include:
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* Accessibility resources from DoIT of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
While inclusive design need not focus solely on design for users with disabilities and may be applied to other forms of human difference (e.g., age, gender, as well as different contexts of use) , designing for diversity is often aided by understanding the needs of people with disabilities who represent a wide range of needs and preferences. As such, there is value of understanding how people with different abilities use technology such as the Web. To this end, useful resources include:
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Development Tools and Resources
EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) is a non-profit organization that offers training related to inclusive design. For example, EASI frequently offers webinars with topics focused on designing products that are accessible to people with disabilities, and which range from author-led book reviews to discussions related to design of accessible technologies. EASI webinars may be of interest to those with basic to intermediate design skills.
An extensive set of resources and tools including those suitable for advanced developers is available from the IDRC (Inclusive Design Research Centre) of OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario. The IDRC (formerly the Adaptive Technology Research Centre while at the University of Toronto) has developed a wide array of open source tools that may be of use in development projects. Links to websites of completed, ongoing, and new projects may be found on the IDRC website. For example, Fluid Infusion tools may be embedded into new technologies in order to allow users to customize the user interface.
Evaluating Design
At various stages of the design process, stakeholders may be interested in assessing how inclusive the product may be. There are various automated tools that can be used to examine products for accessibility, many of which conduct automated conformance testing against accessibility guidelines. For example, the Qompliance add-on for the Firefox browser and the AChecker tool will analyze webpages and generate reports related to compliance with Section 508 standards (refer to Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and/or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
There are various other methods of testing websites and applications for usability and accessibility, involving designers as well as end users. Useful resources related to testing of products include:
* The Fluid Design Handbook
* Rubin, J., & Chisnell, D. (2008). Handbook of usability testing. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.
* Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability engineering. Boston, MA: AP Professional.
Software that may be used to conduct usability and accessibility testing with end users include:
* Camtasia
* Chalkmark
* ClickHeat
* ClickTale
* Concept Feedback
* CrazyEgg
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* Morae
* OpenHallway
* Silverback
* Usabilla
* Userfly
The technical side benefits of inclusive design
Creating accessible software can have technical side benefits beyond the intended purpose. This is sometimes referred as a digital curb cut. For example, in Mac OS X all user interface controls have text properties and semantics that are set during development. This is used by the voice-over framework built into the operating system to read out all aspects of the user interface. The technology is intended for people with visual and motor disabilities; however, since all the information is computer-readable it makes the entire user interface programable. This has led to the creation of the Automator tool (http://www.apple.com/macosx/apps/all.html#automator) where anyone can automate repetitive tasks.
Specific to inclusive design is the idea of mass-customization and personalization, a one-size-fits-one solution. This is in contrast to universal design where the one-size-fits-all solution tends to be a compromise for everyone and best for no one. One approach is to isolate the user interface from the rest of the system and build a layer between the two that is responsible for the personalization, similar to the model-view-controller software architecture (http://en. .org/wiki/Model-view-controller). In this way many different user interfaces can be created to meet many different needs, and swapped in based on the user's preference. This requires a little more initial work but has many benefits in the long-term. Software written this way tends to be more maintainable because of the de-coupling between the user-interface and the rest of the system. The system has a better chance of evolving because the user interface can be changed independently of the rest, thus the system may have a longer life-span. The system tends to be more agile, and is more likely to adapt as technology changes (e.g. a mobile version of a website).
The economic and social impact of inclusive design
An inclusive economy involves more people in creating economic growth. If services and goods are malleable and suit a diverse set of needs, it creates a greater market. People who otherwise could not or found it too uncomfortable to use a service or product would be able to use them as they please. Similarly, inclusive design also makes it possible for people to be more productive workers and enter the workforce by making getting to work and performing workday tasks comfortable for all.
An inclusive economy is also a healthier community due to its diversity. This is clear when we look at historical examples such as the potato famine in Ireland or the rise of the service industry in North America as manufacturing jobs move to other parts of the world. When there is a diversity of industries, diversity of thought due to different backgrounds, education, and life experiences, then ideas can grow and flourish, making the economy stronger.
An inclusive economy and design practices also creates a more inclusive society. More people have the means and tools available to them to play an active role in society, have a sense of community and identity. This is very important for the health of a person, the community, and the country as a whole. When people are unable to take part in society, either at work or at leisure, the health of the society suffers. Thus, an inclusive society is a healthy society.
Legislation, policy, specifications and standards that support inclusive design
The GPII project proposes a new standard for information and communication technologies (ICT) that focuses on a system of shared components and services for managing end users’ software preferences. The standard relies on interface devices, such as kiosks and bank machines, connecting with GPII services through a broadband connection. GPII would include a standard delivery system, personalization profiles, built-in assistive technologies, on-demand assistance services, and a rich development environment allowing companies to reach out to a greater consumer base in a more personalized and cost-effective manner.
The IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Accessibility for Learning Information Package (ACCLIP) is an example of a specification for aligning educational resources and technologies with learners’ needs and preferences. The ACCLIP specification proposes that individual preferences “have a considerable impact on the user interface of learning delivery, tools, and managers and how content is selected.” The ACCLIP specification “is meant to serve the needs and preferences of all users, not only those with a disability. In this model, accessibility extends beyond disability to benefit users in learning situations which require alternative modes of use, such as in an extremely noisy environment where captions are needed for a video or a "hands-busy, eyes-busy" application like just-in-time training while repairing an aircraft engine.”
Other accessibility related standards, such as those produced by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI), have specific recommendations related to preference and alternative formats. For example, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 have recommendations related to alternatives for time-based and sensory dependent media, as well as providing flexible presentation formats (layout). The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 have recommendations for managing preference settings and are broadly concerned with ensuring content creators produce appropriate, accessible content formats. The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (ARIA) introduces a way to programmatically identify different types of content so that assistive technologies can interact with and present those components according to an individual’s needs and preferences.
Events related to inclusive design

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See Also

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