Useful Technology for people with impaired vision

(Notes courtesy of NCBI)

Useful Technology for people with impaired vision:

• Computer Software: enlarging or screen-reading
• CCTV for reading print or handwritten documents
• Braille note-taker
• Braille printer
• Colour identifier
• Bone-conductor headphones – allows you to hear background noise
• Orcam - €3000! Point at a page or sign and it will read it. Sits on glasses, near ear. Also identifies colour.
• Body camera, like a dash cam, to record and show difficulties on a journey.

Smartphone.

• Built-in: voice recorder, torch, text-to-speech, camera: useful for photographing dangerous posters, taxi driver’s identification tag, access problems.
• Accessibility features: enlarge print, and change colour of print and of background, on screen. Audible diary/calendar to keep track of appointments. Weather and time can be made available audibly. Android: Google Assistant. iPhone: Siri
• Add-on Apps: NTA Journey Planner; “Be my Eyes”; Magnifier App (read menu or short note); “Free Now” (taxi); Soundscape;

Etiquette - Some Do’s and Don’ts

(Notes courtesy of NCBI)

Do’s and Don’ts.

On the phone or in person:

• Greet the person by saying your name, with perhaps a reminder of where/when you last met.
• Talk directly to the person rather than through a third party. (Such as a family member or Personal Assistant) It’s easier if you know the person with sight loss by name – say their name when you are speaking to them. If you don’t know their name, don’t be afraid to ask, when giving your own name.
• Try to speak clearly, facing the person with sight loss while you do so.
• Address the person with sight loss by name when directing conversation to them, in a group situation.
• If someone joins or leaves the group, tell the person with sight loss that this has happened.
• Don’t be afraid to use terms like ‘see you later’. People with sight loss use these expressions too.

In the home or office of a person with sight loss:

• To avoid the possibility of someone banging their head, close the door after you, coming in and out. If you open an overhead press door, close it after you. If you see one open, tell the person, and ask if they’d like you to close it.
• If you need to move something in the home or office of a person with vision impairment, tell the person that you are doing so.
• Before you leave, replace the item exactly where it was, and tell them that you have done so, or explain why that is no longer possible, and tell them the new position of the item, so that they can find it when you are gone. Make sure that they have understood you.

Outdoors:

• If you see head-height obstacles ahead of a person using a white cane or guide dog, warn them. A cane cannot locate head-height obstacles, and a guide dog might not always be able to do so.
• Always let a person with sight loss know when you are approaching. A sudden voice at close range when they didn’t hear anyone approach can be very startling. Speak first from a little distance away, and again as you draw closer.
• If you are giving directions, don’t point. Give clear verbal directions, for example ‘to your left’ rather than ‘over there’.
• Don’t assume that a person using a white cane or guide dog is totally blind. If you notice that they are using vision, in some way, this does not mean that they are “cheating” or “pretending”! Don’t assume that because a person can see one thing that they can see everything. If necessary, ask the person if they can see a particular landmark or obstacle.
• Before giving assistance, always ask the person first if they would like help, and if they do, ask what assistance is needed. Do not assume that you know what help they need.
• If you have been guiding a blind person and need to leave them, bring them to some reference point that they can feel, like a wall for example. To be left in open space can be disorientating for a person with no vision.
• If you’ve been talking to a person with sight loss, tell them when you are leaving, so that they are not left talking to themselves.

Guiding a person with impaired vision on stairs

(Notes courtesy of NCBI)

Guiding a person with impaired vision on stairs:

After you have offered a person with impaired vision your arm, and he or she is walking with you, it may happen that you need to use stairs to get where you are both going.

Some tips to remember:

• Always guide the person towards the stairs in such a way that the handrail will be easy for them to reach.
• Stop at the beginning of the staircase, especially if the stairs lead downwards, before telling them that there are stairs. If you tell people with sight loss that you are approaching stairs, while moving towards the stairs, you are raising the level of stress involved.
• Wait until you reach the stairs, stop, then tell the person you are guiding whether the stairs are up or down.
• Tell the person with impaired vision that there is a handrail nearby, and then wait for him/her to grip it before you move off.
• You may need to give further directions (higher, lower, farther forward, etc.) to help the person to find the handrail.
• Ask him/her whether he/she would like to stay on your arm as well as using the handrail, or whether he/she would like to use his/her cane. It is usually best to let a guide dog user use the dog on stairs.
• Always go in front of a person with impaired vision, whether going up or downstairs, so that you can advise them of any problems ahead. (Vacuum cleaner cord, or “Wet Floor” sign, for example).
• If the person with impaired vision opts to continue on your arm while on the stairs, ask him/her to allow you to go one step ahead. This is easier for both of you.
• Don’t count steps, unless there are only 2 or 3. A miscount could cause a trip. It’s best to wait until the person’s foot is on the top (or bottom) of the stairs, and then say “Now we’re at the top” or “Now there’s a landing before the next flight”.

Potentially Inaccessible Information

(Notes courtesy of NCBI)

Potentially Inaccessible Information

• Job advertisements.
• Courses available, recreation.
• Directions and maps.
• Signage.
• Notice boards.

Suggestions for making information accessible.

• Large, clear print, in accessible Font (Arial is good size 14 at least) matt finish, well lit.
• Computer disc – many people with vision impairment have access to computers and have screen-enlarging or screen-reading software; but remember not everybody has these facilities.
• Website – make sure yours is accessible. Contact NCBI.
• E-mail. Make sure attachments are in accessible format – PDF cannot be read by screen-readers.
• Braille or Tape. Many but not all people with vision impairments read Braille. Phone (01) 8642266 for information about converting documents into Braille, or onto audio-tape.
• People often manage by using magnification aids so make the information available in print or displayed at their level/height.

Guided by Tina Lowe

We spoke to Guide Dog Owner Tina Lowe who has Guide Dog Forrest. "Forrest is my third Guide Dog. Believe it or not, when I could see I was terrified of dogs but since losing my sight Forrest has been a life saver. Having a Guide Dog has given me the freedom to live my best life." pic.twitter.com/QdCDRxjqSO

— Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind (@irishguidedogs) January 21, 2020

Tina (and Forrest) have in turn guided us (the second year design thinking class) at UCD and encouraged us to experience and understand the campus from their perspective.

Irish Guide Dogs

Q: Who are Irish Guide Dogs and what do they do?

A: Irish Guide Dogs is a volunteer organisation responsible for the support, training and husbandry of dogs for assistance and guiding. They match the person to the dog (and the dog to the person); providing support for dogs in training, fostering and breeding.

https://guidedogs.ie/governance/our-collaboration/

About NCBI

Q: Who are NCBI and what do they do?
A: NCBI is the National Council for the Blind Ireland. NCBI is the peak organisation responsible for championing action, coordinating iniatives, promoting needs, and providing assistance and services for blind and visually impaired people in Ireland.

http://www.ncbi.ie/about-ncbi/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/

Which research methods come first in a design process?

Which research methods come first in a design process? I recommend focusing first on Learn, Look, Ask research methods rather than Try categories.

It nearly always makes sense to focus on evaluating an existing situation first, before proposing solutions to problems or for things which have not yet been documented or captured. Whether it is done consciously, deliberately, or not, the first step in design action involves researching and evaluating existing AS-IS situations prior to creating new designs.

There is always a prior context that can be understood, described, tested and evaluated, that we can learn from to inform a future design. We call this the situation, case, or context. Only after gathering data from an existing AS-IS situation should we think about creating a mock-up or trying new solutions. After all what is the solution solving? In any case a mock-up will be based on or refer to an understanding (analysis of the data) of the current case, an existing context, a prior or existing situation.

Consequently: we should first understand the needs, find the problem(s), before commencing a series of iterative end-to-end design processes. Recall the IDEO Shopping Cart. With the shopping cart as their context the IDEO team first set out to understand (variously) the AS-IS of contemporary shopping carts: their actual use, how they perform, the value/utility offered by them, the problems associated with them, areas to improve...

Productive design action is intimately linked with a motivating `brief'. A brief is a statement of `needs' justified by `evidence'. They are insightful analyses of primary research, research data produced by users, recorded by researchers. A brief should not specify the design. Design briefs are open-ended descriptions that initiate design action, where design action can be understood as deliberate (although sometimes accidental) change in the world. Any design brief should conceivably be addressed perfectly well by a range of possible design solutions.

The design brief is a great place to start but who comes up with the initial design brief? What goes into it? The DT2 research project addresses these questions. It is a platform for you to understand (and perform) the beginning of a design process, what goes into producing useful, actionable initial design briefs.

Accessibility hackathon event Feb 21-23 2020

A weekend workshop is taking place at Dublin Airport. Hosted by the DAA and Hack Access, this initiative is relevant to our class and may be something you'd like to volunteer to join...

"Dublin Airport is delighted to partner with Hack Access for its accessibility hackathon event taking place from February 21 to 23. The hackathon aims to bring a wide range of people together to specifically look at ways of improving the customer experience for passengers who have accessibility challenges. Hack Access, which is a non-profit organisation, aims to ensure that no person is excluded from cities due to differences in ability."

https://www.dublinairport.com/latest-news/2020/02/07/dublin-airport-partners-with-hack-access-to-host-accessibility-hackathon#

Cultural probe method exercise

"Some complex design challenges involve people of different cultures, languages, and societies where traditional research approaches won't help us adequately emphathize with their experiences." (Battarbee et al., 2012: p. 7)

The cultural probe method encourages participants to make a visual journal and reflection of their encounter with a culture context/experience. Probes gathered and compared across many participants offer the possibility to provide both generalisable information and deep insights (potential for broad and/or deep learning).

The following exercise provides a 'flavour' of the method:

Suggested protocol to conduct a cultural probe as follows:
1. Take a trip to a local shop, market, or a specialist food store.
2. Purchase 1 inexpensive food item you never tried before (1x photo).
3. Research how to prepare it to eat or use it as an ingredient.
4. Follow the recipe to prepare the food and test it.
5. Write a paragraph-note summarising the exercise.

6. Findings: Captured in (at least) a 1+ photo and (at least) a 1+ paragraph-note.

Inclusive Design Toolkit - University of Cambridge

inclusivedesigntoolkit.com
A deep set of resources for learning about, evaluating and performing design action for systems, services, and technology.

Designing a World for Everyone

A BBC Radio 4 programme on Pattie Moore, gerontologist and designer, entitled 'Designing a World for Everyone' reflecting on her early active experiential experiment...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bcnf

Seeing AI

From Microsoft: Seeing AI - the talking camera
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai

There is an interesting back story to one of the first users of Seeing AI and its developer navigating and speaking together at a conference in Germany...

TapTapSee - Blind and Visually Impaired Assistive aid

TapTapSee - Assistive Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired

https://taptapseeapp.com


TapTapSee is a mobile camera application designed specifically for blind and visually impaired users, powered by the CloudSight Image Recognition API.

Design Thinking for Educators

The Design Thinking for Educators pages, published by Riverdale + IDEO.
A superb practical set of resources for introducing the design thinking attitude and conducting design thinking workshops.
Watch the three videos
Maggie (1:44)
Michael (2:08)
Patrick (1:54)