Designing and Implementing Accessible Wearables - 180D-FW-2023/Knowledge-Base-Wiki GitHub Wiki
Introduction
Given the massive rise of wearable devices (wearables), “smart” homes, and other IoT devices in work, home, leisure, and health, there are new opportunities and challenges to tackle pressing problems for users with disabilities. These opportunities exist in two separate approaches: The development of assistive technologies catered towards users with disabilities and the development of new wearables that do not alienate users with disabilities and expand the potential market. Both approaches require a more holistic understanding of the user base and the unique challenges that exist in the wearable space. This is especially true in the modern day, where wearables are built to augment human abilities and senses which may not be possible for certain users with disabilities. Thus, the following article will analyze the importance of accessible design and key considerations and methods in the design of future wearables.
What is Accessibility?
As defined by the Interaction Design Foundation, accessibility is “the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone – however they encounter it” [1]. This is most often seen in legislation and design documents, which exists primarily to aid people with disabilities. While we often consider “disabilities” as referring to a set of specific motor, visual, auditory, or learning impaired conditions, the definition of disability is quite vague and all-encompassing. All people are disabled in some context or circumstance. Whether this is a broken leg, blurry eyes, seizures, or using your phone with one hand, a disability is simply a set of circumstances that has limited a person’s full ability. Thus accessibility, and by extension accessible design, centers itself around building systems that alienate as few groups of people possible.
Accessibility in Wearables
Wearables host a unique set of challenges in the context of accessibility. Given the heavy reliance on different parts of the human body either for attachment or interaction purposes, it is extremely likely that users with certain disabilities can be alienated by the underlying design of the system. Take, for example, someone with cerebral palsy. Their body burns energy at a much higher rate compared to able-bodied individuals with a uniquely personal set of gait, posture, and movement patterns. Thus, attaching wearables to their limbs may be too heavy or difficult for them to use. Stories like this have become common place as wearables have become a fact of daily life. Certain companies like Apple [2] and Fitbit [3] have integrated accessibility features like gentle taps for notifications and gesture-based screen readers as a core part of their marketing plan. Critics say these features fail to serve the real and more complex needs of communities with disabilities, shifting resources from researching different human bodies and needs into unique marketing pieces designed to show off the technology over the human impact.
The alienation of users with disabilities extends far beyond just an inability to use common wearables. As recent research has shown, the recent rise of “bring-your-own-data” initiatives where users donate FitBit data to research has demonstrated a signification reduction in diversity in race and socioeconomic status [4]. Disability status is highly correlated with these systems, signifying that the widespread adoption of FitBits can actively hurt future research into disabilities, class, and race. Thus, the impact of accessible designs in wearables extends far beyond the marketplace.
Accessible Design in Digital Interfaces
Wearables often come hand in hand with digital interfaces or web applications for general usage. Fortunately, there exists a highly detailed set of guidelines to better designing more accessible web interfaces which can be directly transferrable to digital interface design in wearables from the Web Accessibility Initiative. It is vital that we consider these at the start of the design process to build a more cohesive and integrated system with accessibility concerns addressed right at the start. Furthermore, we can consider accessibility as removing barriers to entry. For example, someone with a visual impairment may not be able to read text. However, if your text is formatted properly, they can use screen reading technologies to still understand what you are saying. Thus, considerations for the target audience and potential barriers of entry are essential to identifying and solving accessibility problems in your design. A select number of potential solutions to accessibility problems are listed below to help you begin brainstorming:
- Consistent header tags in HTML and CSS which do not skip levels can help screen readers more accurately organize text.
- Don’t refer to a color. If someone is color-blind, this can be completely unusable. Instead, refer to shapes and forms to guide the user which are universal properties.
- Test if your application works through keyboard alone. People with motion disabilities may use alternative methods to use the cursor. We want to make sure that your systems can be used without needing the mouse at all to best enable as many users as possible.
- Offer transcriptions and video captions for people with hearing impairments.
Some potential tools for analyzing the accessibility of your application include:
- WAVE – Evaluates overall level of accessibility in a web application.
- Color Oracle – Simulates different types of color blindness.
- Color Check – Evaluates the ADA compliance of image elements.
Considerations for Physical Wearable Design
The following is a list of considerations that developers should take into account during the design process. Developers should take careful consideration of the type of sensing, input/outputs, and locations these devices are worn. Visualizations like body maps can also help to break down these questions and address key areas of concern [5].
Proxemics- the perception of self-size which can indicate how far from the body a wearable device may extend and still be a part of the user’s awareness.
- Self-perceived size differs depending on the body limitations of the user. For instance, people in wheelchairs have a much different self-perceived chair due to their relative size (lower and wider) and posture.
Weight Distribution – Heavier objects are more comfortably carried in some parts of the body over others.
- People respond to pressures from weight differently. Even if placing something heavy on the chest is the most efficient, people with back injuries may find that this is too uncomfortable and difficult.
- Light weight can make wearable technologies much more usable to a wider audience (elderly, children, medical conditions, etc.)
Body Motion – Wearables should strive to limit motion as little as possible.
- Wearables should try to avoid the joints as much as possible [6].
- Rigid objects should be adhered to the outside of joints so that they do not stretch out the surrounding skin.
- Movement sensing offers a privacy-centric approach to monitoring a disability as it can be position-agnostic. It is still vital for some degree of consideration on the position to collect the most accurate data.
Haptics – Wearables often use vibrations as a notification. This is especially pertinent in disabled populations where touch and touch sensitivity are vital alternatives to traditional notifications.
- Consider the sensitivity of the area where the wearable is placed.
- Consider haptics as an alternative or supplement to common notification methods that use visual or audio cues.
Conclusion
This article has established both the need for accessible design and considerations to achieve a more accessible system. Through each consideration, the developer should keep in mind that accessibility is fluid given the target audience of the wearable. Thus, take the listed ideas not as fact but as places to start your research on how to identify potential accessibility concerns and solve them.
References
[1] https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/accessibility
[2] https://support.apple.com/en-us/102253
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmdQTCc9p48
[5] Zeagler, Clint. 2017. “Where to Wear It : Functional , Technical , and Social Considerations in On – Body Location for Wearable Technology 20 Years of Designing for Wearability.” In International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Maui, Hawaii. doi:10.1145/3123021.3123042.
[6] Gemperle, Francine & Kasabach, Chris & Stivoric, John & Bauer, Malcolm & Martin, Richard. (2000). Design for Wearability.
[8] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/web-accessibility-best-practices/415631/