Designing an Interface for Disabled user

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Designing an Interface for Disabled user

• By Abdi jama
• Laveeza
• Ola

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Introduction

• Interface designers face a new challenge today, a
  challenge that when solved, will not only enable
  them to stretch the boundaries of the technical
  world but also open up the World Wide Web to
  cognitively disabled users. This population is
  both underserved and frequently misunderstood.
  With the advances of medical science, users who
  might never have left the hospital before are
  living independent, productive lives. As part of
  this goal, the Internet must be as accessible to
  them as other common elements of society.

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cognitively disabled

• A person who is cognitively disabled may have  
• Below average general intellectual functioning.
  The person often has difficulty with problem
  solving, reasoning skills, and understanding and
  using language. 
• Significant delays in functioning. The person has
  difficulty with reading, math and writing skills.
  
• Deficiencies in adaptive behaviour or ability to
  interact with others, and in meeting the demands
  and expectations of the environment.  

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Mental Retardation

• Mental Retardation. A person with an IQ below 70
  (average IQ is 100) having difficulty functioning
  independently is considered to be mentally
  retarded.

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Language and Learning Disabilities

• Language and Learning Disabilities refers to a
  wide range of disorders manifested by significant
  difficulties in listening, speaking, reading,
  writing, reasoning, and calculating/integrating
  perceptual/cognitive information. They are
  presumed to be due to central nervous system
  dysfunction.

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Injury and Stroke/ Alzheimer's Disease

• Head Injury and Stroke. Head injuries and stroke
  usually result in physical impairments, cognitive
  impairments or both
• Alzheimer's Disease is a degenerative disease
  that leads to progressive intellectual decline,
  confusion and disorientation.

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General Recommendations 

• After defining the target population, we as web
  designers need to evaluate the needs of the
  cognitively disabled people not viewing them as
  handicapped or plain retarded, but as special
  people with special needs. What we need to
  understand here is that some of the basic
  functions of  memory, thought process, speech
  which ordinary people use as swift reflexes, pose
  great problems for cognitively disabled people
  and we can help them by making this effort a
  little easier.

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Ways of helping

• Website designers should provide a plain language
  description of the website, the purpose of the
  site, and what can be done or learned here
• The introduction need not be extensive but it
  should be plain and straightforward so that a
  user will know what the website is about

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Language and definitions

• Provide definitions for unusual terms used .
  There are times when designers will need to
  define terms that may not be known to the average
  person. Define the term when it first appears.
  Add an extra sentence explicitly explaining what
  it means.

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Navigation

• There should be a simple way to backtrack or
  start over while navigating the website to reduce
  anxiety over failure in using it. Similarly to
  provide confirmation to users, any activation of
  a control or change of state should have an
  accompanying auditory indication.

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Use of graphics

• The mainstay of information on the Internet is
  graphics which differentiates it from other
  methods of instruction, making it more
  accessible, and user-friendly. This is one aspect
  that can be suitably exploited to aid people with
  cognitive disadvantages.

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• 1. For input, allow entry of a short code for a
  longer sequence. Simplify required sequences,
  limiting the number of steps.  
• 2.Use of multiple selection techniques for
  different users with different needs. Use direct
  selection techniques
• 3.Provide an easy (as well as prominent and
  clear) exit that returns the user to the original
  starting point from any point in the sequence. 
• 4. Standardize within the website by using same
  shape/colour/icon/label for same function and
  action
• 5. Commands and features should remain consistent
  from screen to screen. 
• 6. Shorten menus. 
• 7. Use pictographic or ideographic symbol system
  that helps such users to construct complex
  sentences, answer and ask questions. 

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Think!
 
                    

•                              
•  Think Like               People who are
  disabled should be treated
• The same as everybody else