Beat Vollenwyder

Travellers with visual impairments may face substantial information gaps on their journeys by public transport. For instance, information displayed in trains, as well as on departure boards in train stations and on platforms, are often not available in acoustic or tactile form. Digital technologies, such as smartphones or smartwatches, can provide an alternative means of access. However, these alternatives do not guarantee that the user experience is comparable in value, quality and efficiency. The present case study details a participatory design process, where travellers with visual impairments co-designed a mobile app. The goal was to tackle information gaps on journeys by public transport and to learn how participatory design can facilitate the provision of comparable experiences for users with disabilities. Travellers with visual impairments were involved in a collaborative process in all project phases, including problem identification, technical feasibility, proof of concept, design and development. Participatory design contributed to a thorough understanding of the user perspective and allowed the app to be optimised for the needs of travellers with visual impairments. Furthermore, co-design proved to be an effective method for fostering awareness and knowledge about digital accessibility at all organisational levels.

Providing usable web information and services to as many people as possible confronts web professionals with a challenging task. The present study delivers insights about how Web accessibility is perceived in practice. Using a survey, a total of 163 web professionals in various roles reported their evaluation of Web accessibility implementation in their projects with regard to three aspects: the professional roles primarily responsible for Web accessibility, key phases in the development process, and the types of disabilities primarily considered. Results show that non-technical professional roles are perceived to be less involved in the development process, that Web accessibility considerations are mainly restricted to the design and implementation phases of projects, and that efforts focus predominantly on the needs of people with visual impairments.

Plain Language and Easy-to-Read Language are two approaches to reduce language complexity, which are also applied in the context of Web Accessibility. While Easy-to-Read Language was specifically designed to meet the needs of people with cognitive and learning disabilities, benefits for users with a variety of abilities have been reported. However, studies have also found unintended side-effects on non-disabled users, such as reduced text liking and intention to revisit a website compared to variants in conventional language. The present study addresses this issue by testing two approaches combining conventional with Easy-to-Read Language against a Plain Language variant, as well as a control group in conventional language. In an online study, 308 non-disabled participants read three texts presented in one of the four language variants. Measurements of performance indicators as well as subjective responses show that Easy-to-Read language may be implemented without unintended side-effects.

The present case study provides an insight in the user-centered design process of two applications with comparable underlying functionalities, but two very distinct user groups. Both projects were realised in close cooperation with the multidisciplinary User Experience (UX) team of the Swiss Federal Railways. User experience.

Interact! is an evidence-based framework for the support of school class visits to science exhibitions featuring a large vertical multi-touch surface and a set of tablet computers. The overall framework is designed to foster interest in computer sciences and collaborative learning of selected topics by drawing upon subject areas of personal importance and encouraging small group knowledge processes. Interact! was implemented as a prototype and tested in a field experiment with 53 pupils.