“I know how to do it”

Taking from the Disability, the Truth television programme, a recurring topic was that of misconception about people with impairments.

“I know how to do it” makes reference to Curtis Palmer, a young man who requires the aid of a wheelchair in his everyday pursuits. In his words, he aims to convey a common situation that arises where able-bodied people offer to help him enter and exit his car; Curtis is fully able to do this himself.

“One thing that I think people need to learn is that when I’m getting out of my car, if I’m at the supermarket or something like that, I don’t need any help, it’s cool, I got it.”

Curtis is highlighting a habitual response from people upon seeing him with his impairment in a position he is more than capable handling. There is a prevalent misunderstanding that he, and other persons having a disability, needs assistance at all times of the day.

Countering this instinctive and misguided view of a righteous response to assist a person with a disability on first-sight is an issue requires resolution. The problem is experienced on a regular basis.

Curtis is not alone, throughout the course of the video other people with disabilities discuss their realities with handling misconceptions.

Joanna Dominick is a person in Disability, the Truth who also comes across with issues of people actively speaking to her with pity, which is another preconception able-bodied persons often have toward the disabled. Joanna is perfectly content with what she does in life and as she explains in the video:

“I was in the supermarket the other day and this lady came up to me and said, ‘Wow look at you, all by yourself and doing your grocery shopping’ and I wanted to say to her ‘Yes, I am 28’”.

There is a clear lack of understanding from the general public about the lives lived by disabled persons. It has thus become a necessity to instill the impacts disability has – especially in regard to disability being seen as something that debilitates every aspect in the life of an individual, which is false in its purest form.

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A possible approach to addressing this issue is introducing a system in which to educate people on how to properly handle situations involving persons with disabilities.

This could be a government scheme within companies and schools, employing visiting mandatory workshops on correct etiquette and situational responses with disabled people. Through the adoption of such methods, we remove exposure of persons with disabilities to minimal levels; in essence, it does not require extensive advertisement nor the role of a spokesperson.

However, this does not change social attitudes.

If some set schema was introduced for widespread public notice, i.e. the medium of television, it would be better ingrained in the mind of the general populous. No spokesperson would be necessarily required, as an example, computer-generated anthropomorphised characters enact the  issues to be enlightened on their behalf.

Despite the lack of a spokesperson, this approach can produce an exhibited status for persons with a disability and may garner unwanted attention towards the disabled community. Exposed status may provide a platform for scrutiny and further stigmatization. Utilising a medium such as CG-characters serves to reduce placing the disabled in the spotlight, however this also comes with its own issue. Providing indirection between the recipients of the message and those that it refers to introduces a disconnect. This disconnection principle, which can be used to great effect in creating an emotive association with the audience, carries the possibility of removing subject-relation with the intent of the imagery. That is, non-relation to concerned party, the disabled community.

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There are multiple ways of tackling the issue of misconceptions on people with impairments, but it is irrefutably a problem that needs to be addressed. It produces unease amongst both the disabled and able-bodied. Occasions are distinctly possible to occur whereby a disabled person has refused to receive assistance, which has offended the helping party (out of thinking they were only doing good). A situation such as this is likely not a rare occurrence, and, aside from opinions on arrogance, may provoke a resentful feeling in the person trying to help such that they begin to care less about disabled persons in general.

Education is the greatest tool in overcoming apparent misconceptions on disability.

In a global society that is increasingly in favour of equality, measures must be taken to explicate the correct manner in which to act correctly respecting people with disability. Not all attempts will be successful – as such task does not happen overnight; however, given time, public understanding will improve.

The Internet of things and its uses for people who have an impairment

Introduction

The Internet of things is a great solution for a wide variety of impairments. It is considered to be the future of technology and that should make it widely used by everybody, no matter if they have impairment or not. Already this fact should minimize stigmatization, as both people without and with impairments should be able to use the technology.

What is the Internet of things?

The term is rather new and has been around for about four years. It implies equipping objects that normally surround users on a day-to-day basis with tiny devices that collect information. These devices are connected to the Internet and are capable of drawing information from the World Wide Web in order to add value to the local information collected from the user. All this information is used in order to offer a service that asks from users a minimal or no effort at all.

The ideal dimension of the Internet of things makes it possible to imagine that objects can easily communicate between themselves and work together in order to offer services that are desired by the user but which are asking for only minimum input.

Among the technology used for supporting the Internet of things there are often listed Radio-frequency identification (RFID), near field communication, barcodes and digital watermarking. This makes the technology seamless and that is exactly what a great design should be. The active input from the user is minimum as the information is drawn through other methods. The result is maximal, as the possibilities that we have today could be expanded and improved, while the user’s effort is minimised.

The technology would be useful to people who don’t have an impairment but also for does who do. It would find its place in all homes. Most advantages seem to be for people who are blind, although not only.

One of the most common examples of how the Internet of things would work is that of a fridge that can recognize which products it contains and even order new food when it is about to finish. For example, the fridge would notice by itself that milk is almost over and order a delivery for the next day. Such a scenario sounds like a luxury for people who are not impaired but could be a very good supportive tool for people who are blind.

The great aspect about the Internet of things is that the technology is not present today and the leaves spaces for imagination to run wild. On the other hand, Internet is around for only a couple of decades. The iPhone has been launched only 5 years ago and is already mirrored in most other mobile devices present on the market. The iPad is here only for 3 years and it is difficult to think of the time when it didn’t exist. Simple and intuitive devices make their way into day-to-day activities leaving the feeling that they were always there.

From this aspect it is fair to say that the prognoses for the next years, for example, can and should be as innovative as possible, even if they are not possible today. As long as their usability level is incontestable they might just make their way through as solutions that feel like they have always been there.

Possibilities

The Internet of things is not one singular solution, but a cloud of different possibilities that have similar technology as base. Because of that, it is difficult to say how this cloud could take shape; it is just as difficult to cover it.

Covering all possibilities that the Internet of things has to offer in the subject of impairment design is not the object of this article. It is interesting, though, to take some ideal situations that reflect user needs and project possible solutions.

In order to identify relevant user needs I have looked at forums and articles that are discussing experiences and problems that people with specific impairments are facing. Conducting user studies would of course help give better shape to these scenarios, but that can be part of a larger project.

The path towards living in a world where Internet of things is present has already started taking shape, as there are companies that are focusing on developing such ideas / products.

Memory loss

–       device which reminds about switching off the oven, for example, dangerous situations, explains sounds such as the fire alarm, doorbell. The device should be scalable to the type of memory loss level by an assistant so that it matches the person it should support.

–       device which answers on questions which are asked repetitively

–       finding lost objects. All objects should have an RFID tag that could be charged with various information. Finding out the keys’ position, for example, should also be just as easy as searching for them in a search bar and seeing on a map of the house where they are placed. A sound recognition system could be programmed to react on the question “Where did I put my keys?” and a couple variations on that with displaying a map of the flat with the position of the keys. Or a green light can be projected in the room on the spot where the keys are. It feels like the possibilities are endless.

–       Finding out the history of objects that are found in the house. This can be seen as a Tale of Things and help rebuild reality as often as it is needed. (http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2434674)

Visual impairment

–       sensors on a belt which detect obstacles (how many steps until obstacle)

–       interacting with a serious of services through voice recognition

–       recognition of objects, their type, could be done through a table which has RFID recognition integrated which recognize the RFID tags of objects, together with the data that is loaded on them

–       recognition of persons

–       recognition of id cards, for example a policeman’s ID, which reduces the risk of being tricked

–       recognition of sounds

–       each building can have a map registered in an RFID tag at the entrance that an own device can connect automatically and provide sound options for finding specific destinations in the building

Scenarios

Some simple scenarios I found illustrated in the following article, where the following three illustrations are also extracted from:

http://lms.ctl.cyut.edu.tw/sysdata/22/27122/doc/571c22f5f635d883/attach/1523813.pdf

Google Glasses is already one step ahead the ideal situation envisioned in this research from 2012. What the article describes as an inserted artificial retina with a camera function can today be replaced by a pair of Google glasses that is connected to the Internet. No need to for surgery and insertion of technology into human body.

Shopping scenario

The shopping scenario is very interesting. A person who is blind can find out which fruits are displayed, or maybe if there are strawberries, where are they and how fresh they are through RFID tags. A class colleague was observing in a blog entry that it is impossible for a person who is blind to tell what cans contain and prices in general. RFID tags could contain all such information and more, such as validity date, country of provenience and maybe even ingredients, information which could be additionally provided to the user on request. More important, finding products on a shopping list could be possible by being indicated through a blind navigation system. This could use headsets indications or vibration response in the cane. And this could be used by persons who don’t have a disability as well. Who wouldn’t like to get some help when searching for their favorite type of packaged nuts or the soya sauce in a new supermarket?

Paying is also easy, as the person who is blind could check at all times which is the accumulated sum of products that are in his shopping cart. It is that sum that she/he knows should be paid in the end. The payment should then take place through mobile phone. The payment process should be as easy as possible. At the cashier the total sum is read out loud and authorized with a fingerprint recognition that the latest iPhone version already supports.

MIR:ROR

The possibilities are abundant. RFID tags can beset on any object and can be easily programmed to deliver any type of information may be needed when they are read. Some more inspiration can be found in the following link:

The MIR:ROR is not especially adapted to the needs of persons with impairments. Having to go to a website in order to program every stamp is tedious, especially as the website has not taken concern to non-exclusive design. What the MIR:ROR does is open the door for possibilities, as the technology is already present.

Indoor navigation system for people who are visually impaired

An indoor navigation system can also be developed. GPS has its limits when used in a closed indoor environment. I found a study that combined the use of Internet with RFID passive tags, Mobile phones with integrated Near Field Communication (NFC) interface, Voice-based navigation (they used Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine) and a System on Chip (SoC) for implementation of the Control & Monitoring Gateway.

More can be read about it at the following link

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2383322

Existing indoor navigation systems are limited and often disregard changes in the room’s layout. The system presented above, together with the possibility of connecting to a building’s data system with maps and that of identifying near objects through RFID tags, can make it possible to navigate without help in new environments as well. The system can be made as unnoticeable as it may be desired. Owning a cane is not a necessity. It can be used for signaling that the person is blind or for extra security, in case technology ever fails.

Conclusions

The Internet of things is a new concept and often looked upon as a futuristic layout of humans’ interaction with computers. Gathered information is scarce and still highly assumptive. At a closer look, though, technology already answers a high amount of that which is seen as desired scenarios. The tools are already here for making the scenarios possible. It’s just that they are not yet used at their best or that they lack a common language that would then help them communicate in order to deliver high results.

The technology is not particularly targeted to people that have a disability or to people that don’t have one. Everybody could profit from it and that is a clear advantage against stigmatization.

Lessons learned during the course: I know that I know nothing

During the last lecture, Lars shared his reflections on what the goals of this course have been. We discussed what we had learned and how we could apply this recently gained knowledge. So where do we go from here? Well, in order to know what is next, I thought I needed to think of where we came from in the first place. In other words, what I have learned throughout the course:

• When you design, there is not a very specific target group. Example: you may be designing something for blind people. Is this group homogeneous? Certainly they have something in common. But there are also lots of things that they may or may not share. Is blindness their only impairment? Does being blind mean they have the same taste for food, sports,…?
• We are different. In a wonderful way. The same way that it is natural for us to understand that we need to use a different language to communicate with a foreigner, we should also understand that, for example, the metaphors we use may not work for a blind person in the same way.
• Does the fact that a foreigner cannot speak the language prevent him/her from participating in our activities? Then why are we assuming that impaired people can do way less than what they can actually do? They may just do it differently (or exactly the same).
• We do not know what every user wants. Thus, customization is key (sometimes including safety measures).
• Impairments may be sensitive issues. It does not matter if the person was born with the impairment or got it later: this person may feel bad at certain situations when she/he is too aware of her/his disability.
• Impairments may become disabilities in some situations simply because we do not provide alternatives to perform a task. The result of this may lead to the situation of the previous point.
• Sometimes we do not provide alternatives just because we are too focused on thinking how the “poor disabled people” cannot do things exactly the same way that we do them. We tend to feel sad about this fact rather than creative to find other ways. Unconsciously, we may even think these alternatives are probably worse and not worth the effort.
• Sometimes we do not provide alternatives just because we assume everyone can go with the one option we have. Impairment awareness should be common knowledge, but sadly it is not.
• Special needs or not, we should focus on what our users can do, and not on what they cannot.
• It is very difficult to do things right all the time. Even if we struggle to find words or attitudes that we think are offensive, they may be for some (especially in one of these more delicate situations). In these cases, apologizing and acknowledging that we have only some knowledge is one way to go.
• Trying not to exclude anyone design-wise is a hard task, as it may involved high costs.  There is no easy solution for this.

And this is only the beginning. We are now aware that we should have a more open mind and think about who we may be excluding when designing. How can we avoid this? However, knowing everything about every impairment seems too big a task. Probably, one of the best ways to go is to have experts in different impairments as part of our evaluation team (are not the people with these impairments experts already?). Although that may be difficult regarding costs, at least we have a direction to walk to.

I would also like to thank everyone participating in the course for the very interesting discussions and their sharing of knowledge and opinions. I believe this exchange of thoughts was one of the best and enriching parts of the course. So thank you very much!

See you around and at the blog!

Reflection interfaces/interaction/information in the future

When designing interfaces in the future, what should we think about?

When designing interaction in the future, what should we think about?

When designing information in the future, what should we think about?

Who will be able to use it? Who cant?

Lets take a electronic map in a shopping center as an example, it contains information can have a gui that people can interact with to gain said information.

Who will be able to use it?

If its a GUI then blind people will prob not be able to use it

so what if we design it as a auditive information source instead? You talk to a computer and gets direction by speech then we also avoid the stigmatization problem of a having extra audio information just for blind people.

But then deaf people draws the short straw. So the optimal solution would be a hybrid that fulfill the needs in both a spoken and graphical way equally good.

Maybe someone doesn’t want that random people just walking by to hear what kind of store they are looking for? This can be solved by having information booths, this way you also shield the listener from the buzz that can be in large crowded areas.

So its important that all different aspects is designed with the same goal, for example what’s the use with a voice controlled search engine if the information is displayed only graphicly.

Flat for the elderly

Designing a flat for the elderly should be the same as designing for different types of impairments that elderly people may get together with older age. Designing a flat generally speaking for elderly people might include solutions that are not needed or miss some that are important.

A person that is 65 years of age is likely to have different needs compared to an elderly person that has reached the age of 90. Even so, not all people that have reached a specific age have the same needs and for this reason the flat has to be adapted and personalized according to the needs of the person that is about to use it.

Here follows a series of impairments that elderly people might have and possible solutions for them:

Visual impairment

I would equip the flat with a text reader, which transforms text into sound. This can be useful for situations when the glasses are not sufficient, but also for advanced cases of visual impairment.

Motoric impairment

For low motoric impairment needs I think it would be great to have voice recognition in the flat for light switch, for example. This should be present additionally to the classic light switch. Curtains could be shut and opened through the same method.

There should be no doorsteps.

A trolley together with a walker could help carry heavy objects around the flat. This is the example with the nicest design that I could find online:

If the person is using a wheelchair, then the height of different objects in the house should be lowered. The elderly person should place all kitchen tools, including plates and fridge at a level that is reachable. Carpets are removed and tiles are avoided, as they can be slippery. Voice recognition should be present for dialing emergency numbers in case of an accident.

Memory loss

A touch-based screen should display the schedule of that person in the room where she / he spends most time.  Things to do or to remember should also be displayed.

Objects that are often lost should have a chip attached, which should make it possible to find through a map of the flat or through a vibrating devices that vibrates stronger when the person is closer to the lost object.

Last but not least

Social isolation

Connection to Skype and calling family and friends should be voice recognized.

A system picks up status updates and pictures that their grandchildren upload on Facebook, for example, but other social medias can also be included. They receive an announcement in real time when that happens, maybe on a touch-screen display that is positioned next to their favorite chair. The system strips the information from Facebook design and displays only pure text and images that the user can click on in order to browse.

The iPad is a tool that has been often used in activity centers for elderly people and seems to have a rather intuitive interface, so it might be a good platform. The grandchildren have, of course, the option of making a special group on Facebook where the grandparents will be placed so that they can’t access party pictures. It is their options as well to share this type of information with their grandparents, but such constant updates might be beneficial in the sense that the elderly people feel involved and updated in real-time.

This was my brief guess on how a flat for elderly persons could be equipped. Interviews and observation techniques could be used in order to identify if these solutions and needs are actually present for elderly people that have the listed type of impairments. Additional needs would certainly result from the research, leading to additional solutions as well.

I want to grow old in here

Feeling old could be defined as realizing that we are not able to do what we were able to do before, in the same way. We may realize this physically (e.g. joint problems when running) or socially (e.g. problems understanding younger people’s slang). For the latter, and taking the case of teenagers, it is even important to have this distinction, as they need this difference to find their identity. Thus, in this post I will be focusing only on how someone grows old physically and how an apartment may be designed to support this.

Designing for the elderly is designing for a very heterogeneous group of people. Some like to cook, to have their house clean. Others don’t care that much and have more interest in keeping in shape and being outdoors. Some are very family-oriented and want to keep a highly active social life. In fact, all of us will hopefully grow old, so designing for the elderly is, in the end, designing for everyone. Thus, multiple needs should be covered and multiple options should be available. But none of these should be forced, while simplicity of use should be kept at all times.

Some other considerations to take into account when we design to cover needs related to impairments are those related to the people affected indirectly by them. If we put a loud beep as an indicator, would that be upsetting for bystanders? Even more importantly, how do our solutions affect the people that spend long and quality time with the person impaired? When exploring the needs, we should cater our solutions to also meet the needs of family, therapists, etc. as far as they are concerned with our user.

Text as indicator for interaction should try to be avoid, as well as acronyms. This is because, especially in the case of the latter, understanding involves memory skills. The more complicated the instructions are, the more probable is that a person developing memory loss will have problems recalling how to use the artifact. If possible, pictures are usually preferable. The best option may be to have both text and picture, for memory training and also to accommodate different kinds of users. Allowing users to customize these pictures can be a better solution. Maybe one picture triggers one memory till one point, where another picture will do the trick faster or better. Or maybe we just get tired of one and like to change from time to time. Feeling in a wintery mood? Make your apartment look more Christmasy!

The customization of the apartment may be performed by the one living there or by close people (again, family, therapists, etc.). The addition of profiles to the system would allow to select a set of possible actions and changes for different users of the system. One issue I have not been able to solve in a satisfactory way is what should be included in each set. At the wheelchair trial session, we saw that we overworry about safety sometimes and users may want to have less safety precautions. My concern in the case of cognitive impairments is that the person is suddenly not able anymore to clearly discern which he/she is able to do and which she/he is not. In this case, another user should have more permissions in the system to include safety options (rejected by the person with the impairment). Is this ethical? How do we know what is best for another person? Where is the line drawn? I am afraid I have not a good answer for these questions.

Several ways to have notes on things that need to be remembered should be spread across the apartment: a screen on fridge door, to immediately write down what needs to be bought. With a touchable interface, so only pointing with one finger is needed (in case of lost of fine motor skills). Something similar to have reminders for medicines, in a calendar for family birthdays, doctor appointments, etc. Other data should be possible to add, e.g. for a doctor appointment what do I need to bring, (maybe X-ray results?), who is coming with me, how do I get there? Can I check if that person is free to give me a lift? Having everything in one place will more likely prevent me from forgetting to take care of all the details. As to delay potential dementia, gamification of house chores, etc. could help to keep memory active and motivate the user to do it.

Memory loss will make a person more prone to forgetting to turn off the kitchen stove, for example. Smoke detectors are something we have in every house. But what if this person has also a hearing impairment? A nontraditional solution could be to have the floor slightly vibrate, so that anyone anywhere in the house can perceive it. Anywhere? And if you are sleeping, how can we wake you up? Having the bed vibrating? What happens if you are in the shower? I have yet no answer for this either.

Anything that needs to be pushed in the house should not involve being strong. Aids for the soap, as seen in some clinics (like in the one in the picture) are an inspiration for this. Maybe we could use a similar idea for doors? Some doors may need to be heavy (do they?), due to fire prevention, but that doesn’t mean we need to do all the effort to push them. What about using the same sensor/button combination to open doors at campus? Sometimes we may see this button as for “lazy” people but… is using the knob and pulling such a workout? Should it be?

Another need I have noticed in the early and, I would say, in anyone, is the need of having warm floors in winter. Heated floors should be part of the ideal apartment. As with any other feature of the apartment,  customization is key (only I know how hot I want the floor) and it would be even better if it included recommendations (“the optimal temperature, with your medical history, is 25 ºC”).

These recommendations can be based on the data collected by monitoring the vital constants of the user. In Madrid (and probably in lots of other places) there is a social service, which consists of sending assistance when the user presses a button contained in a medallion that can be easily carried in a chain around the neck. This medallion could read vital constants and sends them to nurse when button is pressed, so that more information about the problem is known as soon as possible. The medallion could also beep if constants reach a dangerous level (low blood pressure, insulin levels, etc.)

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are lots of people who  like to keep their house dust-clean. The appearance of visual impairments may decrease the ability of finding dusty spots. To aid in this, dust sensors can be included and “dusty” zones may be shown in a small map of the apartment.

Some other improvements may be made for the social needs. For instance, having slide shows photo frames, maybe one for each family member, so that pictures of beloved ones are displayed around the house. What about adding videos? Sound can be turn on/off, and it is important to remember that, for some people, these kinds of sounds keep them company.

Parkinson’s spoon

Just a little clip I found on the web. It’s suppose to make it easier to use a spoon when dealing with Parkinson’s syndrome. A simple but great idea!

Assignment 2 – Stigmatization

For this assignment I have decided to use CP (cerebral palsy) as the impairment type I am going to discuss. The reason for this is that CP is one of the impairment types that is easily stigmatized or misunderstood.

Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term for a group of conditions that affects the muscular control of humans in a negative way. These conditions has their origin in brain damage that occurred before the brain was fully developed, during the foetal period, birth or the first two years of the child’s life. This is the most common reason for paralysis in children and adolescences.

Imagine how extremely frustrating it must be to be trapped in your own body. You know exactly what’s going on and what you want to do, but the body just doesn’t do what you tell it. To then see people around you look at you in a strange way and maybe even treat you like you have the mind of a small child, when you could in fact be the brightest person in the room but no one can see it.

Worth noting in the small paragraph of information above is that there is nowhere to be read that this is an impairment type that affects the intelligence of a person, which I believe many people think. The reason for this is, according to me, that the people with CP speak differently and can sometimes be hard to understand. So people naturally think that this person is not very smart, he or she can’t even speak properly, as if that was the number one sign of intelligence in humans. I think most of us have encountered people who speak perfectly but are still considered to be unintelligent, some politicians for example or the contestants on the TV-show ‘Are you smarter than a fifth grader?’. Do we handle the more and more common language barrier in the same way? This person doesn’t speak my language as good as me, I bet they’re stupid. Of course some people do this, but most of us can accept the language barrier and listen beyond the poor language skills to possibly find out that we are speaking to a very intelligent person. By being ignorant and assume the person is stupid, we might miss out on some really rewarding conversations.

Just take Stephen Hawking as an example, even though he is suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) as oppose to CP. He is one of the most intelligent people in the world and he can’t speak at all, at least not with his mouth. Instead he speaks using a special computer, developed by Intel. You can read about this computer at his website http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-computer.html . Basically there is a software keyboard on the screen of this computer, where a cursor automatically scans across the keyboard by row or by column. To select a character Stephen moves his cheek, which is monitored by an infrared switch on his glasses.

The reason why not everyone who has trouble moving their body and speaking is using these kinds of devices is most likely because they are very expensive. Not everyone is lucky enough to be sponsored by Intel. I believe that if people afflicted with CP could have these computers, then people would perceive them to be just as intelligent as they really are.

The computer itself doesn’t seem to be special in any way, just the software. So a good solution could be that the software would be open source and available for everyone free of charge. Of course the device needed to do the selecting will probably have to be different from individual to individual, but this shouldn’t be too costly either since it for some people could be as simple as a button.

Even though this solution won’t completely eradicate all the currently existing stigmatization of the impairment, it will at least lessen it severely. Humans rely very heavily on communication, so by improving people’s ability to communicate a lot of misunderstandings will never occur at all.

The use of CP as an insult for stupidity, which is or at least was a pretty common occurrence in Sweden, additionally fuels the misconception that people with CP are less intelligent. How did this even happen? The first person who used this word as an insult must have had to explain to the person being insulted that CP means stupid. Then the other person just accepts that without even looking it up before probably just moving on and using CP as an insult to another person. And so the chain reaction has started. Luckily I have not heard this insult since I was a little kid and I really hope it has died out. People today are ignorant enough as it is.

What is it like?

One important part of Design is Understanding. In order to make good design for a certain person with a certain impairment, we have to understand:

1. The character of the impairment.
2. The situation of the individual.
3. The needs for the person in various situation.

How can we understand what a certain impairment means to a person, if we don’t have the impairment ourselves? Part of the understanding comes (in my perspective) from an open mind. So how can we open our minds for the new perspectives? One way is to listen to people with different impairments, and hear their stories. There will be links provided to a number of youtube vides that can be viewed in order to try to understand what it is like.

The easier aspects of some impairments can be at least hinted to by “experiments”. However, just closing your eyes for a few minutes is not going to make you understand what it is like to be blind. The simplest and most obvious reason is that you can open your eyes again, for example, once you lose your orientation.

However, we can sample parts of the world, with carefully designed experiments, even if we by this never can understand what it is really like to live with the impairment.

To take a simple, but effective example. Look at the picture with the blind golfer below.

What is the problem of playing golf without seeing on this course? Obviously it would be pretty easy to get a hole-in-one… But wait a minute, what happens then? If you start to think about it, the problem is not getting the ball into the hole, but rather to find the hole, where the ball dropped.