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CONTEXT MAPPING

Abstract

This paper focuses on co-designing with visually impaired people. Societal trends, assistive technologies, human centred design, visual impairment, and co-design methods are all researched to give a clear context for the future design. It became clear that while disabled persons are equal in law, there is a stigma in society. Assistive technologies help to navigate through life without being compromised by the norms of society.  It is also of importance that these technologies are focused on human  centred- 

design, as the products and services become more useful and usable for the end users. This feedback and information from the end users can be figured out by co-design methods, which are mainly online because of the COVID19 pandemic. The co design group in this context mapping, are people with late onset blindness, such as Leber’s disease. Concluding the research it became apparent that designing for people with late onset blindness is different, than designing for people who are born blind.

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  • Since 2006 more focus on equality between non-disabled and disabled people

  • Empowerment: participation in society is seen as the driving force of empowerment

  • Assistive technologies help with this empowerment

Societal trends and changing perspective

  • Due to increasing awareness of discrimination against people with a disability, AT's become more apparent.

  • By using AT's the users become more independent and can participate in society easier

  • Technologies based on the medical model (focuses on the impairment) or the social model(problems because of society's norm) 

  • Many aspects are of importance when designing assistive technologies, different end users have different needs because of context.

  • Examples: recognitions systems for money or products (many times in app form), electronic travel aids etc. 

  • Often At's get abandoned because it doesn't fit the specific needs.

Assitive technologies

  • HCD is supporting the design of systems that need co-designers to be of value for the end users

  • The goal is to understand the users and create design from their perspective

  • A design vision helps with a direction on which problems to tackle

  • Important to learn as much as possible from the co-designers, this can be done by surveys. interviews, brainstorm sessions, and so forth

  • Integrating the feedback from the users helps to add value to the end prouduct

Human centred design (HCD)

  • Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a genetic disease that influences the eyes on the mitochondrial level​

  • It is a form of late-onset blindness, affecting the vision in both eyes

  • After experiencing the first symptoms the quality of sight decreases rapidly 

  • Having a visual impairment can reduce the quality of life drastically, many people with a visual impairment mention restrictions in leisure activities, social life, self-care, and mobility

  • With late onset blindness (especially when much older) daily life activities were much more difficult compared to when people were born blind

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy

  • Co-design is an approach to design a product or service together with users and stakeholders​

  • It helps to really understand the target group and provide new perspectives

  • Visual expressions and high-dimensional cognitive ability are typically used, however this can create limitations for a participant with a visual impairment

  • It is important to understand the characteristics of the participant before planning a co-design process: thing of voice elicitation exercises or tactile artifact exercises

  • Consists of two phases: discovery and design 

  • Due to covid-19 it is difficult to engage in physical activities, however, online activities need to overcome some limitations of absence of conscious or unconscious paralanguage such as facial expressions or body language, and uncertainty of understanding of grammar technologies

Co-design and participatory design

The participant does not put any restrictions on the type of design and or/co-design methods. She already uses some assistive technologies around the house, such as her phone and a google home. Her knowledge of assistive technologies helps us, but might also be restricting throughout the design process. Some issues that 

Discussion

might arise are about the co-design methods. These need to be modified for the online environment because of the pandemic and also need to be fitting to our specific user and her knowledge and impairment. Because there is not a lot of research about online co-design methods, it is chosen to reflect and adapt while doing the co-design methods.

To conclude, looking at the researched literature regarding assistive technologies, human-centred design, and the genetic disorder Leber’s disease, design implications become apparent. The design value resulting from this research is focused on co-design. The end users should have a say, starting very early on in the design process. This is done by online co-design methods, such as brainstorming and a day-in-the-life. Moreover, some design implications are important to keep in mind. 

Because people with Leber’s disease are getting visually impaired later on in life, the design should focus on this specific target group. This also led to another design implication: giving end users more independence  in their daily life. Looking at all this the design challenge is set, designing a product which helps visually impaired people (focused on late onset blindness) with daily life tasks, while giving them more confidence around the house.

Conclusion

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