Using disability data to estimate design exclusion

S.D. Waller, P.M. Langdon, P.J. Clarkson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Exclusion auditing is a process that can quantitatively evaluate the inclusive merit of different products, or alternative design decisions. The results from such an audit can provide prioritised directions for product improvement and support the business case for reducing the capability levels required to use mainstream products. The 1996/1997 disability follow-up survey, conducted by the Office of National Statistics, is currently the most comprehensive data source for estimating design exclusion in the UK. In this paper, the data source is explained in detail, and a method is presented that uses this data to estimate the exclusion associated with several tasks that occur in series or in parallel, illustrated through worked examples. Having evaluated how many people are excluded, one can investigate why they were excluded, thus generating design insights into how they could be included. Data from the survey is also converted to a series of stylised graphs, which are intended to inspire designers to think about the relationship between the demands required to use a product and the resulting levels of population exclusion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)195-207
Number of pages13
JournalUniversal Access in the Information Society
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research for this paper was funded from the EPSRC i~design project. Thanks to Nicholas Caldwell for help with programming and to Amanda Turner for providing the matrix interpretation of set theory.

Keywords

  • Inclusive design
  • Product assessment
  • Usability data

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