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The false dichotomy between accessibility and usability

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Ed H. ChiAuthors Info & Claims

W4A '13: Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility

Article No.: 19, Pages 1 - 2

https://doi.org/10.1145/2461121.2461146

Published: 13 May 2013 Publication History

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Abstract

Traditionally, accessibility researchers have focused on the barrier-free designs that make information available to a diverse set of user abilities and constraints. Usability practitioners and researchers have focused their efforts on making information interfaces usable by the average abled-bodied user.

The problem in this dichotomy is the myth of two assumptions. First, there is the myth of the "average" user. The first rule about psychology experiments is that often the individual subject variations in an experiment often overwhelm any effects that you're attempting to observe. We use the "average user" as a concept so that we have a prototypical user to design for, when in fact, often we're designing for a set of different user persona, use cases, and skill levels. Second, there is the myth of "barrier-free" design. Design is inherently an exercise in which we optimize for a certain set of use cases, while de-emphasizing other less important use cases. As a result, a design can never be entirely "barrier-free".

If we treat this dichotomy as false, we start to realize that a whole set of problems between the two fields are one and the same. If we reject the dichotomy, then we see that many accessibility problems are also usability problems, and vice versa. For example, language barriers in social media, mobile devices and their ease of use while walking, and the ability to input text using voice rather than typing are all accessibility and usability problems. To emphasize, usability and accessibility are both fundamentally about the ability to get at information resources and knowledge. Broadly, I see many opportunities to bridge this false dichotomy and will attempt to give examples during this talk.

References

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Degrossi LAbe Bde Albuquerque Jde Mattos Fortes R(2018)Enhancing usability of a Citizen Observatory based on User-centered DesignProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion10.1145/3218585.3218674(294-301)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3218585.3218674
de Carvalho Correia Ade Miranda LHornung HMarciano J(2014)Recommendations for Gesture-Based Residential Interactive Systems Inspired by DiversityUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design and Development Methods for Universal Access10.1007/978-3-319-07437-5_32(337-345)Online publication date: 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07437-5_32

Index Terms

The false dichotomy between accessibility and usability
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Information systems
  1. Information retrieval
  2. Information storage systems

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Published In

W4A '13: Proceedings of the 10th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility

May 2013

209 pages

ISBN:9781450318440

DOI:10.1145/2461121

General Chairs:
Giorgio Brajnik
University of Udine, Italy
,
Paola Salomoni
University of Bologna, Italy

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Published: 13 May 2013

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W4A '13: International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility

May 13 - 15, 2013

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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W4A '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 7 of 20 submissions, 35%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 171 of 371 submissions, 46%

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Degrossi LAbe Bde Albuquerque Jde Mattos Fortes R(2018)Enhancing usability of a Citizen Observatory based on User-centered DesignProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion10.1145/3218585.3218674(294-301)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3218585.3218674
de Carvalho Correia Ade Miranda LHornung HMarciano J(2014)Recommendations for Gesture-Based Residential Interactive Systems Inspired by DiversityUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design and Development Methods for Universal Access10.1007/978-3-319-07437-5_32(337-345)Online publication date: 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07437-5_32

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The relationship between accessibility and usability of websites

Perceptions of accessibility and usability by blind or visually impaired persons: a pilot study

Usability and accessibility issues in the localization of assistive technology

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