Interacting with Public Policy
Jonathan Lazar
Towson University | [e-mail]
[ 1] Web Accessibility
Initiative. “Why
Standards
Harmonization Is
Essential to Web
Accessibility.” 2009;
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
Policy/harmon/

Welcome to a new forum in interactions on interac-
tion design and public policy. You might be reading
this and saying, “Why should I care about public
policy? I’m not a policy wonk, I’m not a politician,
and I don’t get involved in politics.”
Public policy actually has a great impact on the
work we do in interaction design and human-com-
puter interaction. “Public policy” is a broader term
that includes both government policy and policy
coming from non-governmental organizations, and
yes, every now and then, it does include politics.
Around the world, many governments are grap-
pling with similar policy issues related to human-
computer interaction, usability engineering, and
interaction design. Two of the biggest interaction
design policy topics are how to facilitate fair and
accurate voting (what types of interfaces, what
types of voting machines), and what types of Web-
based information should be legally required to be
accessible for people with disabilities. Often, policy
discussions do take place in a one-country context
due to the need to adapt to the laws or cultural
issues of a country (or even different laws of a
smaller state or a province or administrative unit).
But these aren’t just American issues (or British,
French, or Brazilian ones).
easier for interaction designers to build tools and
systems that can span multiple countries. But har-
monization happens only when interaction design-
ers are out there talking with policy makers, say-
ing, “Yes, standards are important. Yes, consisten-
cy in policy is good.” Policy will always be based
on a specific country, state, province, borough,
or city and will be local. One person alone can’t
influence policy in multiple countries. But you
can work to create technical and design standards
that are applicable in multiple countries. We want
to encourage local policies that use international
standards. The environmental tagline “think glob-
ally, act locally” really applies to interaction design
and public policy, as well!

January + February 2010

[ 2] Hochheiser,
H. and Lazar, J.
“HCI and Societal
Issues: A Framework
for Engagement.”
International Journal
of Human-Computer
Interaction, 23, 3 (2007):
339–374.

interactions

Policy Is Local; Research Is International
While government policies are often limited to
one country, the community of researchers and
designers who hopefully are involved in informing
policy makers is international. There are research-
ers working on voting-machine usability and Web
accessibility throughout the world. We may col-
laborate on research and design projects, and we
may meet face-to-face at conferences. When we
work together, we can be more effective at inform-
ing policy makers and ensuring that science and
research and good design practice are the driv-
ing factors for policy, rather than politics or scare
tactics. Have you heard the term “harmonization”
recently? It’s the idea that we should have a con-
sistent set of international technical or design
standards [ 1]. Harmonization would mean that it is
Being Proactive Versus Reactive
If you want to understand the impact that we
as interaction designers and researchers can
have on public policy, you should compare the
policy issues of Web accessibility and voting
machines [ 2]. Researchers and designers have
been involved and proactive in Web accessibil-
ity from the beginning, helping drive the public
policy. After the confusing results of the 2000
U.S. presidential election, voting machines fell
under scrutiny. It was as if the entire interaction
design community woke up and said, “Hey, those
are interfaces…. Why weren’t we involved?” We
were reactive, not proactive, and even today we
are still behind the ball and have trouble getting
policy makers interested in the usability concerns
of voting machines, rather than issues of security,
accuracy, or paper verification trails. Compare
that with Web accessibility. People from our
research communities helped work on the Web
Accessibility Initiative from the World Wide Web
Consortium (an international, non-governmental
organization). In 1999 the first design guidelines
to address accessible Web content (the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG) were
based on research and science and design, not
politics. Those original WCAG 1.0 guidelines form
the basis for most accessibility laws around the