As an accessibility researcher, I
have noticed that some of the best
work comes when there are people
with disabilities on the design and
development team, contributing
to all aspects of the design and
implementation, not just as participants
in user studies. I call this strong
engagement by users design for user
empowerment, meaning, in its strongest
sense, that the users of the technology
are empowered to solve their own
accessibility problems. Here, I will try
to explain, mostly using examples, why
this approach is so powerful.
Although I am not disabled, I am
very fortunate to have lived around
disabled people my entire life. My
parents were deaf college graduates
and successful professionals. I learned
from them that disability is not a
tragedy, but rather simply part of the
diversity of life. I also learned from
them the power of technology to be
transformational, not in any kind of
medical sense but in a purely social
sense. When they and their friends
got T T Ys, surplus Western Union
Teletypewriters attached to acoustic
modems, in the early 1970s, they
could finally communicate easily at a
distance with friends and colleagues
around the country by typing, or
what we now call texting or instant
Insights
→ It is important for
designers of technology
for people with disabilities
to engage with people with
disabilities to achieve the
most usable designs.
→ Better yet is empowering
people with disabilities
to design and build the
technologies themselves.
→ Two features of design for
user empowerment are
self-determination and
technical expertise.
Design for User
Empowerment
Richard E. Ladner, University of Washington
INTERACTIONS.ACM.ORG 24 INTERACTIONS MARCH–APRIL2015
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