Design to build bridges – when to use disability simulation

How do you design products when your user’s think and experience the world so differently to you?

In autism there exists the “Double empathy problem” – the idea that autistic people cannot understand us and we cannot understand them. Too often co-design questions are structured in a way that render inaccurate results from interviews. So, how do we bridge these differences in order to work together towards better and more accessible tools?

This talk will be on the ethics of disability simulation as a means of understanding user’s (when it is and isn’t ethical to use) and how to build an adaptive co-design process based on different user’s needs that enables a common shared language which may in most instances be a better approach than disability simulation.

Accessibility and improved User Experience for all

At Accessibility Scotland 2018 Curt Holst talked about how traditionally accessibility is considered a component of usability focusing on people with disabilities but is often not seen as a powerful opportunity to innovate.

Building upon the work of The Paciello Group and Microsoft, Curt talks about how Barclays uses Inclusive Design to support its aim of becoming the most inclusive bank in the world.