Including accessibility in the work of a UX consultant: A description of accessibility specialist’s supportive role
Palm, Aliisa (2022)
2022
Tietotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Information Technology
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2022-05-25
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202204263741
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202204263741
Tiivistelmä
Web accessibility aims to create web services usable for everyone, and thus, to prevent exclusion. This thesis examined how the consideration of web accessibility can be included in the work of user experience (UX) consultants. The aim of the thesis was to find out a way to support UX designers in doing accessible design while they work in a consultancy company. Therefore, the research questions were: How can UX consultants include accessibility in their design work? What kind of processes or tools would support the accessible design?
The thesis studied literature to find out what accessibility is, how it is achieved, and what limits having it as a part of a web service creation process. In addition, the literature research phase studied designer’s and UX’s relation to accessibility. As the focus was on consultancy context, also the role of a UX designer in the team and agile projects were studied. Based on the literature, accessibility is still quite unknown to many designers and there are factors limiting considering it in projects.
To study more about the state of accessibility in the design work, nine UX designers were interviewed about their roles and relation to accessibility. It turned out that the de-signers already consider accessibility in their work but practicing accessible design de-pends a lot on their own effort and the level of knowledge varies between the designers. Nevertheless, the finding changed the focus of the thesis from including accessibility to supporting accessibility in their work. Another main finding from the interviews was that discussion with a person having more knowledge is the most preferred way to learn about accessibility.
Based on the literature and the interviews, this thesis created a role of an internal accessibility specialist for a consultancy company employing UX designers. The thesis de-scribed the role and its tasks which support UX designers’ accessibility knowledge. The main tasks defined were discussion help for designers’ regarding their project work and internal training focusing on detailed topics of accessibility.
The tasks were evaluated with an online questionnaire for UX consultants. The questionnaire gathered 37 answers and they confirmed that there is interest towards discussion help and monthly training sessions. This thesis suggests consultancy companies with UX capability to recruit an internal accessibility specialist.
The thesis studied literature to find out what accessibility is, how it is achieved, and what limits having it as a part of a web service creation process. In addition, the literature research phase studied designer’s and UX’s relation to accessibility. As the focus was on consultancy context, also the role of a UX designer in the team and agile projects were studied. Based on the literature, accessibility is still quite unknown to many designers and there are factors limiting considering it in projects.
To study more about the state of accessibility in the design work, nine UX designers were interviewed about their roles and relation to accessibility. It turned out that the de-signers already consider accessibility in their work but practicing accessible design de-pends a lot on their own effort and the level of knowledge varies between the designers. Nevertheless, the finding changed the focus of the thesis from including accessibility to supporting accessibility in their work. Another main finding from the interviews was that discussion with a person having more knowledge is the most preferred way to learn about accessibility.
Based on the literature and the interviews, this thesis created a role of an internal accessibility specialist for a consultancy company employing UX designers. The thesis de-scribed the role and its tasks which support UX designers’ accessibility knowledge. The main tasks defined were discussion help for designers’ regarding their project work and internal training focusing on detailed topics of accessibility.
The tasks were evaluated with an online questionnaire for UX consultants. The questionnaire gathered 37 answers and they confirmed that there is interest towards discussion help and monthly training sessions. This thesis suggests consultancy companies with UX capability to recruit an internal accessibility specialist.