Hi Ken
thanks for the interesting article and the note about design-for-all
content. I would want to stress the need for great caution in using
simulations to attempt to give a young, non-disabled designer the feeling of
being older and/or disabled. I realise that it is not your article Ken, but
wanted to point some issues out regarding simulations.
There are several reasons why such exercises are not the same as evaluations
done by an older person, or a disabled person.
1. The person putting on a simulation suit will not have developed coping
strategies and is therefore plunged into a completely different experience
to the one they have on a daily basis. The person experiencing the
simulation will tend to be overwhelmed by the "novelty" of the unfamiliar
situation. In contrast an older person, or a disabled person, will not be
concentrating on the experience per se, rather the activity of getting on
with their daily life, using the design, etc.. Also the older person, or
disabled person, will have developed ways of doing things that best suit
them. People who get into a wheelchair for the first time cannot expect to
have the fine control over manoeuvring that someone who uses a wheelchair on
a daily basis will have. If you predominantly use your senses other than
vision to do things then you will have a better understanding of what is
going on than someone who has just put on special goggles to blur their
vision.
2. The person wearing the simulation suit will eventually be able to take
off the suit and return to their daily life, an older person cannot turn
back the clock, or a disabled person put aside their disability. This can
create tension in disabled people, and older people, who would have
preferred to have given their views first hand. But we should not expect
these views to be given for free; they should be treated as consultants.
People get tired of being asked to join in without a good incentive to
participate.
3. Such simulations rarely take into account the attitudinal problems that
surround the issues. A social model of disability approach takes the stance
that it is society that is the disabling factor by creating barriers to the
day-to-day activities of people, rather than any medical condition. the
person in the simulation may feel some of the differing attitudes to them
whilst they are wearing the suit, but could equally well gain a rich
experience form spending some time with disabled people, or older people,
whilst they are going through their daily activities.
Whilst I acknowledge that designers pick up on certain issues through such
simulations, that a non-designer might well miss. I feel that this can be
done equally as well without the simulation by studying people in real
contexts and listening to them as they express their experiences. Why are we
so reluctant to engage with the users of designs that we resort to
developing simulation suits.
anyway that is my two penny worth.
cheers
marcus
SURFACE
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