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Buttons, bells and whistles: Accessibility criteria when purchasing mobile devices

This article – written by JISC TechDis to support MoleNet projects – is designed to help project managers take accessibility into account when deciding between alternative devices to support their projects. The article looks first at the issues of interface accessibility and then takes a broader look at questions to ask when weighing up possible purchases. Inevitably compromises need to be made between conflicting criteria and these are discussed objectively before summarising with four key conclusions.

Key things to look for in terms of interface accessibility

Buttons

Look for buttons that:

• Are physical rather than virtual. Physical buttons have the advantage of being useable by blind and visually impaired users whilst onscreen buttons are generally inaccessible to these groups. Devices with a few key buttons (e.g. recording, stop and pause) are generally easier to use than those with multiple buttons with multiple functionality. There is often a trade off between number of controls and number of features. In general a simple interface that does a few things intuitively is better than a complex interface that does many things but is unintuitive to use.
• Are big rather than small. This makes them more accessible to people with poor motor control or poor vision. It also tends to facilitate one handed use.
• Work singly rather than in combination. Devices requiring buttons to be pressed in combination are less accessible to people with motor control difficulties.

Keys

Where you are expecting learners to input text or numbers via a keyboard there is an immediate correlation between device size and keyboard size. Many of the points in the section on buttons also apply to keys but two critical points include:

• If more than a minimum amount of typing will be required get a separate folding keyboard otherwise many of the benefits of mobility will be undermined by the barriers of data entry. There can be health and safety risks in using a small keyboard and screen for significant data entry and these risks need to be minimised.
• If the only data entry is via an onscreen keyboard there will be significant difficulties for visually impaired learners.

Screen

For most users the following are important – all the more so if the user has visual difficulties or dyslexia:

• Screen size.
• Screen resolution.
• Adjustability of contrast and brightness.
• Reflectiveness of screen.
• Ability to adjust font size.
• Ability to adjust font/background colours.

Regarding font size and colour, this is may be adjustable at the level of the operating system, or at software level. Alternatively you may be able to get third party software that allows the changes you require – for example freeware for the Palm system will allow personalisation of colours on most Palm programs and menus.

Navigation process

For most devices the navigation system is critical to usability and accessibility. Questions to ask include:

• Would a visually impaired person be able to navigate around?
• How would a blind learner navigate? Are there third party tools that could voice-enable the navigation?
• How would someone with learning difficulties cope? Or someone with mental health issues? Or with poor concentration or memory issues? Don’t get the device assessed by a knowledgeable enthusiast – an ignorant sceptic gives you more useful feedback!
• Is navigation intelligent, taking you to the most needed functions first?
• Is navigation consistent in layout and functionality or does it vary in different parts of the software or hardware?

Power

Power management is critical to usability and may also impact on accessibility if a disabled learner is relying on additional software (such as text to speech) with consequential power drains. Power criteria include:

• Expected life between charges or battery changes.
• Charging time (where relevant)
• Charging adaptor – an unusual adaptor significantly reduces usefulness but something that can charge from an existing phone or laptop charger is extremely useful.
• Number of batteries required (where relevant)
• Type of batteries (where relevant – where mobile devices use non AA/AAA batteries there can be increased price and decreased availability of replacements.

Suggested criteria to take into account when weighing up alternative purchases

It is recognised that accessibility is one of many factors that have to be weighed up. Whilst there is no legal imperative to make accessibility the only purchasing criteria it would be foolhardy – given the legal entitlements of disabled learners - for it not to have formed a demonstrable part of your purchasing decision; even if you ended up opting for a less accessible solution in the final reckoning. Suggested criteria to take into account include:

• Centrality of the project to the overall learner experience. If the proposed purchase will be central to a learner accessing a significant part of course content then accessibility must be weighed more heavily.
• What are the accessibility tensions? Is the accessibility benefit that it is tiny and can be carried more easily up mountains than clipboards? That it offers more support (via images and supporting documents) to people with dyslexia? Or that it has a large screen with big buttons and audio clips for blind users? No device will support all disabilities but it is reasonable that you should have anticipated the barriers and know what you will do in the event of a learner hitting those barriers.
• Does the proposed purchase create fewer barriers than the existing way of teaching? Does it create new barriers to a new group of learners?
• Can the barriers created by the proposed purchase be mitigated by third party software or alternative hardware where required?
• Does the proposed purchase significantly benefit an identified group of inclusion needs even if it potentially disadvantages another group?

Accessibility is not something that lends itself to rules, regulations and simple checklists. Like all aspects of teaching it is multi-dimensional and needs intelligent debate and consideration. But ignoring it is not an option and somewhere in your project documentation you should capture the accessibility issues you considered and the decisions you made. There are many cases of institutions settling out of court with disgruntled disabled learners. In most cases the issue was simply that the provision was inadequate, the policies unclear and anticipation non-existent. If the policies and anticipation are sound, the provision should be better and the legal resilience will be significantly enhanced.

Conclusions

• Mobile learning often reduces barriers but there is a great variation in the accessibility of both hardware and software and many mobile devices favour style over substance, creating needless and unjustifiable barriers. When purchasing devices, accessibility should be a significant criterion since a device with good usability and accessibility will benefit all users.
• There are no simple metrics for accessibility and where ever possible it is strongly advised to get a range of learners – especially disabled learners – testing potential purchases.
• Even if accessibility was the only purchasing criterion there would be tensions between barriers destroyed and barriers created – ensure there is some documentation for the purchasing decision that mentions the accessibility compromises made and anticipated workarounds.
• Workarounds can involve technical solutions – alternative hardware, alternative software – or pedagogical solutions such as adapted learning objectives or learning activities.