the invisible work of accessibility (assets 2015)

INVISIBLE WORK ACCESSIBILITY whatH o w B l i n d E m p l o y e e s M a n a g e Accessibility in Mixed-Ability Workplaces what

Theof

Stacy Branham @branhammertime

Shaun Kane @shaunkane

MOTIVATION

Parsa’s deskhis computer,

with NVDA

his earbuds

his keyboard

how do people who are blind manage accessibility in (social) workplace settings?

stigma and AT adoption (Shinohara & Wobbrock; 2011)

collaboration on navigation tasks (Williams, Galbraith, Kane, Hurst; 2014)

collaborative access in the home (Branham & Kane; 2015)

prior worksome are beginning to explore social context

STUDY

participantswe explored workplace accessibility with five blind participants and some of their sighted colleagues

25

Mol

lyre

sear

ch

assi

stan

t

29M

ary

atto

rney

39

Dary

llcu

stom

er

serv

ice

rep.

54

Cath

erin

epr

ogra

m

anal

yst

Wal

lace

exec

utiv

e di

rect

or

48

interviews & observationsresearch was carried out in three phases: an initial interview, workplace walkthrough, & final interview

interview office walkthrough + follow-up survey

interview

data & analysis

30+ hours audio

we conducted a qualitative thematic analysis on interview audio, photos, surveys, field notes, etc.

9 themes, 34 sub-themes183 pictures

10 surveys

FINDINGS

inaccess has social

implications

sociality has access implications

access work was “invisible” to colleagues(Suchman; 1995)

inaccess has social

implications

sociality has access implications

access work was “invisible” to colleagues

Wallaceexecutive director

48Maryattorney 29

inaccess in the workplaceinaccessibility had negative social implications

“Your perception from the outside is [my colleague] returns your calls, and I don’t.”

inaccess has social

implications

access work was “invisible” to colleagues

sociality has access implications

sociality had negative accessibility implications what

39 Daryllcustomer service rep.

access as a social matter

25Mollyresearch assistant

“What I hate is o t h e r p e o p l e moving your crap all over the place.”

“It’s interruptive t o k e e p t h e VoiceOver on… so, I’ll turn it off.”

access work was “invisible” to colleagues

inaccess has social

implications

sociality has access implications

X

25%

invisible work sighted colleagues were largely unaware of accessibility challenges present in the office

47%

?

invisible work sighted colleagues were largely unaware of accessibility challenges present in the office

9%

invisible work sighted colleagues were largely unaware of accessibility challenges present in the office

Maryattorney 29

“I am surprised at how much [ m y s i g h t e d colleague] didn’t realize.”

invisible work blind workers felt the need to communicate challenges to educate sighted coworkers

25Mollyresearch assistant

“If it takes me longer… it is not because I am incompetent or… lazy.… I have had to learn, tha t communicate , communicate.”

Wallaceexecutive director

48

“Social networking offers one kind of answer to [sharing tips and tricks with other blind people].”

seeking supportsometimes the best solution to an accessibility problem was asking someone else for help

Maryattorney

29

“I don’t want to be too difficult and seem like I’m complaining… and it’s not really important to work….”

inaccess has social

implications

sociality has access implications

access work was “invisible” to colleagues

TAKEAWAYS

accessible technology does not imply accessibility what1we need to probe sociotechnical environments and test devices in the wild

design provocation

2design provocation

problems that matter less may actually matter more what

we need to design for access to “non-essential” activities in the workplace

3design provocation

cross-ability collaboration is a form ofcross-cultural communication whatwe need to design more unifying, transparent experiences and tools that encourage dialogue between blind and sighted colleagues

thanks

Shaun Kane University of Colorado Boulder shaun.kane@colorado.edu@shaunkane superhuman.cs.colorado.edu

Stacy Branham University of Maryland Baltimore County

sbranham@umbc.edu @branhammertime stacybranham.com

NSF (IIS-1353312)

tinyurl.com/assets2015slides