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Wireless technologies
Published in Alex Mihailidis, Roger Smith, Rehabilitation Engineering, 2023
Individuals with manual limitations can use a variety of low-tech and high-tech solutions to access wireless ICT devices, including non-slip skins, mounts for attaching devices to furniture and wheelchairs, as well as speech-to-text input (e.g., Dragon Naturally Speaking), voice control, and electronic personal assistants (Siri, Google Now, Cortana). In using ICT devices, people with more severe upper extremity limitations often confront accessibility and usability challenges like those with CCN. Accessibility solutions can include sip-and-puff controllers, head pointers, eye-gaze trackers, head switches mounted on wheelchairs, and other gesture inputs. This allows the user to navigate a keyboard, list, or set of commands by “scanning” rows and columns, and selecting the item. As with AAC, which often relies on similar switch-based scanning access, the process of creating content and accessing information can be slow and fatiguing.
Standardization Efforts in the Fields of Human Factors and Ergonomics
Published in Waldemar Karwowski, Anna Szopa, Marcelo M. Soares, Handbook of Standards and Guidelines in Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2021
James M. Oglesby, Kimberly Stowers, Kevin Leyva, Eduardo Salas
The U.S. Access Board (http://www.access-board.gov/the-board) aids in the regulation of accessibility across the United States by developing guidelines that inform standards for building structures. With the signing of the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) of 1968, structures built with federal funds required full accessibility by all citizens of the population, including those with limited mobility (http://www.access-board.gov/the-board/laws/architectural-barriers-act-aba). This gave rise to the ABA Standards—a set of standards jointly established by the General Services Administration (GSA), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed, expanding the breadth of accessibility requirements to state and local government facilities, as well as commercial facilities (www.ada.gov). Under this act, the ADA standards were developed and are currently enforced by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). In addition to the standards mentioned thus far, the U.S. Access Board has guided and aided the development of many more standards. A full list of these standards and guidelines can be found on their website, offering a potential starting point for human factors and ergonomics professionals working with products being used by populations with limited access and mobility.
Integrative Example
Published in Anne McLaughlin, Richard Pak, Designing Displays for Older Adults, 2020
Accessibility. Accessibility is more than usability, it is usability for a wide range of capabilities. Allowing accessibility to be its own heuristic separates out the portions of the display that are unusable due to individual differences in the user population. The heuristic for accessibility was that the display should “Provide interface options for those with perceptual and movement impairments.” For example, touch screen gestures other than button presses are notoriously difficult for older users. To meet this heuristic, a designer could allow a double tap to zoom as well as the two-finger zoom typically used in an interface. The allowable time between taps would have to be carefully investigated, as quick double-tapping is also a problematic accessibility issue.
CORAL: introducing a fully computational plug-in for stadium design and optimization; a case study of finding optimal spectators’ viewing angle
Published in Architectural Science Review, 2019
Seyed Hossein Zargar, Matin Alaghmandan
In recent years, a number of studies have been done about the Stadium designs. These researches have examined several factors, such as architectural design, structure, accessibility, safety and energy consumption issues. Szucs, Moreau, and Allard (2009) cite that a stadium design not taking into account the prevailing environmental parameters can result in unpleasant thermal and aerodynamic environment in the stadium bowl. They use mathematical, statistical methods in order to characterize the average airflow conditions and those belonging to the most and less intensely ventilated zones of the spectators’ terrace. Universal design seeks to provide improved accessibility and safety for all groups within the community. It recognizes that improved accessibility enhances the value of buildings, and its built environment. Thus, it creates cities that provide better life quality and opportunity for its people to participate in all aspects of life (Bashiti and Rahim 2016).
Accommodating workers with disabilities in the post-Covid world
Published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2021
Katherine A. McNamara, Penney Mason Stanch
Title I of the ADA requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide qualified individuals with disabilities equal opportunity for employment, including “reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities, unless it results in undue hardship.” Titles II (state and local governments) and III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) provide requirements for accessible design, originally intended for the design of facilities to eliminate physical barriers. More recently, accessibility refers to the characteristic that products, services, and facilities can be independently used by people with a variety of disabilities.
Deconstructing accessibility – discursive barriers for increased cycling in Sweden
Published in Mobilities, 2021
Janet Van Der Meulen, Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren
As of 15 May 2020, the STA presents on its website the slogan ‘We make Sweden closer’ and also the following is posted: Good accessibility is necessary for a functioning and sustainable society.We have a responsibility to develop accessibility in a sustainable way.