2009: Social inclusion in a Digital Age

Social inclusion in a Digital Age Jonathan Hassell Robin Christopherson Head of Audience Experience & Usability Head of Accessibility Services BBC Future Media & Technology AbilityNet Internet World 28 th April 2010

What we ’ll talk about
Who might be excluded from Digital Britain? And why?
Concentrating on disabled people
What do we need to do to encourage them online?
What do they have to gain?
The importance of skills and education
Personalising the web for their needs

Who might be excluded from Digital Britain?

21% of UK adults do 67% are C2DE vs 45% of UK population not have net at home or use elsewhere 10.5m adults aged 15+ Their average age is 61 . More than half are 65+

2. Disabled people ’ s use of the web in the UK… … compared to what it could be

Disabled people in the UK
11 million adults
More likely to be older
47% over 65 compared to 20% of general population
Less likely to be working
43% of disabled people of working age are working compared to 74% of general population
Heavy media consumers
Particularly of TV and radio
Only half see themselves as ‘disabled’
This made little difference to attitudes to the media
Sources: Experience and expectations of disabled people (ODI 2008), TGI, Disabled for Life (DWP 2002), Phase 3 research

Internet use in the UK EEDP (2008) and ONS (2007) 42%
Of disabled people have used the internet
67% Of the general population have ever used the internet

Missing disabled internet audience… EEDP (2008) and ONS (2007) 58% of 11m = 6.4m

Link between the needs of disabled and elderly people…
older people tend to be more likely to be disabled
47% of disabled people are over 65 compared to 20% of general population
disability has a large impact on their likelihood to be online
even if they aren ’t officially disabled…
they tend to have failing eyesight, hearing, memory, motor skills, mobility
many organisations tend to think of them together
Ofcom Disability & Elderly Consumer Panel
W3C ’s aging research and guidelines working group is part of their Web Accessibility Initiative most famous for the WCAG accessibility/disability guidelines
Source: Ofcom Media Literacy Audit Fieldwork (June-August 2005)

3. Encouraging disabled people to get online

The main primary reasons for the gap are a function of age, interest, education and income
Income matters.
Internet usage in households earning > £21k is 70%
Internet usage in households earning < £21k is 30%
13% say cost is a barrier to using the web more
Age matters
80% of 16-34s have used the web, whereas only 10% of 75+
There are twice as many disabled people 75+ as 16-34
Interest and confidence matter
65% say do not want to use internet more
EEDP (2008)

Initial claimed barriers often mask different or deeper reasons Majority Minority Limited understanding Low perceived benefit vs cost Low confidence / skills Acquisition & installation process Basic affordability Impact on life Literacy & social exclusion Safety & security concerns Primary barriers Secondary barriers

Emotional engagement & reassurance can increase understanding and consideration “ Now that you have shown us all that and explained it all, I’m quite a lot more interested. Maybe I’ll go to a course now to try and learn a bit more or ask my daughter to show me.” 75-84, Non User

Primary barriers: lack of skills & confidence means many do not see net as available to them 75-84, Non User “ You’ve got to learn a new keyboard. All those computer controls! On my TV you’ve got buttons all over the place, I can barely cope with that!” “ I’d be frightened I’d do something and it’d go boom!” 75-84, Non User

4. Why this is so important – what disabled people have to gain from web usage…

Disabled people say the web makes them feel less isolated 48% of disabled people say the internet would help them feel less isolated 51% of disabled people who use the internet daily say it helps them feel less isolated Source: EEDP

This was most important for our mentally ill participants
Depressed people may use the internet to help manage their lives during depressive episodes
Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know when - with bipolar disorder you have - you know - several times of - several weeks or several days which you - you don't feel like sort of being around people, or directly speaking to people. So, you know - we use the internet - it's marvellous, because I can do everything on it - you know - from banking to - you know - watching TV, and cooking, or buying stuff online.
Female, Bipolar Disorder, London

Some BSL users favour YouTube for communication
I know YouTube but a lot of deaf are using it out there in the community I mean America the deaf are using it a lot…it links with the internet and it's got pictures and they use web cam and it's all over the world so deaf people are there because they can be signing to each other
Male, Hearing impairment, Birmingham

5. Skills and education for inclusion…

Access tools/Assistive Technologies are crucial for those who need them You know as a visually impaired person I am already different, and if I can't have access to things that other people my age have access to then I'm made further different. Visually Impaired, London The thing is we are so much slower than sighted people. Technology goes two step forward for everybody else and one step forward for us. Male, Visual Impairment, London

Any specific skills? What “inclusion” expects from disabled people
an Assistive Technology to exist to make sites accessible
web users to:
be aware that an Assistive Technology exists for their need
most are not
are able to afford that technology
most are C2DE so have difficulty affording expensive techs
are able to work out how to install it
most are not technical
are able to work out how to use it
most are unconfident
are able to use it to access online content
thus… most never get this far, even if the site is WCAG AAA

Use of Assistive Technologies is low… EEDP (2008) 6-8%
Of UK web users use an Assistive Technology (screenreader, adapted mouse or similar) to access the Internet

When the benefits should be useful to most users… Microsoft/Forrester Research study 2003, USA 57%
Of computer users (aged 18-64) are likely or very likely to benefit from the use of Assistive Technology

6. My Web My Way – a partnership between the BBC and AbilityNet

My Web My Way - 2006
Information on:
Customisation of OSes: Windows, Mac, Linux
Customisation of browsers: IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera
Assistive technologies: e.g. screenreaders, screen magnifiers, text to speech systems, voice recognition systems, hardware (keyboards, mice, trackballs, switches)
Award-winning, recommended by BSI PAS-78

My Web My Way - 2010
Now includes:
Cleaner design and navigation
Updated info:
customisation of OSes: incl. Windows 7, Snow Leopard
customisation of browsers: Google Chrome
Case study videos
BBC accessibility news, new features on BBC Online for disabled people etc.

7. How personalisation of websites could really help

Examining our current model - the Inclusion model
the one-size-fits-all “design for all” approach
design it for the mainstream, tweak it so disabled people can use Assistive Technologies to make it work for them

Inclusion model problems – diversity of needs
rarely considers disabled people ’s actual needs… or compares them with non-disabled people’s needs
different user groups can have conflicting needs
BBC iPlayer disability focus group (2009)
Vision impaired / dyslexic
“ I like the black – it’s cool”
“ I hate it – I find it really tiring”
Low literacy
“ can it just talk or something?”
Aging / learning difficulties
“ it was just too overwhelming”

Non-disabled people can have similar problems… “ It’s good – it gives everything. 95% appeals to me”
BBC homepage user testing 2009
“ It’s busy. There is no list .. . It’s a bit difficult. Once I’ve closed the boxes, it’s much better for me. I can see all the options. I don’t need to scroll.”

A complementary model: personalization
cf. web 2.0 personalisation…
BBC homepage, iGoogle, MySpace…
for disabled people:
being able to select how they want to view web sites
being able to select between levels of interface complexity (available on much software)
can help all disabled people, but especially users with:
Dyslexia, Aspergers, ADHD, poor vision or mild to moderate Learning Difficulties
advantages:
frees designers, product managers from some constraints
but requires more work, and testing of multiple paths/interfaces/content
e.g. iPlayer subtitles

BBC ATK at a glance – a possible way forwards
a way of letting people know why they should want…
to use an engaging way of setting and storing their accessibility preferences…
and getting sites to respond to them
… which works consistently across BBC Online…
… and ideally cross-platform to mobile + IPTV
… and ideally across the rest of the web
… providing common tools for sites to respond to those preferences
… and a common model for existing tools to use to find a user ’s preferences
opening up BBC content, and the rest of the web, to underserved audiences

e: jonathan@hassellinclusion.com t: @jonhassell w: www.hassellinclusion.com Contact me

2009: Social inclusion in a Digital Age

by Jonathan Hassell

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