1. Accessibility Is Not Rocket
Science
Sunish Gupta
Founder of Easy Alliance
Visiting Lecturer at Northeastern University

2. AGENDA
• Definition of Accessibility.
• Evolution of Assistive Technology.
• Challenges in High Velocity organizations.
• Integrating into your Lean agile UCD/Agile.
• Accessibility industry trends.
• Key Takeaways
• Q and A

3. Definition of Accessibility
• Accessible means being within reach. (Referenced from
Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
• Accessibility - easy to approach, reach, enter, speak
with, or use.
• Accessibility is the design of products, devices,
services, or environments for people
with disabilities. (Wikipedia)
Related to Universal and Inclusive Design.

4. “RAMP Effect”
4

5. Compliance Meeting the needs of a
single group
Usable Access Expanding the market
Responsive Increasing social
Relationships relevance
Societal transformation Making accessibility
everyone’s issue
People with
disabilities
Aging
Population
Cross culture
Low literacy, non-native
language speakers
All people
Compliance Meeting the needs of a
single group
Usable Access Expanding the market
Responsive Increasing social
Relationships relevance
Societal transformation Making accessibility
everyone’s issue
People with
disabilities
Aging
Population
Cross culture
Low literacy, non-native
language speakers
All people
People with
disabilities
Aging
Population
Cross culture
Low literacy, non-native
language speakers
All people
Beneficiaries of Accessibility
Intended and Unintended
(Courtesy IBM)
5

6. HOW HAVE WE BENEFITED FROM
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DISABLED?

7. DEVICES FOR THE VISUALLY
IMPAIRED

8. Early 1800s
• 1808: Pellegrino Turri
invents the typewriter to
help the blind write
1824: Louis Braille
develops the Braille
writing system for
the blind

9. Late 1800s
• 1877: Thomas Edison
develops the phonograph
to help the blind listen to
pre-recorded books

10. Early 1900s
• 1935: The American
Foundation for the Blind
publishes the first issue of
the Talking Book Bulletin
• 1952: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

11. Late 1900s
• 1970s: Ray Kurzweil
develops a TTP and OCR
machine
•
•
•
–
2005: Kurzweil and Sunish
Gupta develop a portable
version

12. 2000s
• Late 2000s: Apple introduces VoiceOver, which
reads highlighted text in a natural voice and
the iPhone
• 2011: Apple integrates
Siri, which performs
functions at a user’s
verbal command, into
its devices

13. Game-Changers
• Facebook: Using facial recognition technology
to create alternate text to help blind users
know who is in a photo
• Voice Search in Audio:
quickly parse an audio
transcript file for specific
Words
• Today, accessible systems
help SEO

14. DEVICES FOR THE AUDITORY
IMPAIRED

15. Late 1900s
• 1964: Robert Weitchrecht attaches a teletype machine to the
telephone to create the Telecommunications Device for the
Deaf (TDDs)
• 1972: Closed-captioning becomes widespread
In the 2000s

16. Late 1900s
• 1998: Internet chat rooms
are created with the
TDD technology

17. Game-Changers
• NuHera: personalized
digital hearing aids that
allow for
• Conversation focus and noise
control
• Auditory overload control (autism
spectrum disorder)
• Bose Frames:
• gesture control,
• API integration,
• AR immersive ready (no
environment isolation)

18. DEVICES FOR PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

19. Mid 1900s
• Voice-command technology is developed for use across many
different devices, including lights, switches, phones, pagers,
alarm clocks, calculators, and watches to improve the
accessibility of these devices to those who are paralyzed.

20. Late 1900s
• 2005: Martin Cooper and Arlene Harris
design the Jitterbug, a cell phone with
large number keypads for those with
mobile disabilities
• 1988: Retail Point of Sale (POS) devices
begin to use picture-based keyboards,
which was developed in the 1960s to help
people who cannot speak

21. Game-Changers
(Left to Right): Amazon Alexa, military Exoskeleton device,
thought control device

22. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCESSIBILITY

23. Legacy Design Process
23
Tech
Marketing
Development
Requirements
Prototype
Manufacturing/
Development
User

24. [New!]
User Centric Design (UCD) Process
24
User
Development
Requirement
s
Tech Prototype
Final Product
Manufacturing/
Development
Validation Loop
Multi-Iterative Loops

25. Comparing Legacy and UCD
25
Legacy
User Centric

26. Stakeholders in Usability Implementation
UsabilityUsability
Executive
Team,
Management
Executive
Team,
Management
Designers and
Developers
Designers and
Developers
Testing GroupTesting Group
Mainstream
Users
Mainstream
Users
26

27. Stakeholders in Accessibility
Stakeholders
in
Accessibility
Laws, regulations, and
policies
Consumers
Product/Technology
Companies
Standard Bodies
Innovation Circles
27

28. Why Does Accessible Design Seem Complicated?
28
Brainstorm

29. Innovation Circles in Accessibility
Innovation
and
Development
Circles
Design Team
Development
Team
User Agent
Applications [ex.
Browsers, test
tools]
Quality
Assurance Team
[ex. Test plan,
testing for
compliance and
experience]
Core Assistive
Technologies [ex.
Speech
recognition, TTS,
OCR, AI]
Technical
Standards and
Certifications
[ex. W3.org,
IAAP (CPACC),
WAS]

30. A Holistic Approach
• Understand the immediate accessibility and current gaps
• Devise a roadmap.
• Identify gaps – Technical, Talent, Knowledge Base,
Organization, Compliance
• User experience and user journey
• Goal to provide both experiential and compliance driven
results.

31. Current Industry Trends
• Mobile and Cloud proliferation.
• Innovative technologies and platforms.
• Legal Landscape.
• Consumer expectations.
• High Velocity Teams.
• Product Life Cycles.
• Business Opportunity. not Threat.

32. Key Takeaway
• Early in the Design cycle.
• Understand your PWD users/audience.
• Increase addressable Market.
• Get Feedback from PWD.
• Experience driven rather than compliance.

33. Workshop on Wednesday
Interactive Accessibility at 1 PM
www.linkedin.com/in/supergupta
sgupta@easyalliance.org