How Blind Employees Manage Accessibility in Mixed-Ability Workplaces Because these slides are inaccessible, I am happy to provide a set of presenter notes upon request. Please feel free to contact me: Stacy Branham, sbranham@umbc.edu, @branhammertime, stacybranham.com If you like this talk, here’s a link to our ASSETS 2015 research paper, which goes into more depth: http://tinyurl.com/npxall5

1. 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
The
of
Stacy Branham
@branhammertime
Shaun Kane
@shaunkane

2. MOTIVATION

3. Parsa’s desk
his computer,
with NVDA
his earbuds
his keyboard

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

5. 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 work
some are beginning to explore social context

6. STUDY

7. participants
we explored workplace accessibility with five blind
participants and some of their sighted colleagues
25
Molly
research
assistant
29
Mary
attorney
39
Daryll
customer
servicerep.
54
Catherine
program
analyst
Wallace
executive
director
48

8. interviews & observations
research was carried out in three phases: an initial
interview, workplace walkthrough, & final interview
interview office walkthrough
+ follow-up survey
interview

9. 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

10. FINDINGS

11. inaccess
has social
implications
sociality
has access
implications
access work
was “invisible”
to colleagues
(Suchman; 1995)

12. inaccess
has social
implications
sociality
has access
implications
access work
was “invisible”
to colleagues

13. Wallace
executive
director
48
Mary
attorney
29
inaccess in the workplace
inaccessibility had negative social implications
“Your perception
from the outside
is [my colleague]
returns your calls,
and I don’t.”

14. inaccess
has social
implications
access work
was “invisible”
to colleagues
sociality
has access
implications

15. sociality had negative accessibility implications
what
39
Daryll
customer
service rep.
access as a social matter
25
Molly
research
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.”

16. access work
was “invisible”
to colleagues
inaccess
has social
implications
sociality
has access
implications

17. X
25%
invisible work
sighted colleagues were largely unaware of
accessibility challenges present in the office

18. 47%
?
invisible work
sighted colleagues were largely unaware of
accessibility challenges present in the office

19. 9%
invisible work
sighted colleagues were largely unaware of
accessibility challenges present in the office

20. Mary
attorney
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
25
Molly
research
assistant
“If it takes me longer…
it is not because I am
incompetent or… lazy.
… I have had to learn,
that communicate,
communicate.”

21. Wallace
executive
director
48
“Social networking
offers one kind of
answer to [sharing
tips and tricks with
other blind people].”
seeking support
sometimes the best solution to an accessibility
problem was asking someone else for help
Mary
attorney
29
“I don’t want to be too
difficult and seem like
I’m complaining… and
it’s not really important
to work….”

22. inaccess
has social
implications
sociality
has access
implications
access work
was “invisible”
to colleagues

23. TAKEAWAYS

24. accessible
technology
does not imply
accessibility
what
1we need to probe
sociotechnical environments
and test devices in the wild
designprovocation

25. 2design provocation
problems that
matter less
may actually
matter more what
we need to design for access
to “non-essential” activities
in the workplace

26. 3designprovocation
cross-ability
collaboration
is a form of
cross-cultural
communication wha
we need to design more unifying,
transparent experiences and tools
that encourage dialogue between
blind and sighted colleagues

27. 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