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This page has a quick introduction to the personas we created for this book. The full version of the personas with more details about them and their stories will be posted over the next few weeks.
Trevor
High school student with autism
Likes games and computer worlds
Poor reading skills and poor social skills; difficulty with visual comprehensionEmily
Goes to college and works in a community center
Has cerebral palsy and uses a computer for communication
Uses a scooter for mobility and has minimal use of her handsJacob
Paralegal with dreams of going to law school
Proficient with technology; uses computers for “everything”
Blind since birthLea
Works from home, as an editor and writer for a small magazine
Uses a split keyboard and dictation software
Copes with fatigue and weakness from fibromyalgiaSteven
Graphic artist for a small ad agency
Uses video chat and texting to connect with anyone else who is deaf or hard of hearing
Deaf; uses ASL along with interpretersVishnu
Engineer and world citizen through technology
Low vision due to glaucoma
Uses screen magnifiers and contrast adjustmentMaria
Community health worker
Her mobile phone is her first computer
Uses computer translations, needs clearly written information
Immigrant family is Spanish/ English bilingualCarol
Grandmother learning to use technology from her grandkids
Macular degeneration starting to affect her reading ability and slight tremor in her hands
Has learned to enlarge text in her browser
Personas for Accessible UX
Posted on | 4 comments
4 Responses to “Personas for Accessible UX”
Martin White
Are you including dyslexia? Arguably the most widespread and yet invisible barrier to digital access
See http://www.intranetfocus.com/archives/2086 for a search perspective
Whitney Quesenbery
Hi Martin, Absolutely yes. In fact the basic guidelines for low literacy and the many different disabilities that affect reading are all very similar: write in plain language, chunk text so it’s easy to read in short bites, write in short sentences and short paragraphs, don’t use “decoration” like underlining and all capital letters, and have good contrast.
The other important thing, of course, is to allow for personalization, because needs and preferences vary, and no single page can meet them all. (There was some good research on strategies for reading by students with dyslexia at MSU that also showed that they had different preferences for different kinds of content.)
Coding to standards is also important because it supports flexibility. Responsive pages that allow users to set the width of the window let them adjust the line length, or change the colors on the screen. Plugins like Mercury Reader can also be very helpful for focusing on the content without the distractions of the page frame and sidebars.
Cecilia Morales
My dyslexia manifests more with numbers and when fatigued–no idea how to address this as it happens in the conversion of my brain from auditory into typing them.
I also had a very mild but annoying word dyslexia that causes common misspellings. I have always wanted words that I commonly misspell in a hurry (like ‘form’ instead of ‘from’ to be highlighted somehow for me to quickly scan and double check before sending.
Emily Fishkind
This is so great to see. Thanks for your work.