The Invisible Work of Accessibility (ASSETS 2015)
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The document explores how blind employees manage accessibility in mixed-ability workplaces through interviews and observations of five blind participants and their sighted colleagues. Findings indicate that accessibility challenges are often 'invisible' to sighted colleagues, leading to negative social implications, and highlight the importance of communication and collaboration in overcoming these challenges. The study calls for better design of technologies and experiences to foster cross-ability collaboration and understanding in the workplace.
![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.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/assets15-151027110419-lva1-app6892/85/The-Invisible-Work-of-Accessibility-ASSETS-2015-13-320.jpg)
![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.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/assets15-151027110419-lva1-app6892/85/The-Invisible-Work-of-Accessibility-ASSETS-2015-20-320.jpg)
![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….”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/assets15-151027110419-lva1-app6892/85/The-Invisible-Work-of-Accessibility-ASSETS-2015-21-320.jpg)
The Invisible Work of Accessibility (ASSETS 2015)
- 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