Dissertation Overview

I handed in the dissertation yesterday. I really enjoyed researching and writing about the subject, although I found structuring it quite difficult. When I say structuring, I mean I found it difficult to take out parts which I had worked really hard on but that needed to come out because they disrupted the flow and were not totally relevant. I remember PJ Harvey saying something like “When something isn’t working, you need to take out the part which you like best.”

I think I did quite a good job and handed in a good piece of writing which I am pleased with. It’s hard to judge it properly when you get so close to it and end up being able to recite parts of it from memory!

I tried to think about how someone would read it and to make it as interesting and clear as possible. I didn’t use sub headings, instead I used questions to break up the text and help me to discuss my main points. I felt that this system worked well and provided a better flow throughout. I found it quite stressful towards the end, especially when trying to judge when I should stop going over and over it, and I think I will probably be constantly thinking about it for a while longer as it is hard to switch off.

I’m just going to briefly lay out the main points:

My title was: “Considering the constantly evolving technological landscape and the new “prosumer” attitudes towards creating web content, will all web content and related technologies ever be truly accessible to all?”

As this topic had the potential to be very broad, I decided not to look into security or privacy issues which would obviously inhibit access. I also focussed my investigation on access issues of people with disabilities and specifically those who were visually impaired.

I began by looking into the histories of technology and the Internet to discover how it had become so inaccessible. I discussed how quickly the technology is changing and how people may not be able to keep up.

I went on to explore and define Web 2.0, “prosumerism” and social media, and discussed how they might be affecting accessibility.

I defined disability and examined how disabled people are generally viewed, and how the term disability can be misconceived. I then provided statistical evidence confirming that disabled users do not have easy access to all websites and information on the Internet. I discussed how these statistics may be due to the fact that web designers, and now “prosumers” who create web content, may not be paying attention to user-centred design and accessibility guidelines.

I discussed my experiences with some of the “text to speech” software I had tested, and looked at developing technologies such as the vOICe software and how they may help create a better web experience for visually impaired users in the future.

I explored and explained some of the terms and ideas detailed by Donald Norman in his book The Design of Everyday Things, including: affordances, conceptual models, mapping, standardisation, constraints, errors, feedback and visibility.

Finally, I presented possible options for the future of technology and how it could be improved and made more accessible and user-centred for all.

I ended with a quote from Norman form The Invisible Computer:

“Today, it is the individual who must conform to the needs of the technology. It is time to make the technology conform to the needs of people.”