How to plan UX research if participants are people with disabilities?
If your research participants are people who have special needs, then you should change your approach and make some adjustments to your traditional UX Research planning.
This blog can serve as a checklist for UX Researchers whose research participants are people with disabilities (PwDs). The blog includes necessary dos and don’ts while conducting research with PwDs. I have also added my own examples for more clarification.
☞ Things to keep in mind while planning the research
1. Give your persona a disability
It is a good practice to consider a user persona who has a similar disability you want to target. It will help your users and stakeholders to build empathy for the PwDs you are designing/researching for.
For example. — If you are working on a product for blind or visually impaired people (BVIs) then make sure to give the same disability to the persona you are using in your narratives, scenarios or storyboarding. Building your narrative considering the disabled persona will help to give a clear understanding to your teammates/stakeholders about whom you are targeting as a user group.
Below is the storyboard I used to explain to internal teammates and users how the product (futuristic technology) can help Blind or visually impaired people to navigate social media on the go without using their phones.
2. Special attention to the Screening Questions
Screening questions (also known as “screeners”) either qualify or disqualify respondents from participating in your research study. It allows you to confirm your audience.
If you are considering creating a screener survey, ask participants whether they are comfortable filling the form on their own. If not, walk them through the screener questionnaire and help them fill it out. Below are some points to consider while making a screener for PwDs —
a. Type & Length of disability
Every disability is unique and has different needs. Add a question to the screener to know what type of disability the user has and the length of the disability. A person can have multiple types of disabilities. So make sure you use the check-box instead of a radio button.
b. Details about the technology usage
Consider asking technology usage questions to know what type of technology the participant uses, how long he is using this technology and his level of expertise. This information will help you to understand how technology savvy the user is and might want to exclude the outliners earlier to save time, money and resources.
For example. — When I was doing research on Voice UI for blind or visually impaired people, I added the following questions to the screener.
After data gathering, I excluded those participants who had experience using Voice technology for a year or lesser. Because I wanted to recruit only those who have a good familiarity with Voice Technology usage.
c. Transportation requirements -
Add transportation-related requirements to the screener. Mention whether the research you are conducting is remote, via phone call or requires a participant to be in-person at the venue.
If your research allows you to do remote research, then try to give multiple software options (accessibility verified) to the participants and let them choose as per their comfort level. If your research requires participants to be in person, then make sure to add a detailed address in the screening questionnaire.
I conducted exploratory research with 18 older adults who are either mobility-challenged or Visually impaired. None of them was able to drive to the location and 60% of the participant was not familiar with the computer technology. So, I conducted all interviews on a phone call. It is better to be flexible with the logistical requirements if you are struggling to recruit a target user group and have a limited time.
3. Preparing for research event
a. Share documents in advance
Send a research invitation in advance containing a brief idea about the research details including the purpose of the research, anticipated time each session requires and the type of actions participants need to take. Such information will help participants to be mentally & physically prepared for the event.
Consider mentioning if the research is for a noble cause and the future impact you are expecting out of this research. It decreases the likelihood of having no-shows on the research day. For example — I was doing research on Social wellness for older adults with disabilities, and the number of responses I got was unexpectedly high. When we asked participants the reason, 80% of them mentioned that they care about this impact.
b. Accommodation needs in both ways
Ask participants if they require any special accommodations like live captions or light preferences during study sessions. It is always better than the participant raising a hand in between the session to ask for accommodation and then researcher spending time to accommodate the request. It might make participants a little bit uncomfortable.
Also, ask participants to share research-related questions in advance. Provide alternative contact details to contact the researcher in case of any queries or scheduling changes.
Share if you have additional notes or limitations in advance. So, participants will be aware of it and act accordingly. Being a UX Researcher, sometimes you also need some accommodation. Ask for it! For Instance, I was testing a hand-worn assistive technology to control the mouse movement on digital screens. Because of some light reflection reasons, the technology was not effective on dark surfaces. So I specifically added a note to the participant’s invitation letter and request them not to wear any dark-coloured clothes (mostly bottoms like jeans or a skirt) and specified the reason behind it.
c. Send logistics details
Add detailed information about the research logistics. Mention the event date, time and location in bold letters and use proper colour contrast to highlight these important scheduling details.
If you are conducting Online research via online meeting software like Zoom or Google meet, then consider adding an ‘admit logic’ instead of ‘password protection’ to permit participants to join the meeting. Copy-pasting passwords from invitation letters to the meeting software may incur difficulties.
If your research requires participants to be in person, then make sure to add a detailed address and venue layout along with the map coordinates which are accessible by various operating systems (iOS/Windows/Android).
d. Make all documents accessible
Re-ensure that all the documents you are sharing with research participants are accessible and easy to understand. Use a document accessibility checker to flag the accessibility-related issues in the document or survey. It helps to find any missing alternative text for graphics, bad colour contrast or missed page numbers before sending it to the participant.
P.S. — There are in-built accessibility checkers in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. Some survey tools like Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, MS forms, and Google Forms also have in-built trackers.
e. Be ready for the research day.
In case of online research activity, make sure everything is accessible. Verify platform is accessible to all the software you are planning to use. If you are planning to use a collaborative platform like Miro or FigJam, make sure you do the pilot study for verification purposes.
P.S. — Zoom is verified by UX professionals.
Below are a few points to consider while planning an in-person study -
- Choose a spacious lab or room. Give enough space for your participants to move around. Avoid a room that is cluttered with furniture or any other obstacles. because you don’t want people with wheelchairs trying to make space when performing the research task. Explain the room layout to participants before starting anything
- Make sure to have perfect light conditions. Give participants a heads-up if you have set up live streaming for other colleagues to watch. No surprises in between!
P.S.- VR Research requires plenty of space.
Some ethical notes for the moderator:
- During both Online or In-person settings, start the session with your brief introduction. Aware participants of the number of people present in the lab/room or in online meeting software. Also, mention the person’s name before anyone wants to ask a question or start a conversation.
- Do not let people cross-talk. It will mix up multiple sentences together and Blind people might not be able to catch up who is talking. Use the ‘raise hand’ technique and let people speak one after another. Remind other people to be on mute mode.
- Sometimes health-related data is very sensitive. Participants want such data to keep private and don’t feel like sharing it in front of others. So, be mindful of their privacy.
- Provide enough time for participants to speak. Be kind and patient.
Final Thoughts
Researching people with disabilities can be expensive sometimes but worthwhile. Accessibility design practices help businesses to increase their reach to the broader market, enhance brand value & then results in generating more revenue.
Accessibility is all about removing barriers and providing the benefits for everyone.” Steve Ballmer
Please feel free to share your unique experiences while researching with PwDs in the comment section.
Check out my portfolio to view my accessibility-related work and know more about me. If you have any comments or questions please reach out to me on LinkedIn or hit me an email at Pranali.shinde1921@gmail.com.