Media: Spiked reviews the Usability - Accessibity Divide

Sandy Starr was at the RNIB meeting to determine an appropriate relationship between usability and accessibility. His review for Spiked touches on deep issues.

In "Blind to users' needs", Starr suggests: 'Each discipline has some almost evangelical champions, and each poses significant challenges to businesses.'

Putting the argument tidily, he asks: 'Are accessibility and usability synonymous or distinct? If distinct, are they completely unrelated, mutually incompatible or mutually reinforcing?'

He runs through the discussion at the meeting (see also Web Accessibility vs Web Usability, argue Panel) and concludes with his own view: 'Web accessibility is an admirable cause, and is essential to realising the internet's potential to be a universal human communications medium. But this cause can be pursued in two different ways. It can be pursued by bringing innovation down to existing, common standards of accessibility, sometimes through legislation - or it can be pursued by pushing innovation forward into new realms of possibility.

'At the moment, it seems that disabled people and disability campaigners are being forced to take the former course. They can only be expected to take the latter course if leading innovators put the necessary work and investment into accessibility to begin with.'

Associated Link: Spiked: Blind to Users' Needs

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
Source: UN, 2 July 2009
 
Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
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The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
Source: UN, 30 June 2009
 
Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
Source: FT.com, 26 June 2009
 
In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
Source: Dexo Design, 25 June 2009
 
How do you describe your job role? Here are the results of a recent 'Preferred UX/UI Title' Poll.

Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
Source: TMCNet, 24 June 2009
 
It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.