I’ve been reading the discussion from 17th May “From a friend of mine with vision impairment” and remembered the Inclusive design workshop.
Sometimes there’s an important phenomenon within something that’s swept under the rug when pursuing convenience. One side of BoI is that we should dig that out and make it a key for a new design. We’re hoping to place the inclusive design workshop as one of these ideas that we’ve dug up.
I heard that in the workshop, when asking someone with a disability, “is there anything inconvenient?” oftentimes they reply “dunno…”. It may be that they don’t find their situation inconvenient without experiencing something convenient, but I’ve realized that oftentimes, it’s possible to handle the situation as is, as long as there are good ideas. On the other hand, tools which are a “bit too much” seem to be taking our motivation to think of some new ideas.
Making something that was once unnecessary into a necessity- I don’t want to thoughtlessly accept this as greater good.
[Society of Instrument and Control engineers- 34th Intelligence System Symposium (3/15/97) References, p272]
TV channel selection has been improved from a dial to buttons, and there is less need to strain our muscles. It’s also possible to place it on a remote control, so in that way it’s also become very useful, and on top of that, it’s reduced production costs and damage to the specific parts. These days, small things, for example, with a dial, it was possible to control the channel in the dark as long as you remember how the angle of the dial and the channel corresponded with your sense of touch, or feeling a sense of accomplishment or attachment to the TV which you’ve learnt to use without looking, are ignored. There are also some simple solutions, like backlighting the buttons with LED if they are to be used in the dark, for example. However, repeatedly releasing add-ons in order to make a product suitable for various users is not very smart. The aforementioned LED backlight idea is pointless for those with visual impairments, so requires more thought.