Universal Access in Practice: Usability Evauation of Cellular Telephones for Users with Disabilities

Abstract

Cellular telephones provide a portable means of communication and facilitate many communication tasks in daily life. Persons with disabilities, however, have limited access to these devices, which may be due to product designs that do not always consider their needs. Usability evaluations can identify the needs and difficulties when using cellular telephones, and those with disabilities are also likely to benefit from focused evaluations. The usability of cellular telephones was investigated among those with visual and upper extremity disabilities. Both objective and subjective evaluation methods were used to determine the effects of several telephone display and keypad design features. Lateral key pitch is reported here. Objective and subjective measures were similar among participant categories, with the 12 mm and 13 mm levels of lateral pitch generally the best across all measures. Results suggest keypad design features to consider when designing accessible cellular telephones. Universal design implications are also discussed.

Design Considerations for Accessible Mobile Phones

“…Over the past five years (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006), several research methods have been adopted to gather mobile phone accessibility needs for individuals with disabilities. The methods included structured interviews, surveys, Product Interactive Focus Groups (PIFG), and laboratory-based usability tests (Lee et al, MEETING-2006 2006; Lee et al, 2004;Mooney et al, 2002;Smith-Jackson et al, 2003). Consisting of four phases, this research involved people with several disability types as well as different nations as the target user population.…”