Projects
Here's some information about a few of the projects I'm currently, or have been, involved in.
Usable Image Project
October 2006 - ongoing.
I'm working part-time as an Interaction Designer on the EPSRC-funded Usable Image project. This 3-year project is still user-focused technology design, but in a new direction for me. The aim of the project, a collaboration between the School of Computing and the College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, is to apply user-centred design techniques in an open-source software development environment. We'll be supporting the development of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) and associated tools by providing on the one hand expert usability advice, and also researching novel ways of gathering data about usage conditions and environments, so that future development can be more effectively be informed by user needs.
More information from the project web site: Usable Image project web site.
University of Dundee Web Accessibility Service
May 2006 - ongoing.
I am the co-ordinator of the University's Web Accessibility Service. We've been funded to provide advice and support to all staff at Dundee involved in developing or authoring Web content, as well as more generally promoting the importance of Web accessibility at a strategic level throughout the University.
University of Dundee Accessibility Service Web site.
Holistic Web Accessibility
Feb 2005 - ongoing.
Not a project, but an idea I and a few others who are also interested in accessibility (Brian Kelly, Helen Petrie, Lawrie Phipps, Andy Heath, Fraser Hamilton) have been developing over the last year or so. We think that sometimes the issue of Web accessibility becomes overly focused on technical guideline conformance (when in fact guidelines are there to guide, not to mandate). We've written and presented our thoughts on contextual Web accessibility at the W4A 2005 and W4A 2006 conferences amongst other places, where we propose a "Tangram Model" which we think encapsulates a less rigid approach to acccessibility.
More information and links to online versions of our papers: UKOLN's Briefing Guide to the Tangram Model for Accessibility.
Usability of Web Accessibility Statements
October 2005 - June 2006.
We received funding from Techdis to investigate how useful accessibility pages provided on a selection of UK Web sites were to users - in particular older people without significant impairments, but who may soon benefit from accessibility information. We acted because we believe that too many Web accessibility statements are overly technical, and don't give the necessary support to the people who would most benefit from it.
More on Usability of Web Accessibility Statements (including links to downlowadable versions of the final report.)
Awareness of Research-based Accessibility Guidelines
November 2005 - May 2006.
As part of work for a paper I wrote for the Gerontechnology journal, I conducted a small survey of accessibility advocates and their awareness of various sets of guidelines for Web accessibility and usability. The W3C WCAG is not the only set of guidelines out there, as several more research-oriented alternatives also exist. There seems to be a gap between two communities here - the Web standards movement, which encourages adoption of WCAG, while academic researchers produce alternative guidelines based on user observations. There seems to be a lack of acknowledgement between the two communities, and as a result there seems less transfer between the two in knowledge and best practice.
My survey found that most respondents were unaware of these alternative guidelines, and in an article based on the paper I discuss why I think the situation exists and how it might change:
Web Standards and Research-based Accessibility Guidelines.
Disability Equality Duty and ICT provision
Feb 2006 - March 2006.
I was commissioned by the Scottish Disability Team to produce an article looking at how the new Disablity Discrimination Act, known as the Disability Equality Duty, impacts on provision of information and communication technology.
The article is available online - Disability Equality Duty: Implications and Opportunities for ICT provision.
Skills for Access
Feb 2003 - May 2005.
I was Accessibility Editor and key contact at Dundee for the Skills for Access (SFA) project. With the University of Sheffield's Learning Development and Media Unit (LDMU), a team of professional media and e-learning producers, we developed a Web site devoted to accessibility, multimedia and e-learning and multimedia developers. The site provides detailed advice on creating optimally accessible video, audio, animated and graphical resources, and also promotes a holistic approach to using multimedia as a way of enhancing the accessiblity of the learning environment.
We also commissioned and published articles and case studies offering real-world perspectives from disabled students and staff, and from multimedia and e-learning developers. The site had to be designed with accessibility in mind, but also makes use of multimedia itself to show that accessibility need not be 'text-only'. It's received some very favourable comments for both content and design.
Teachability - Creating Accessible Learning
June 2004 - April 2005.
Commissioned by the Teachability project at Strathclyde University, I wrote a booklet on accessibility and e-learning development. The booklet has been distributed to all Scottish Higher Edication Institutions, and is also available on-line.
With Teachability, I ran a series of workshops around Scotland focussing on accessibility and e-learning.
NHS SDO E-health Scoping Study
Oct 2003 - Jan 2005.
In collaboration with some colleagues at the Tayside Centre for General Practice and the University of Edinburgh, we were funded by the National Health Service's Service and Delivery Organisation (SDO) to carry out a scoping study of the field of e-health.
The aim of the study was to chart current developments in e-health, and develop a model of the concept of "e-health", in order to identify areas of weakness, and inform future research in the area.
More information - Project reports available from the NHS SDO Web Site.