Building Empathy for Accessibility

Empathy and Storytelling

There is a variety of published research that shows how reading fiction can improve empathy. I was interested in going beyond that. UX practice has a variety of ways we try and tell our stories currently- personas, journey maps, storyboards. Some more successful than others. From my experience so far, I feel these things sometimes get overlooked. I wanted to try and create something that forces agency, forces the viewer to participate, to become the user. 

For the course, we used a tool called Twine that allows for creating interactive non-linear stories. More simply, narrative games. For my final project, I set out to create an interactive story for some kind of HCI user group. 

Considering Accessibility

According to the World Health Organization, around 40 million people in the world are blind, while another 250 million have some form of visual impairment. Technology has the capability to help these individuals live better more independent lives, but often these tools are designed by people that don’t understand the experience of being visually impaired. With laws around technology accessibility becoming more robust, it is even more important for those creating technology to consider this population in the design phase. Using the literary fiction genre, I want to create an artifact that puts someone in the position of being visually impaired and give them the agency to consider the world from a new perspective.

Understanding Visual Impairments

While I had some prior experience interviewing users and designing for accessibility, I started with collecting some more information about what it’s like to live with a visual impairment. I did a tour of the Center for the Visually Impaired. I read articles, stories, watched TED Talks. Finally, I blindfolded myself and attempted to use my laptop and phone with the screen reader. I tried navigating around my house, which resulted in a broken glass on one occasion! Below are some samples of the information I consulted. 

• How blind people see the world

• My blind story

• White Canes

• Center for the Visually Impaired Stories

• The Blind Artist Ted Talk

A Day in the Life

The first iteration of this project is a character exploration. My short character prototype puts the player as a blind individual trying to order food in a restaurant. They experience not being able to read the menu and relying on the kindness of others to aid in that process. If you go down the path of asking the person in line next to you, their level of help will depend on a randomized variable of their friendliness. If they are friendly they will help you order and even buy your food and sit and eat with you. Otherwise, they will awkwardly help you minimally understand the menu. You can also rely on the employee to help you, or order a general item without knowing exactly what you are getting.

Link to play *Works in your browser.

Prototyping Interactions with Technology

Using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS I created a custom interaction that appears several times within the story. The player is shown an image of a piece of technology that appears in the story, then the image fades away. The player has to try and use the technology without vision. 

Seeing Isn't Believing

The final project further develops this character and see’s an entire day in her life. The character Anne recently lost her vision in a car accident and is trying to regain her independence. She loves art and was planning to go to art school before the accident. The story takes place over one day in her life where she is beginning training at the center for the visually impaired. We see her navigate her home, deal with challenges of her family adjusting to her new condition, and how she navigates around town with her cane. Dramatic agency arises from the player trying to get to training on time. The time at which you arrive (early, on time, or late) will impact who you meet. The different people will impact information you learn on how to move forward as an artist. 

Play the Game

What's Next

Research at Stanford has explored using virtual reality scenarios to build empathy and have seen even better results than with narrative alone. I am taking a VR studio course next semester in which I plan to continue experimenting with empathy building experiences.