Jan 2017

Sva app design

Context

India has more than 26.8 million disabled people in India, who are marginalized from society due to discrimination and inability to participate in the mainstream economy. The dignity of people with disability can be protected and their human potential realized if the technological and physical surrounds were made more accessible to them. This project was realized as an effort to further the cause of accessibility in India.

Problem:

People with disability have been provided with special rights under the constitution to protect them against discrimination and provide equal opportunity. These rights are availed only if the person obtains a certificate of disability which identifies and classifies the disability from the central government of India. Many of the disabled people are not aware of these rights or the procedure to obtain the disability certificate. The process of obtaining this certificate is difficult and often forces the person with a disability to require external assistance. This leads to a large population of people with a disability getting disenfranchised and marginalized in society.

Solution:

A World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) standard (WCAG 2.1) compliant app designed as a part of “Sva” (read Svā) service design concept that raises awareness about availing a disability certificate and makes the process easy with minimal external assistance for a person with disability.

Collaborators

Abhishek, Shweta Salpe

Design process

Understand and empathize:

We conducted multi phase research that involved in-depth interviews with users affected from various types of disabilities, interviews with experts and organizations working for the rights of disabled people in India. We also conducted stakeholder interviews and observational research of spaces involved in the process. We assessed the current service, existing scenarios, pain points within the existing service and comparative study of analogous processes across the world.

PRIORITIZE & select:

We mapped various problems that people with disability in India face and chose availing a disability certificate as an opportunity area where we can create maximum impact.

synthesize & Re-Imagine:

The data from the research was synthesized and categorized into various pain-points and opportunity areas. Some of the problems identified included:

• Different state laws for availing certification but no source of consolidated information about the same

• Paper based process with no preview of an approx time-line of the process.

• Long queues at hospitals for certification checks-ups as appoint systems are not organized.

• Long and inaccessible commute to certification providing hospitals

  Once we identified these problems, we conducted multiple brainstorming and ideation sessions to find solutions.

prototype & TEST:

We used rapid prototyping in physical or digital mediums to make our ideas feel more real. We built wire-frames using Balsamiq and screen mock-ups to create an information hierarchy that communicates the range of services available, the relative priorities of information and functions, and different information scenarios on the interface. The final mock-up screens were tested with users to design the final version that is W3C standard compliant.

Visual Language

WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Level AAA requires a contrast ratio of 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text is defined as 14 point (typically 18.66px) and bold or larger, or 18 point (typically 24px) or larger. For screen reader access, we require two combinations here.

The colors were carefully selected so as to meet the primary requirement of the contrast ratio. The second combination above could be used by people with low vision who require a much higher contrast ratio.

User character

Prototype

Testing

The prototype was tested with users and received positive feedback. Users expressed their desire to use the prototype over the existing app and website provided by the government of India.

Quotes from users:

“I always have to plan for my transportation before I book appointments for certification renewals. Many a times I get refused taxi rides because of my disability. I found the option to pre-book an accessible taxi for my certification appointment extremely thoughtful.”

“It’s great that most of the process that currently happens in-person is transformed digitally. This would mean that I don’t have to skip my office for renewing my certification.“

“I won’t have to keep track of multiple platforms for news and updates on policies and accessibility services if this app aggregates information relevant to my preferences. “

Potential Impact

The recent government efforts for digital inclusion of rural India seems to exclude people with disability in their discourse. Sva app would help the digital inclusion of 26.5 million people with disability in India and bring them to the main stream economy by providing access to the information highway of internet. With inclusive designs like Sva, we not only include people with disability but the elderly and people with limited language skills. Sva would be complimentary to the larger movement for equal opportunity and human rights.

Sva was a three week long project realized as a part of an academic course . This project gave us an opportunity to empathize with people with disability and realize the importance of Inclusive design and Designing for accessibility. We would like to share the leanings we had in designing Sva and would like collaborate with people interested in designing for accessibility.