Radical Empathy in UX Design: Improving Accessibility for Users With Epilepsy
Why Designing for Accessibility Is Key to User Experience
This is the story of how witnessing my sister’s epileptic fit led me to fresh perspectives on the concept of accessibility in UX design.
My First Time Witnessing an Epileptic Seizure
The first time I’d found out about epilepsy, we were traveling to Germany for a week. I have to admit, witnessing an epileptic attack first-hand stirred both scary and awesome feelings within me.
We were seated together at the airport in Frankfurt, waiting to board our flight. Suddenly, one of my sisters stood up from her seat and froze like a statue. At that moment, none of us realized yet what was happening.
Confused, we tried to get a reaction out of her. I noticed her staring into the distance with her eyes locked in space. My sister was having an epileptic seizure. Convulsion, trembling — all symptoms were there.
I laid her on the floor out of fear that she’d get hurt. Eventually she turned out fine, after her seizure had passed. From my designer lens, I couldn’t help but notice the difference in her physical movements and how this would affect her interaction with the environment.
As UX designers, we aren’t trained to think about the physical barriers that may stand in the way of the perfect user experience. Especially on web platforms or mobile applications, the ergonomic aspects of how users interact with a product significantly impact individual user experiences. In the case of my sister, who makes part of an epilepsy user group, it’s clear that the design process should consider her ergonomic needs.
From Epileptic Seizures to Ergonomic Design
Ergonomics is the study of how humans interact with system elements, aiming for user-friendly products that are both effective and risk-free. In UX design, designers don’t always contribute to the process of creating products that are ergonomically sound. In a more just world, UX designers should aim for ergonomic-friendly user experiences — not just experiences that are visually appealing or technologically impressive.
In fact, ethics is paramount for ergonomic product design. As UX designers, we fight for a just cause by practicing radical empathy. Thinking deeply about users’ needs and integrating them in our work can make a world of a difference for user groups — this is our real leitmotif.
Having witnessed an epileptic seizure first-hand allowed me to familiarize myself with the territory and apply new insights to UX design. To understand more about epilepsy, I conducted my own user-centric research, and eventually delved into a new project.
Together with an Israeli technology company, I collaborated on an AI-enabled, automated Internet accessibility solution. The solution allows visually impaired users, experiencing epileptic seizures or other cognitive problems, to customize the design of their websites. By making websites more accessible, they also become more user-friendly.
Working on this solution enabled the company to meet accessibility requirements in accordance with WCAG 2.1 industry guidelines, and gave me an opportunity to integrate my newfound knowledge into UX design. From empathizing with users to thinking about their ergonomic experience, I was able to enhance the product’s UX design by emphasizing accessibility in the process.
Making Accessibility Part of Your Product
Since having worked on a product for users with epilepsy, my views as a UX designer have changed. Now more than ever, I recognize the importance of accessibility. Rather than treating users as one group, UX designers should categorize them into further groups — taking into account how they may not represent the “average” or “stereotypical” end-user.
When designing for accessibility, it helps to look into a user group’s common pain points. Lighting that’s too intense, active vibrations on the screen or a pop-out promotion image — these are all common pain points found on websites and mobile applications. Given the tools we have, UX design can make or break user experience for users with epilepsy.
Accessibility in UX design helps users experiencing various disabilities to better perceive, understand, navigate, interact with, and contribute to digital space. Just imagine an alternate universe where developers and designers take full ownership over accessibility.
With the right modifications, accessibility can be incorporated into any digital product — and there are two ways of doing that. One is to design for accessibility by doing UX research and providing users with their specific accessibility requirements, so that the product comes ready “as is”.
The other way is to give users the power to determine their own requirements, while they are using the product “live”. As UX designers, you achieve this by enabling users to customize feature designs. This gives users the freedom to tweak their user experience for improvement without having to redesign the product from scratch.
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