Case Studies

Week 1: September 7–13

Since we worked together for our case study presentation, for part one, we each decided to find an example of design addressing issues of disability, and for part two, we came together to identify one example of a design that falls short of inclusivity.

Part 1:

For her example, Cindy looked at the Lennie Miller Dyslexia book series. This book series, which uses a special font that people with dyslexia have an easier time reading, was written in 2019 by Robert Black, and published by Royal Fireworks Press. The Lennie Miller Dyslexia series was created because although dyslexic children struggle to develop their reading skills, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t bright, or shouldn’t be challenged with other subjects like math. This series makes sure that children who have visual processing problems that might make reading difficult, such as dyslexia, can still enjoy books and stories. In addition, this series has accompanying flash cards and an audio-book element, as well as other resources that help children to read and understand.

Next, Julia discussed VersaBraille by Telesensory Systems. VersaBraille came out in 1982 as the first refreshable braille display available in the United States. A refreshable braille display is made up of mechanical pins that can pop up and down, displaying braille. When it came out, VersaBraille cost $7,000 but it allowed users to read without paper, and stored data on a cassette tape. Although VersaBraille was not the first refreshable braille display, as another braille display, Braille, had been created in Germany in 1975, VersaBraille was the first available in the United States, at a time when the current technology for computers was not portable, and required braille translation software programs, as well as a braille embosser. Refreshable Braille Displays are still used today, and are particularly useful for the deaf-blind, or in situations where speech output may be challenging.

Part 2:

For our second part, we decided to look at the early versions of Microsoft Word. When it came out in 1983, the interface for Word used many different symbols that could be hard to interpret, and the overall layout was very cluttered, making navigation difficult. Moreover, Word had two modes, text or graphics, making it hard to edit or embellish your writing, as you could add underlines, bold, or italics in the graphics mode, but not in the text mode.

Conclusion:

Overall, this exercise helped us to understand some of the technology and projects already in place to help people with disabilities, as well as some of the gaps where design can fail to be inclusive, even if it’s able to be used by others. Especially as communication designers, where a lot of the projects we do are visual, it’s imperative that we gain a better understanding of how we can make our designs accessible to a wider audience from the start.