Libro - Designing strategies for improving accessibility

Develop an accessible solution for sharing content based on videos such as TikTok or Instagram.

Target Audience:

Deaf people and people with hearing impairment.

Goals:

Role in the Team:

Product Designer

Deaf people who speak Portuguese can connect and help those who don't. You don't necessarily need to be an interpreter to help

Comunity Power

Acessible Tools

Provide tools to make videos acessible, such as manual subtitling in SLA videos

Visual Content

The main content format is visual: videos, photos...
Use a visual timeline like TikTok and Playground Brasil

Share Content

Publish content for people to translate into ASL language

Connect People

Bring together deaf people, interpreters, and content creators on one platform.
You can connect with your favorite mentor!

Year: 2021

Context of the market:

Why did we create a solution for sharing content based on videos?

It is undeniable that the current year ushered in a huge impact on digital advancement. The outbreak of the pandemic forced us to allocate most of our resources to the digital ecosystem but

Is digital content delivered equally to all audiences?

A survey carried out in 2019 by Bigdata Corp indicates that less than 1% of websites passed accessibility tests. This decrease is even more significant when discussing accessible resources for deafness and hearing impairment, such as sign language and subtitled videos.

Most people don’t know that people with hearing impairments only know sign language, not Portuguese. In this case, Portuguese works as a second language. According to IBGE (2010), about 70% of deaf people have difficulty reading and writing in Portuguese, Therefore, it is important to have sign language interpreters along with subtitles on platforms..

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), there are approximately 10 million deaf citizens, comprising 5% of the Brazilian population — a large market to be better explored.

Do deaf people have access to content according to their needs?

Biggest challenges

Understand the biggest difficulty faced in remote activities by the Deaf and people with hearing impairments.

85%

Other insights discovered while in the research phase:

• They need to work on self-confidence and social skills

• They don’t feel included in the scope of social interaction

• Each person with a disability has specificities for absorbing content, and platforms do not always support resources adapted to these needs.

of users said they don't find general content adapted to their needs.

“I think they mostly focus on educational stuff, but sometimes I just want content about health, entertainment, and politics—not only education.”

1

Discover -Research

Users profile

1. Priscila - Deaf fluent in ASL language, not Portuguese: Priscila is a deaf woman who primarily communicates in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Portuguese. She is preparing to take the entrance exam for a public university's postgraduate program in Physical Education and Sports.
She attended middle school in a traditional school, with no Libras and now has difficulties writing and communicating in Portuguese and she struggles in communicating with her friends who don't know Libras.

1

Discover -Research

Based on our research we identified three major user profiles:

2. Carlos - Deaf fluent in Libras and Portuguese: Carlos is fluent in Libras and Portuguese, can read lips, and has partial hearing. He serves as a mentor and content creator and is a speaker at boot camps, hackathons, and workshops. He attended a bilingual middle school where he learned Libras and Portuguese, and now uses his communication skills to create an inclusive environment for the deaf community.

3.Juliana - Interpreter of ASL language: Juliana is a teacher at a public school and works as a sign language interpreter. While she interprets Libras to supplement her income, she faces difficulties in finding students. Rachel believes there is a need for applications focused on Libras interpretation rather than just translation. This is because some deaf students are fluent only in Portuguese and not in Libras, so they require "real interpreters" to understand certain content. Her wish is to have an app that connects deaf individuals with interpreters.

2

Define - Benchmarking

We did a Benchmarking to find some incredible ideas and some of the amazing platforms that have those characteristics are:

• Flipboard

• HandTalk

• Feedly

Why focus on a visual concept?

When talking with target users we recognized that if we want to develop an application for this audience, we have to focus on nontextual content. The app should be easy to find content, with clearly defined guides and tabs organized by topics since some individuals have difficulty with Portuguese.

How Priscila can use our Product

Complete Journey Map here

Define - Journey Map

3

Mapping all the platform functionalities.

Complete User flow map here

Define - User flow

4

5

Define - Moscow

How should we prioritize the functionalities?

After conducting research, we found ourselves at a crossroads on how to begin developing our app. With a tight 3-week timeline for building a prototype, it is crucial to prioritize the essential functionalities that capture the core of the app.

We prioritize functionalities such as:

• Sign Up and Login

• Upload of videos

• Select ASL language

• Contact Interpreters

• Choose content by category
  

The App

How can we visually represent our application's essence and idea? What would be the ideal screens for our audience?

6

Develop - Prototype

Style Guide

We opted for a palette with cheerful tones, but that would give confidence to the user, seeking the idea that the application is something fun but reliable at the same time.

Layouts prioritize icons and videos to make it easier for non-fluent Portuguese speakers to understand.

7

Deliver - User Testing

Tested users:

• 2 deaf

• 1 ASL language interpreter

Is our idea valid?

Usability tests were conducted with our interviewers to understand:

• The application is understandable from the point of view of languages and visuals

• Was the information clear?

• Is the flow of screens understandable to the user?

Results:

• Clean screen flow to users ✅

• Good concept for the product ✅

Improvements:

• Changing some icons and subtitles, certain symbols or words have different meanings in Portuguese and ASL Language.

• Yellow is not the best color for deaf-blind people, the app is understandable but dark shades are more comfortable and easier to read.

Learnings

I had already researched and studied accessibility, but we only consider and think like the other when we understand the "pains" of each one. I learned a lot about deaf people and how we need to consider ways of accessibility not only because of legislation but also because they are an integral part of society. It was noticeable during the project that they are part of the consumer market and want to consume, but often do not find products aimed at their needs.