Technography - Visually Impaired People
Technography refers to the study of the relationship between technology and society, including how people use and interact with technology in their daily lives. For individuals with visual impairments, technology plays a crucial role in enabling them to access information and engage with the world around them.This was 6- Week long project in which we had to shadow people with visual impairment once a week and try understand how are they navigating/using technology, what are the pain points while using that etc.
*This Video Is The Final Technography Report
All three of them were using Iphones with aTactile Screen Protector and on screen curtain mode which allows them to use the iphone with gestures. All three of them use the screen reader in their phone to navigate through applications. Kartik has the speed of the screen reader a bit faster than the other two people apart from that the volume of their mobile screen reader they kept was very low as they were concerned no one should read their whats app messages or whatever is in their phone as screen reader speaks out. They used their mobile phones with two hands as one of the hands is used to keep the mobile phone speaker near to their ear and the other hand to navigate through the mobile as they have kept volume minimal they have to get phone near to ear to listen. They asked me to order a burger for them as they said food applications are not at all accessible for them and if they order also it would take them more time to put an address and also navigate once the order arrives. Although at the end of the event they booked their uber on their own as uber is very much accessible. Also, both Rahul and Kartik were using laptops with wired ear plugs attached. It took me a while to realise that they are used to hearing the screen reader's voice. They all were easily navigating through their emails and zoom account through the screen reader. All three were too much into tech in developing the solutions and also making basic digital services accessible to people with disabilities. Rahul and Kartik were very much concerned about their physical environment at the event ; they were taking time to understand and analyse. Once they analyse they do not need any help. Best thing was they always organise things and keep things back in the bag in an organised manner like to put cables in that particular compartment only
​Being a low vision person he uses both high contrast and screen reader to navigate through his laptop I could shadow him from far only as he was giving talk but I asked him a lot questions in between so here we go : Sir can understand how much people are far from him just because of sound and a bit of gradient low vision. Sir uses dark themes for more clarity with a minimum colour contrast ratio of 4.5. I think the way they interact with his screen reader makes it look like it’s a third person thing to him as he gets paranoid in between when the screen reader says something all he does not want to hear. Also, he talked about the e-commerce side not being accessible at all, especially the problem with clothing as he can not see the colour, stuff and as the screen reader can not tell in the image what it is. Also he talked about alt text to be used on social media while posting specially in instagram and facebook to make it photos & video accessible as it provides description of the photo to visually impaired people. He also asked me to click his portrait and send it randomly to one of my friends on whatsapp sitting there and then he said if the other person does not know how he will know whose picture it is and why you have sent it that description is really important. In the end sir uses most of the digital services on his own sir has found out his own ways to make it accessible.
This was not such a great day today. I spent 5 hours and did nothing because the paperwork got stuck but I was in a room with two people out of which one looks low vision and other looks completely blind so I thought to observe what they are doing. So as I see they look like IT people trying to do system testing. These are the first set of people whose speed of the screen reader looks very slow to me and they are also working on it. In between one person got frustrated a lot and tried to talk back to him in anger as if the screen reader would reply. I Do not get any insights as I can not disturb them as they are working but one thing happened. The completely blind person I think forgot where he kept his laptop. Then he came to my table to find it, then I asked him what he was looking for ? He replied laptop and I replied back that it is not here. Then he started searching again on his table. Then I saw that he kept his laptop on the other opposite side of his table than I went and gave him. I know that one person has low vision because he was trying to look into the screen while the other person was not at all trying to look. Maybe my assumption would be completely wrong. They both were using the windows laptop lenovo and dell model. I did not get a chance to look at what phone they were using.
Narender Sir is currently working on excel sheets navigating through the cells of excel making curriculum. He is currently using his laptop in the dark mode with most of the items exposed in the green colour also he is ear plugged to read his screen reader voice. He looks to be a pro in excel sheet with that for he is constantly switching to his outlook account. He owns an iphone 14 with the i watch and his laptop is windows running lenovo business laptop. For his privacy he had put some special tempered glass on his iphone so that someone can not look from sideways through his phone but sometimes it becomes a problem to him being a low vision. Another app he is using whats app web also he is using the install version of outlook on his desktop and also whats app with that he is using microsoft teams. He also has his screen reader speech fast like other people I had shadowed. Also, they only put earplugs in one ear so that they can hear the environment. Sir has learned most of the shortcuts on his keyboard to easily access. He does not use his touch pad or any mouse on the laptop he navigates through the external keyboard attached to it. Sir uses a magnifier on his phone to read physical documents . As sir has become so much familiar with outlook he loves to directly write in that only. Sir uses Jaws screen reader in his laptop to navigate through as the basic screen reader installed in windows is not at all good. Jaws screen reader costs around 1200 USD and for major version updates you have to give 150 USD and no subscription based model available in India. Also sir uses mostly all the applications in mobile phones which have been installed in our phones but the only difference is he uses assistive tools to access . Once sir tried to shift mac os but it was taking too much for him so he then went back to his windows os. Sir likes mostly the type version of screen reader not the voice assistant as it's a bit slow in processing tasks and sir wanted to be equally time taken like other people. Although when sir start using any software sir has to additionally learn it’s shortcuts before starting and has to practise to explore to increase his efficiency of using it also it happens with sir if he did not use that particular software for longer time sir lose efficiency as he forgot the shortcut sir learned. Now sir has to look into someone else's laptop screen which does not have the screen reader installed. Being the low vision to read sir just comes very much closer to that person's laptop screen. It looks like there is no distance left between the laptop screen and him
Conclusion
The sample of my technography was homogenous . The people I have shadowed are neither low income nor low tech literate. They have visual disabilities as a common factor, and have found a way around their disabilities, so that it does not become a hindrance from them to do anything in their life. Although almost all the people I shadowed use the iPhone but in terms of laptop they still use the Windows with JAWS screen reader and they are accessing all the applications from WhatsApp to Outlook, Uber to GPay with the help of different assistive technologies. I tried to make a mascot which was fitting with almost all the people I did technography who used their laptop so here it is. What I learnt is, people have pride, pride can be a source of confidence when channelled properly. People are innovative when they really want to overcome their ‘being-pitied-upon’ limitations. What fascinates me is their trust in the promise of technology. They were more understanding and responsive than your general everyday Jaws. I realised that the solution is or would never only be about the tech, but also through respecting the underlying asymmetry and overcoming the very many ‘obvious-assumptions’ about those individuals.