Who is the average user? How people with visual impairments experience digital services

This thesis investigates the connections between the process of designing digital services on the one hand and the personal accounts of five people with visual impairment who use digital services on the other. Design plays a significant role in causing or mitigating disability in society through the shape and function of products, services, and the built environment. To better understand how products and services cause disability, I analyse disability as a multifactorial phenomenon which emerges through the interplay of personal, social, and environmental factors. I first review three models of disability from the field of disability studies, and, secondly, the design process through the review of inclusive design frameworks. Based on this analysis, I discuss how inclusive design frameworks fail to address the individual needs of people with impairments by generalising their challenges; and how the official interpretation of disability has developed into defining disability as a basic human experience. This research follows a grounded theory approach which utilises the accounts of five people with visual impairment to discuss their ability to access digital content, and, the role of design and technology in mitigating disability. Based on their accounts, I argue that design can mitigate disability and, thus, increase the independence of people with impairments. Furthermore, concrete examples of their interaction with digital services will help to organise factors that cause a positive or negative user experience for people with visual impairment. This thesis concludes with the suggestion of a new approach for designing inclusive products and services. This approach aims to consider the factors constituting the personal experience of accessibility, such as the use of assistive technology, the effects of physical impairments, and the availability of technology. Through this approach, designers can distinguish vulnerable user groups on a case-specific basis and, consequently, mitigate exclusion during the design process. In addition to improving the design process, this thesis argues that interacting with people with impairments, e.g., in the work environment, serves as an indispensable educative function to understand the requirements for building accessible products and services, and, thereby, develops an inclusive and diverse society