David Barter
Alt Context
How might we empower visually impaired people to self-sufficiently improve their digital literacy?
Alt Context is a service that synergizes with Instagram to provide visual context to its media for visually impaired users through text (which converts to audio feedback via screen readers). This text is provided by users with good vision, in response to requests by visually impaired users, and is intended to build on alt-text as an accessibility tool separate from its other uses.It circumvents the top-down power structure in which accessibility of visual content can only be provided by the content’s creators and provides a new resource for visually impaired people to improve their digital literacy in a world that increasingly demands it.
Insight
Digital literacy, the ability to effectively consume, create, communicate and share via digital technologies, is increasingly important today for employability, socializing, creativity, consumption, navigation and much more. Despite regularly showing significant resilience and adaptability to their abilities, the visually impaired community continues to engage with digital technologies very little compared to their peers with acute vision and suffer from high levels of unemployment and underemployment as a result.
Idea
Research shows what effect basic accessibility through screen reader audio can have, and how some sources of digital content are designed to better provide this accessibility than others. Instagram lacks this type of accessibility despite being one of the most visual media-oriented digital platforms in significant use, at over one billion currently active users. This shows the value to be gained, both from the visually impaired community, and from Instagram itself, by introducing a service to help the community effectively use Instagram non-visually.
Impact
Success within this project’s scope would allow for a much broader impact: other social networks, and other sources of digital content that have community contributions could become fully accessible to the visually impaired community. With self-sufficiently improved digital literacy, their employability, the richness of their social lives, their ability to participate in economic activities, and the state of mutual empathy and trust between them and people outside their community could significantly improve.
Biography
David Barter is an interaction designer, researcher, writer, and enthusiastic problem solver. He is in the business of making technology appropriate, shaping behaviours, discovering intuitive interactions, and spreading his knowledge as far as possible.
David is a mature student with a previous degree in Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University, and his research interests revolve around inclusive design, haptic and tangible interactions, non-visual sensory experiences, and data representation. He will be pursuing these interests further in a Masters of Design in Inclusive Design at OCAD University starting in September 2021.