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Universal usability

Published:01 May 2000Publication History
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References

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  1. Universal usability

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      Edward Baker James

      Most of us manage to use the telephone and find something to watch on television, but doing what we want with a computer seems ever more difficult. This paper promotes a concern with this fact, and suggests a research agenda aimed at improving things. There are great challenges in providing universal access, because people are so different. An easy-to-use method for one person <__?__Pub Caret>is just tedious for another. And what of disadvantaged users with no confidence in reading or pressing keys__?__ Many years ago, we provided a terminal aimed at giving every visitor to the Science Museum in London the experience of computer use. We found that young people clustered round, fiddled about, and had fun. Older people were often afraid to get close to the terminal. I have always believed that problems with computer use are an integral part of much wider problems of confidence in communicating. Whether research departments full of bright, confident users are the right places to dream up new ways of helping disadvantaged people is a moot point, but I cannot suggest anywhere better. Shneiderman has labored in these fields for many years, and we should listen to him.

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        cover image Communications of the ACM
        Communications of the ACM  Volume 43, Issue 5
        May 2000
        108 pages
        ISSN:0001-0782
        EISSN:1557-7317
        DOI:10.1145/332833
        Issue’s Table of Contents

        Copyright © 2000 ACM

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        • Published: 1 May 2000

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