I-See-U.info is a blueprint for Accessible and Universal Design (external link) Authored by professor Bill Fischer. It supports and facilitates Design Citizenship through research and practice. It integrates Inclusive, Socio-Emotional, Entertaining, and Universal design principles, to move people, society, and culture beyond reaction to action.
My universal design blueprint progresses beyond the technical requirements for the accommodation of persons with disabilities or deficiencies and towards their full participation in the ongoing social fabric of the world in which we all live. Universal design aims for people of all abilities to experience rich media together, at the same time, in the same place, on the same information-channel.
Universal design is, at its core, a UX discipline.
The Fischer Universal Color System can be leveraged by designers to create rich experiences for persons with (and without) low vision, light sensitivity, scotopic sensitivity, glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and color-blindness.
In this Substack article I deconstructed a published CDC map, then rebuilt it using universal design principles from my I-See-U blueprint. You can read the full CDC map study here (external link).
This reel of animation and video includes out-takes from six different KCAD student projects that were part of The EPIC Project. They were tasked with referencing the methodology outlined in My I-See-U blueprint to develop creative methods for integrating captions organically.
The goal being, a rich experience for both deaf and fully-sensed persons that can be experienced together.
Faculty collaborators were myself, Susan Bonner, and Mike Dollar.
This case study was created by me and presented at three international conferences, including the Meaningful Games Conference at MSU. It integrates 22 accessibility features without using add-ons like captions and audio descriptions. See the entire universal games presentation here (external link).
21 field tests were executed and reports created as part of The EPIC Project (a collaborative initiative by faculty, students, teachers, and field experts to imagine, create, and test innovative educational media). See all of the field test reports here (external link).
My (I-See-U) universal design blueprint is perfectly positioned to facilitate A.I. enabled wearables such as smart glasses with built-in cameras, microphones, speakers, and video displays. These could profoundly transform our lives, and that may be especially true for disabled persons. The I-See-U blueprint for universal design's pre-integration of accessibility will be well positioned because after-the-fact add-ons like audio descriptions, edited captions, and screen-reader extensions won't be viable in these real-time domains.
Imagine these scenarios:
Your deaf, seated at a lecture in class, and your eyewear's display is creating captions in real time.
Your blind, walking across campus, and your eyewear's speaker is guiding you around obstacles and towards your destination.
Your color-blind, deciphering a campus bus map, and your eyewear is mapping numbers over the various color-coded routes.
Your dyslexic, in the library reading a microfiche, and your eyewear is delivering real-time, text to speech.
Shown here: Meta Aria Gen 2 Smart Glasses