How do you recruit and engage users with disabilities for user research?

Including people with disabilities in user research is important because whatever you create, some of your users have disabilities. When you exclude disabled people from your user research, you don't get an accurate picture of your users. You skew your research right from the start. The worst thing about making this mistake? It's a vicious cycle. Failing to include users with disabilities can make it appear that you don't have disabled users. This leads to less investment in accessibility -- which can drive away the disabled users you do have -- and further exclusion from future research. Don't make this mistake. Make a conscious decision to include disabled people.

My understanding is that if a product is intended for everyone, there is no reason to exclude a subset of users who require a specific accommodation to use it. I agree that design and development may not be thinking from that angle, and that's where research adds value.

To recruit and engage users with disabilities for user research, prioritize accessibility in your recruitment process by using multiple channels, providing clear and accessible information, screening for specific needs related to their disability, and ensuring respectful and ethical interactions throughout the research process; consider partnering with disability advocacy groups, utilizing online platforms designed for accessibility, and tailoring your research methods to accommodate different assistive technologies.

I actually agree with all of this. I do feel that a non-disabled person should also view the changes that may be made to make sure both persons get the most of their experience.

Including users with disabilities is important because accessibility is about the human experience. It is also helpful for identifying barriers that tools may overlook.

101 million adults in the EU have some form of disability according to Eurostat estimates. This means that 27% of the potential adult user base have their own ways of perception and techniques. It is not just a favor anymore to consider these needs: including every 4th of your potential clients into research is one important step on the road to create a sustainable product that is useable for everyone.

User research with disabled people is really important to better understand the barriers they face. A WCAG conformant website odes not mean a 100% accessible website! They do not cover every scenario, and there is a lot of variety on how disabled people use their assistive technology, like a screen reader. They might have access to different resources, and people will vary in their capabilities of usage. Just testing with 6 different people using a screen reader will give you 6 different experiences, but there's always overlapping lessons you can draw from them!

I can’t stress enough the importance of properly compensating people with disabilities for their time. Contact nonprofits who provide supports to or advocate on behalf of people with different disabilities to help find participants. Make sure the end-to-end research process, such as sign-up form, consent material, even the means of obtaining compensation are all accessible. for users of assistive technology, it is important to screen for participants with a variety of experience-levels using these technologies, and the web/mobile devices and apps. This will impact their opinions and observations on what they are looking at.

Make sure you recruit people based on their level of experience with assistive technology. People with congenital disabilities have life long experience and sometimes a different psychological perspective because that’s the life they’ve always had. People with recently acquired disabilities have less experience with assistive technology and may still be struggling with acceptance.

Make your recruiting and screening process accessible. If you recruit via email, is the email readable with a screen reader? Is there an online form for participants to fill out? Is it accessible to people who can't use a mouse, to screen reader users, and to people who use the zoom feature in their browser to enlarge the content in the page? Are you working with a third party company to recruit participants? Ask them for details about the accessibility of their process. If they've put effort into making it accessible, they should be able to provide details on the work they've done. Do you have unnecessary screening criteria like a maximum age of 65, that will screen out participants with disabilities? If so, drop these.

I will add to the assumptions part. It is possible that a person with disability, do not want the world to know about their disabilities or may not identify as an individual with disabilities. Based on any records that one have about them should not be considered as a right to confront them about their disabilities. Always confirm with them before proceeding under assumptions that they will acknowledge it.

Recruiting for user research with disabilities has its challenges. Not only is it generally more difficult to find participants, but you also run the risk of getting 'experienced testers' in your sample. Which is great if you want to do some unmoderated testing, but we find it isn't a proper reflection of your general audience. Options are experienced recruitment partner. They should source on a combination of disability with other testing criteria. Non-profits often have people who are willing to participate. Within your audience, i.e. based on user feedback. Hire unmoderated testers, although I find this doesn't give you the same results. Always compensate people fairly! Be creative when dealing with people on benefits.

When I had to run a study I took help on one of the tool and added up several screener questions which helped me funnel down people with certain difficulties and it worked.

Not all persons with disabilities are treated equally. It is important that user research not mask, but acknowledge and explore issues of intersectionality. There are inequities in terms of access, barriers and ableist behaviours for persons with multiple disabilities. Persons with sensory limitations, often including vision and hearing and vestibular limitations for example are often excluded from much needed user research. Look across functional limitations as most people with disabilities have more than one disability, and accessibility is holistic and for everyone.

Make sure you allow for extra time and preferably to test on the users own devices which they will have already optimized for their needs. Putting a new device or new AT in front of a disabled user automatically creates a barrier and could invalidate your results.

When remote, do a tech session beforehand. People might have little experience sharing their screen for example. Take extra time for the session, or tailor your test plan accordingly. Even on what you might think is a simple website, people using assistive tech will are known to need 2-10x longer to complete a task. Step over any fear of speaking to disabled people. They're normal people like everyone else! Have an intro chat and understand their language preferences. When testing on-site, allow people to bring their own AT if possible. It's tailored to their preferences, and everyone tends to use theirs differently.

Make sure the venue -- whether online or in person -- and the study process are accessible to the people you've recruited as participants. If there's a live online interview, make sure the platform you use is accessible to your participants. If there's an in-person interview or lab session, tell participants what to expect. Describe the location, transport options, accessibility of the physical space, sequence of events and how long each takes, etc. Ask them what they need and what would be helpful. Be prepared to provide a sign language interpreter or other resources that might require budget in addition to what you're paying participants. Pay for transportation. Ask participants what kind of transportation works for them.

It's very important to also record the screen and generate a heat map of the user's activity. Many users, including those with disabilities, rely on their cursor to navigate through paragraphs and interact with elements on the site. Use the heat maps to detect patterns. Do users encounter difficulty reading a paragraph, consider simplifying it to improve comprehension. Similarly, if users consistently overlook important benefits your site offers, consider updating images to draw attention to these features. Additionally, utilize "sr-only" styles to ensure that users who rely on screen readers can easily identify and access critical content. These strategies help enhance accessibility and improve the user experience for everyone.

Expect to have a wide range of experiences from which you grab snippets of feedback. People use a variety of assistive tech. There's already 5 very commonly used screen readers, for example. Unless you focus on a really specific group (say 6 users using JAWS) to draw specific conclusions, you'll get very broad results.

Familiarize yourself and your team with what assistive technology is and what is its purpose before recruiting for a study with assistive technology users. Additionally, If you are looking for users of a specific type of assistive technology, specify that ard confirm that by the screening process because there are many types of assistive technologies and even saying alternative navigation is not enough because there are many users of many different types of alternative navigation i.e. voice control, switch scanning, head pointing devices. Being specific in your recruitment and screwing process will save you time and minimize frustration and confusion.

Where possible, allow users of assistive technology to use their own computer and technologies, unless you have what they already use. this could avoid unnecessary anxiety related to having to learn unfamiliar assistive software or hardware first, or having to customize the technology to meet their needs before starting the actual research study. Not to overstate the obvious, make sure that the web or mobile app is accessible, to the degree possible, so that participants doen’t get stuck because of obvious accessibility issues.

To engage users with disabilities for research, utilize diverse channels (forums, social media). Collaborate with advocacy groups for broader outreach, using inclusive language in recruitment. Ensure accessible platforms and communicate expectations, offering flexible participation options like remote interviews. Provide inclusive incentives, state accessibility requirements, and involve participants in design. Train researchers on accessibility, prioritize testing, and implement an inclusive consent process. Establish a feedback mechanism, ensuring research materials are accessible. Empathetically listen to participants, fostering an inclusive environment for meaningful research.