PROMOTING AND OBSTRUCTING FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSAL DESIGN OF ICT

The focus on Universal Design (UD) has increased steadily over the last decades. Web content accessibility standards and guidelines have been created, and specific legislation is in place in several countries to further UD. However, there are limited insights into the actual practices regarding successful implementation of UD in ICT-projects. This study aims to provide such insights through an interview study with 13 individuals affiliated with 12 ICT-projects that have been successful in ensuring UD. The data from the interviews is analyzed in-depth through a thematic analysis, in search for theoretical interpretations that may generate the basis for a proposed best practice for UD in ICT-projects. Our data identify 13 promoting and 6 obstructive factors related to the implementation of UD, spanning three levels - organizational, process and individual. Our findings both coincide and expand previous research findings. The study highlights the link between user-centered design, usability focus and universal design. On process level, early and continuous focus on UD and usability, in iterative approaches, with frequent quality assurance and user contact, and interdisciplinary collaboration seems to be good practice. Our findings emphasize the importance and influence of having a solid anchoring of UD at all levels (a “UD culture”), as well as individual competences and personal qualities of team members and stakeholders. Main findings are summarized in six factors; “UD anchoring”, “UD competence”, “Focus”, “Collaboration”, “Iterative process” and “QA (Quality Assurance)”. Future work aim to verify findings, model practice factors, contribute towards reliable best practices and design a tool indicating the UD maturity of a project.