As Kat says, “For better or worse, the people who design the touch points of society determine who can participate and who’s left out. We use our smartphones for everything: navigation, communication, work, finances, health, and more. Consider the way that technology can play the accidental (or intentional) role of gatekeeping in society. The assumption for video game controllers was an obvious one: they require you to have two hands to participate. John Porter’s Wall of Exclusion, showing a visual history of video game controllers

John Porter, quote from Kat Holmes’ Mismatch A game controller says “This is for you” or “This is not for you” This is true for everything we design. The design of these products clearly signals that gaming is for some people, and not for others. I keep these here to remind me of all the assumptions that we, as designers, make about people. When asked why he created a “Wall of Exclusion”, he stated: Growing up, John created a large pegboard wall of video game controllers that resembles a wall of hunting trophies. John has some physical mobility but uses a wheelchair and other assistive technologies to interact with the world. John Porter is a video game enthusiast and a PhD candidate whose research lies at the intersection of accessibility and human-computer interaction. A gamer and designer who depends on voice recognition shows Holmes his ‘Wall of Exclusion,’ which displays dozens of game controllers that require two hands to operate an architect shares her firsthand knowledge of how design can fail communities, gleaned from growing up in Detroit’s housing projects an astronomer who began to lose her eyesight adapts a technique called ‘sonification’ so she can ‘listen’ to the stars.”

In Kat Holmes’ book Mismatch, she “tells stories of pioneers of inclusive design, many of whom were drawn to work on inclusion because of their own experiences of exclusion. But, what if you’re a person who doesn’t have full use of one or either of these? What if you were in an accident and broke your arms? What if you were born without either arm, or with limited eyesight? Consider how this would effect your ability to interact with your TV and other things around you. In summary – the usage of a remote requires functioning hands and eyes.Ī TV remote assumes the person using it has hands and eyes. It requires you to physically push buttons or a certain amount of physical manipulation to make it work. It requires the ability to decipher shapes and iconography. What assumptions does a TV remote make about the person using it? It requires the ability to read or recognize the buttons. When you look at a physical product, someone (or many someones) designed it. Design can be inclusive or exclusive of the humans interacting with it.

Mismatch kat holmes