ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at recruiting and working with users from a practical perspective. It takes account of what can be achieved within likely budgets, administrative constraints and schedules. The small-scale consultation described in this chapter should bring any major limitations of a product or service to the fore and suggest realistic improvements. It is usually desirable to include people with differing experiences and attitudes. The demographic groups often considered centre on sex, age, terminal education age, socio-economic group and some type of lifestyle group. This chapter necessarily gives emphasis to disability. However the focus of inclusive design is not disability. Rather it aims to eliminate disability caused by design by making sure that as many people as possible can use a product, irrespective of the nature of their impairment. The social model of disability demonstrates that it is poor design that turns impairment into a disability.