Disclaimer: the following interview has been translated
Background information about the students: The students of Rosalie have had seven weeks of lectures, twice per week for two hours. There are on average 25 students per group and there are two groups. The students are in their first year.
The student of Mijke is in his fourth year and is currently writing his thesis. He sees her once a week for an hour. They have 10 to 12 students per group and there are two groups.
What do you know about the situation of Rosalie?
The vision is explained as the inverse of tunnel vision, Rosalie called it ‘helicopterview’. It is especially difficult that they cannot look you in the eyes. When she is teaching she knows most of the lecture, but sometimes she has to zoom in or ask students what is on the slide. In practice she teaches very well and she helps the students well. She uses tools to help her, for example, a laptop-stand and text to speech on her laptop and phone. She doesn’t recognize us but when she hears our project name she knows who we are.
What do you know about the situation of Mijke?
I feel that Mijke does recognize you, but that this does take energy. She remembers how you talk and your characteristics. If students sit in the back of the classroom it is more difficult for her. Mijke is not really using tools that support her. Mijke has to look really closely when she is writing or when she looks at her phone.
We then explained what the project entails and what the concepts are. We started with the workshop and then had them experience it.
Would you prefer the workshop be divided into three sessions or one longer session?
I would rather have three different sessions, otherwise you might miss a significant part of the first lesson. The chances of someone missing the whole workshop is also lowered. Two sessions of 15 minutes is also a possibility.
The students then put on the glasses and experienced it, we also asked them to look at each other.
Now I understand why they cannot recognize faces.
You can recognize clothes of each other but not the faces. I’m really looking at what the hair looks like and the general shape of someone.
I can already empathize better and it really shows that it is worse than I thought. It is really fuzzy.
I find it a useful activity to empathize better. It is best to only put on the glasses for a few minutes as it is quite intense and afterwards Rosalie or Mijke can explain more about it.
The second activity with the glasses was recognizing famous people. With the glasses on we showed them different celebrities on the laptop.
Every face only one of them recognized a face and that person had to be really close to the screen. They would prefer to have a conversation with eachother than recognizing faces on the screen as this would be far away for students sitting in the back. Doing it in a group could work as a way for the students to get to know eachother. The teacher is also looking at people in the physical world and not on the screen.
Do you think the workshop would help you?
For sure! You can empathize way better and I would be more inclined to say my name when I ask a question.
Application: (General feedback)
It is not completely clear where you are in the app. More clarity regarding where you should click as a student would help. A button to return to the start would be good. Look in detail at the contrast in the app as this could be improved.
Would you use the app?
If it helps my teacher I would use the app. I would prefer using the app over saying my name every time I have a question. For some it could feel akward to say their name everytime they have a question, the app would solve this.
Having the attendance list in the app is a really good option. This is sometimes a problem in class when students do the attendance.
To test the layout of the workshop and the app more than their content, we executed a wizard of Oz testing that simply meant acting out the workshop and the use of the app. (Using our laser-cut glasses and figma prototype for the app)
The results of this testing can be seen through the concept video available on the home page.
The workshop plan is worked out and it has been tested, the goggles make the vision of the wearer blurry, however, we cannot confirm 100% that this is what people with Stargardt’s disease see. Furthermore, we had plans to create a website where people who could not attend the workshop could still experience the vision of our case owners. This idea was not implemented in the final product, because we did not have enough time. However, we planned to have three short sessions for the workshop, therefore, it is less likely that someone will miss all of them.
The application is only a prototype because with our current knowledge, it would be really hard or impossible to create a functioning application in 10 weeks. Nonetheless, the application was tested using the Wizard of Oz method and the results showed that it is usable. However, our application evaluation is not extensive enough to determine the best layout for the application in case the user has Stargardt’s disease. We can only base our results on what our case owners prefer.
Due to the context and ease of use of our final design, it would be possible to extend our concept and involve a bigger group of people.
For example, a few teachers, who do not live with any disabilities, have already expressed the usefulness of the application to help them learn the names of their students. It is not hard to imagine, especially in a university setting, that the teachers do not know their students’ names, because they usually have tens or hundreds of them.
The Application could be implemented in an already existing “online classroom” platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, etc. A way of doing this would be to have an extension on one of these platforms, where the teachers could have a text-to-speech option. When someone raises their hand in the online class, the teacher would receive audio feedback, of the name of the student. This is beneficial for both the teacher and students that would not have to download an extra application.
As for the glasses made for the workshop, by redesigning them a little, it would be possible to switch the filters which alter the vision of the wearer to simulate different types of visual impairments. For example, by blocking all vision through the glasses except for a tiny hole in the middle, it is possible to show what a person with tunnel vision is experiencing. Paired with proper workshops the glasses would be a great tool to raise awareness of visual disabilities and maybe it would be a step forward to a more inclusive world.
