Title: Design and delivery of a national pilot survey of capabilities

Authors: Raji Tenneti; Joy Goodman-Deane; Patrick Langdon; Sam Waller; Kai Ruggeri; P. John Clarkson; Felicia A. Huppert

Addresses: School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Western Australia, M706, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK ' Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK ' Well-being Institute, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK

Abstract: Understanding the numbers of people with different levels of ability in the population is important for informing design decisions for mainstream products, but a survey dataset for this purpose does not exist. This paper describes a key step towards obtaining such data. It describes a pilot survey of 362 people across England and Wales in preparation for a full national survey. Information was gathered on vision, hearing, hand and arm function, mobility, cognitive function, product use, psychological characteristics, anthropometrics and demographics. An interesting finding is that of those participants who reported any limitations in daily activities due to capability loss, 44% reported limitations due to loss of more than one capability. This finding highlights the importance of measuring multiple capabilities in a single survey. Top-level lessons learnt include: simplifying vision tests; reducing exclusion criteria for some of the tests; adopting a stratified sampling approach; and allocating more training for interviewers.

Keywords: inclusive design; user-centred design; product design; human factors; ergonomics; human capabilities; design methods; design tools; national survey; ability levels; vision tests; hearing; hand and arm function; mobility; cognitive function; product use; psychological characteristics; anthropometrics; demographics; multiple capabilities; capability measurement; interviewer training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFE.2013.059375

International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2013 Vol.2 No.4, pp.281 - 305

Received: 09 Jul 2013
Accepted: 17 Nov 2013
Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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