Enabling access to computers for people with poor reading skills

Abstract

Access to information and communication using the Internet is still very limited for people with poor reading skills. Current mainstream web applications such as email or web-shops are designed for people that have good reading skills. In our research we investigated the use of a web based email system by people with poor reading and writing skills. As literacy is not an absolute concept and people's abilities differ by a great extent. Recent reports suggest that even in developed countries up to a quarter of the population have only elementary reading skills. In our research we investigate how web applications can be designed to be usable by this group of people. In this paper we report an analysis of a password based logon procedure and suggest an alternative. The development method use is based on the idea of participatory design, includes investigations and studies and lasted over about 4 months. In a study we could show that the login time can be significantly reduced for those users using an image based authentication method. Furthermore it showed that this method can be used by the users without help. For our experience with working with users we suggest general design guidelines for building UIs for people with a low level of literacy. © Springer-Verlag 2004.