Conducting ADA Compliant Market Research

Question

A client in government is being asked for reassurance that people with disabilities are being given equal opportunities to be heard and served. This includes ensuring that people with disabilities get appropriate accommodation if they want to participate.

How do we make provisions for this? TTY telephone surveys? “Read out loud” web surveys? Braille mail surveys? One-on-one interviews via ASL interpreter?

We already make accommodations for language, but how do we cost-effectively include the voice of the differently abled in general surveys? ¹

Our Answer

Now that’s an interesting question. Here are a few thoughts:

For the blind: CATI interviews would be effective, as would online research with the assistance of a screen reader. For online research however, one would have to remember that visual information must have alternative tags and descriptions that screen readers understand. Tab order would also be important as it’s generally used to “move” around the screen to buttons and selection options. It’s definitely possible and could be built into a dynamic template with “minimal investment” if enough research was being done with the blind to substantiate it.

For the deaf: online research would definitely be the best way to do it – keeping in mind that anything with “sound” would either be redundant, require a textual description or include subtitles – neither of which is particularly difficult or expensive. There’s also the option of TTY but I feel that much would be “lost in translation” by the TTY operator and the questions wouldn’t come across as clearly.

For the deaf and blind: one-on-one interviews using a tellatouch device would be the least costly – assuming that the individual has learned to read braille. If the individual hasn’t learned braille – one on one interviews could be conducted using a manual alphabet or an alphabet glove, but this would be incredibly time intensive and likely expensive. I would imagine that there are automated methods of translating English to Braille – printing paper braille surveys would be costly but perhaps a better option than in-person interviews.

For those with mental, or psychological disabilities: I think it should be approached on a case by case basis – any methodology could be used. However, the capacity to respond to the survey should be the primary concern.

Using multiple methodologies:

A good idea would be to use a combination of the above methodologies. Create an online survey that a CATI shop could use, with minor changes to the questionnaire for grammar, to collect data with – (CATI interviewers could read directly from the screen)