Human Factors Engineering: Designing for Diversity and Accessibility

Abstract

As the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee enters its fifth year, it continues to encourage the society, annual meeting attendees, and human factors professionals to improve diversity and equity within the field. At the center of this field are humans and their widely varying needs and abilities. While HFE professionals devote themselves to these needs, their details are often overlooked in order to design for what is assumed to be a majority of users. These assumptions can then lead users to be rejected by products, systems, or objects. This rejection indicates a lack of accessibility, which affects millions worldwide. In this panel, experts in the areas of universal design, healthcare, and accessible design will discuss how to “do” accessibility while demonstrating that accessibility should be considered a required component of usability.