Tismoo.me app
Turning emojis accessible for autistic
Disclaimer: This article is an account of an experience of the author, with data from articles and news available on the internet and not reflecting the opinion and/or experiences of other co-workers mentioned here.
Context
Recently, the ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas), in partnership with CGI.br and 90 other specialists, launched the NBR 17060 — a technical standard for accessibility to applications.
According to this news from Olhar Digital, is estimated that 17 million Brazilians are affected by a disability and, effectively, it is expected that the rule can contribute to the Brazilian law for the inclusion of people with disabilities — Law nº13,146/2015) to be effectively fulfilled.
Regarding to the autistic scenario itself is believed that the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1% to 2% of the world’s population and, in Brazil, approximately two million people. According to data from the United States Center of Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), among children, the proportion is that one in 44 suffers from a problem that is still little understood, but much studied.
Tismoo is one of those who works for understand and study more and more about not only about Autism, but also other neurological disorders of genetic origin related to ASD. They are a globally relevant biotechnology company, committed to improving the quality of life of patients and families affected by neurological disorders. Among the innovative technologies that have the potential to effectively change the quality of life for their patients, they have also a social network dedicated to autism — Tismoo.me.
About Tismoo.me
Tismoo.me is a health and care platform that adapts to the needs and specific case of the families related to Autism somehow. Users can find reliable information about autism in an easy way by organizing documents and exam files, creating and following groups, asking questions and connecting with people who can help them on their journey.
The problem
While I worked in the Tismoo.me application as a UX/UI designer, Francisco Paiva Jr — owner of Tismoo and P.O. of the application brought to the team a very specific issue:
Some autistic people may be uncomfortable or have difficulties interpreting emojis
There are 2 levels of hypersensitivity:
• The first covers people who have a very literal and very concrete reading (with difficulty understanding figures of speech, such as irony, double meanings, sarcasm and some puns) and also those who do not find it easy to “read” facial emotions;• The second group is autistic with visual hypersensitivity to the point that emojis interfere with reading. Not just the emojis, by the way. There are those who cover part of the cell phone or computer screen with their hand when trying to read a text permeated by animated ads or many emojis.
— Emojis e acessibilidade para pessoas com autismo — Francisco Paiva Jr. (August, 2021)
— You can also find more details in the Introvertendo’s podcast — Acessibilidade na internet (July, 2020).
The proposal of solution
Thinking about this need, Francisco together with the App's Product Team thought about a solution — the first accessibility feature for autistic people.
As a designer, it was my responsibility to translate this visually, in a simple and practical way — also possible to implement when talking about developing technologies and limitations. I'm confident we have achieve a really nice result, as you can watch below:
The user have the control weather he/she wants to visualize or not the emojis in the texts with a simple turn on/off switch. For those who have trouble understanding the meaning, is even possible to visualize also the emoji's description.
For example: a text with “Hello, world! 😁”, is shown as “Hello, world! {emoji: smiling face}”. That way, they can start learning about the meaning of each emoji while being used in real contexts.
As the user turns the switch button on or off, the image changes to show him/her how it will look like on the social network feed screen. That way, he/she can have a preview before setting it up.
It was truly fulfilling working not only on this feature but also with the app itself, as I've learned a lot about the universe of autism and it felt like making real difference in people's lives.
It would be awesome if us, as Product People take in consideration more and more the Accessibility issues, turning the products each time more diverse and inclusive.
If you have some opinion, critical or comments about it, I would be happy to discuss. For more information about this subject, there is also a website available at Canal Autismo and a free magazine — Revista Autismo that Francisco publishes quarterly.
↠ Thanks for Francisco Paiva Jr.s' for all the insights and knowledge shared with us. Also, thanks for the Development Team — Rosenberg Torres, Carina Yoshida, Miguel Basticioto and Solano Morales.
