Re: Diversity Question

This could be very confusing especially with using a familiar term in a 
new and different context.  And in addition to "they", there are other 
pronouns (ze/zis, ey/em/eirs, ve/vis, etc.) and potentially new ones 
defined in the future.
Would not recommend trying to select and apply one pronoun across all 
persona examples.

One potential approach is to create the examples in first person "I" 
which removes the need to use other pronouns.

Otherwise, best to identify the desired pronouns in that persona's intro 
to use throughout that single example.  Then use a different pronoun for 
the next persona.  And, it is better to use the persona's name as much 
as possible over any pronoun to minimize the confusion.

Tal (she/her/hers): A student...
Bob (ze/zis)...
Pat (they/them/theirs)...

Thanks!


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*From:* Rachael Bradley Montgomery [mailto:rachael@accessiblecommunity.org]
*Sent:* Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 12:48 PM
*To:* public-cognitive-a11y-tf
*Subject:* Diversity Question

> Hello,
>
> We received an issue to try to incorporate gender diversity into our 
> personas. We have tried to do this but would like to discuss whether 
> the gender neutral plural causes reading difficulties.  Please review 
> the proposed persona below my signature before Thursday so we are 
> prepared to discuss this.
>
> More information about the importance of pronouns and how to handle 
> them is at https://www.mypronouns.org/how 
> <https://www.mypronouns.org/how>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Rachael
>
>
>       Tal: A Student who has Dyslexia and Impaired Eye Hand Coordination
>
>  *
>
>     Problem:
>
>  *
>
>      As a slow reader it takes me ages to read through badly
>     structured text and I often miss important information.
>
>  *
>
>     Works well:
>
>  *
>
>      The newsletter has headings so I can find the important
>     information quickly.
>
> Tal has been a student in Israel for the past year. Tal’s Fashion 
> Design course is challenging but fun. Tal loves the creative aspect of 
> the diploma and would rather be drawing than writing. Tal has moderate 
> dyslexia, which affects their ability to cope with complex text. Tal 
> sometimes finds working out how words are pronounced when they have 
> many syllables.  This can make it hard for Tal to grasp the meaning of 
> some paragraphs. Tal often has to reread content. Tal has several 
> projects to complete as part of their portfolio. The one that worries 
> Tal most involves a written assignment to research Post-war fashions 
> and their impact on today’s designs.
>
>
>         6.3.1 Tal Scenario 1: Logging In
>
> Tal's use of the library catalogue when using the college computers 
> often fails at the first attempt. This happens when Tal can not 
> remember their password. Tal keeps putting in ‘afib61’ rather than 
> ‘afid16’ and can not see the mistake. The error message on the webpage 
> does not help because it announces that the username or password are 
> incorrect. Tal is not sure which one is wrong. Luckily, when Tal is on 
> their own laptop, the browser settings allow Tal to save their 
> password and they are able to automatically log in.
>
>
>         6.3.2 Tal Scenario 2: Finding Accessible Content
>
> Having navigated the online library system, Tal finds a paper on the 
> subject they want. Tal downloads it in pdf format. Tal likes to use a 
> text-to-speech app to read the content aloud, but when Tal tries to 
> highlight the text nothing happens. Tal discovers the document is 
> actually an image and yet there is no warning this is the case. Tal 
> can not find an alternative accessible version of the paper. This 
> means Tal has to use optical character recognition to virtually scan 
> the paper. It is not totally successful leaving Tal with gaps in the 
> information. Tal finds the process makes it even harder to complete 
> the assignment on time.
>
>
>         6.3.3 Tal Scenario 3: Filling in a Form to Ask for an Online
>         Journal Article
>
> Finally, Tal finds an online journal that has another article, but 
> there is a form that has to be completed in order to cite the paper. 
> Tal starts the process, but realizes they do not know the author’s 
> name. Tal returns to the web page with the article to copy and paste 
> the name. Sadly, when Tal comes back to the form, all that they filled 
> in is lost. Tal has to retype the whole thing again.
>
> (Adapted from MOOCAP Erasmus + Persona CC-BY-4.0 
> http://gpii.eu/moocap/?page_id=33 <http://gpii.eu/moocap/?page_id=33>)
>
>
>         6.3.4 Tal Scenario 4: Overlooking Important Information
>
> Tal is a very slow reader and often sounds out words. Tal has low 
> auditory processing skills so cannot speed up the text to speech app. 
> To manage their busy life, Tal tries to scan and skip through the 
> massive amounts of content, emails and newsletters to read the key 
> parts. Sometimes however, Tal cannot find important content because it 
> is buried inside lots of other content. The headers and visual layout 
> of the content does not always guide Tal to the information they need.
>
> This all means that Tal worries about missing something important and 
> sometimes that happens. For example, Tal’s daughter's elementary 
> school published a weekly newsletter with interesting stories about 
> activities and important announcements. It contained information that 
> school was ending early one day, but it was buried under less 
> important information about the school activities. Because it takes 
> Tal so long to read each word, they did not manage to read the whole 
> newsletter and did not know that their daughter was coming home 
> earlier than usual. As a result, Tal was not home in time and their 
> daughter was left waiting outside for over an hour.
>
>
>         6.3.5 Scenario 5: Pressing the Correct Button
>
> Tal struggles with impaired eye hand coordination, so precise 
> movements are hard. Tal often touches the wrong button or number when 
> typing on a small phone screen. With Tal’s letter recognition 
> difficulties this makes typing in codes or text very unreliable. Tal 
> also confuses left and right so often presses the off button in place 
> of the volume. In most phone interactions, Tal makes some form of 
> mistake, such as loading a new video when trying to expand the screen 
> of the window.. To use an application successfully, Tal feels it needs 
> to have a consistent back or undo function.
>
>
>
>