ISO/TC 159/SC 4/WG 10 - Accessible Design for Consumer Products

This document specifies the methods to improve accessibility of the visual display on small consumer products in order to minimize inconveniences that a variety of users including people with disabilities and the elderly can experience while using those products. In particular, this document focusses on how to present information on small visual displays to make the product more accessible for older people and people with low vision or colour deficiency. The provision of different modalities or alternative ways of displaying information to make the product more accessible is not covered in this document. This document only covers accessibility with regard to visual presentation of information, not audio or tactile-based display methods. NOTE 1 Accessibility of a product can be enhanced by adopting alternative means to the visual presentation of the information, which is not covered in this document. For information about alternative forms of presentation, ISO/IEC Guide 71, ISO 9241‑112 and ISO 9241‑171 can be useful. NOTE 2 A comprehensive catalogue of accessibility needs and strategies for accommodation for all users (not only those with visual impairments) is out of scope for this document. Readers interested in this regard can refer to ISO/IEC 29138‑1. This document applies to various consumer products equipped with digital displays, in which the information about operation of the product is visually presented. The products are usually equipped with built-in display panels. The consumer products include those hand-held products that can be easily carried by the user or those that are not portable but equipped with small displays, though the size of the product or the display is not specified in this document. NOTE 3 This document focusses on the accessibility of small displays, regardless of the size of the consumer product. NOTE 4 Examples include, but are not limited to, electronic thermometers, digital cameras, air-conditioning systems, remote controllers. This document is not applicable to those products with high flexibility or adjustability in presenting information on the display. Some examples are web- or application-based displays of ICT devices such as smart phones, smart TVs, and tablet PCs. It is not applicable to touch-based displays that have both the functions of display and control. Some examples are touch interfaces of smart watches or digital cameras. Finally, accessibility issues relating to indicating lamps/lights used for simple alerts or alarm are covered in ISO 24550 and are not considered in this document. NOTE 5 There are many accessibility issues in the touch interface related to information presentation as well as control function and they need to be dealt with together. It is possible that some guidance of this document is not applicable to some products, such as oral or ear thermometers, which have extremely small in-built displays.

This document defines design principles of accessibility for controls of consumer products, so that users from a population with the widest range of user needs, characteristics and capabilities are able to use controls to operate and control consumer products in the same manner and ease as users without disabilities. This document is applicable to all kinds and types of consumer products. This document is applicable to the controls for common main operations of consumer products such as initiation, termination, and cancellation of operation, as well as for specified functions necessary for more detailed operations and fine adjustment. This document does not deal with controls for some specialized devices intended only for specified user populations and tasks, e.g. assistive and medical devices. Each design consideration in this document is based on ergonomic principles that are necessary for making the controls of consumer products accessible to a wider range of users.

This document specifies design requirements and recommendations for indicator lights, mainly LED sourced, on consumer products for use by older people and people with visual disabilities. It does not consider the needs of persons who are blind. Indicator lights include those that inform users visually about the conditions, changes in functional status and settings, and malfunction of products. They convey information by light on/off, time-modulated intensity, blinking, colour, luminance level, and layout. This document addresses household and home appliances. It excludes electronic displays presenting characters and graphics, machinery, and appliances in special use for professional, technical, and industrial applications.

This document specifies ergonomic requirements and recommendations for consumer product spoken instructions that are provided to guide users in the operation of a product and/or as a means of providing feedback to users about the status/state of a product. Such instructions can be used by persons with or without visual impairments, and are useful for users who have difficulty reading and/or cognitive impairments. The applicability of the requirements and recommendations described in this document does not depend on the language of the instructions or whether the instructions are provided via recorded human speech or synthesized speech from text. The requirements and recommendations in this document are applicable to conventional, stand-alone consumer products in general, whose function is limited by characteristics that prevent a user from attaching, installing or using assistive technology in order to use the product. They are not applicable to machines and equipment used for professional work. This document does not apply to products for which the instructional content and/or the means of presentation are specified in other standards (e.g. medical devices, fire alarms). It also does not provide recommendations or requirements for spoken instructions of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems or digital assistants on personal computers or similar devices. NOTE ISO 9241‑154 provides recommendations or requirements for IVR systems. This document does not specify voice sounds of text-to-speech systems or narrative speech used in place of printed instruction manuals and independently from the product.

This document provides a method for estimating minimum legible font size for single characters, but not for words or sentences, in self-luminous or reflected mode, used in documents, products labels, signs, and displays for people at any age and in any viewing condition in which viewing distance, luminance and contrast are varied. This document applies designing and evaluating legibility of single characters for people at any age who have no pathological disorders in their eyes, but not for people with visual impairments such as low vision. The application is specifically directed to, but not limited to, the cases of printed materials where fixed font size is used. Applicability of the method to other languages is given in Annex F.

This document provides design guidelines and requirements for tactile symbols and characters used for information and marking for people who need non-visual or non-auditory information. It is applicable to products, facilities and equipment in housing and transportation, services and packaging, where tactile symbols and characters may be used. This document specifies the physical characteristics of tactile symbols and characters for ease of legibility by touch taking into account human abilities of tactile sense and their aging effect. It does not specify semantic characteristics of tactile symbols and characters. This document is applicable to tactile symbols and characters of convex-type touched by fingers. It is not applicable to specifically coded tactile symbols or characters such as those of Braille, nor to those with vibratory or temporal changes.

ISO 24503:2011 specifies requirements for the design of tactile dots and tactile bars for use on consumer products to improve accessibility for everyone, including older persons and persons with disabilities. ISO 24503:2011 is applicable to consumer products used by persons with visual disabilities, and in cases where visual information is not the primary sense used for accomplishing the task. Alternative tactile methods, such as texture and vibration, and other tactile symbols, such as triangles and squares, are not covered in ISO 24503:2011. Alternative feedback methods, such as in acoustic and visual modalities, are not covered in ISO 24503:2011.