Vasilis van Gemert
Lecturer
Vasilis van Gemert
Lecturer
Exclusive Design
A few years ago Vasilis was trying to become a better inclusive designer. During his research he realised that he knew quite a lot about the guidelines and the theory behind technical accessibility, but he didn’t know that much about the people who actually need these guidelines. So, he started to invite real people with disabilities over to their university. In a few different courses his students design and create tailor made products exclusively for and with these people. The idea is, that by closely observing how real people use their computers, they will better understand people and become better designers.
Some of the things Vasilis is going to show in this presentation: a tool that makes it harder to type for someone who has difficulty typing, a website without any semantics for someone who is blind, and some funny, yet invisible animations he created for a blind artist.
About
Vasilis is a lecturer at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Here he teaches the next generation of digital product designers about the web. He believes that universities should research important topics that “the industry” tends to ignore. That’s why he teaches mostly about desiging for accessibility (and about CSS, which can use more love as well).