The Adjuster, the Magnifier, and the Drag-and-Drop Table
An insurance company's claims portal is used by 300 internal adjusters, including a new hire with a hand tremor and low vision. She uses a 4x screen magnifier, a keyboard, and speech recognition. The portal has 10-point text, hover-only glossary tooltips, a 15-minute inactivity logout, and a claims table that requires drag-and-drop to reorder attachments. Her manager asks IT to “buy her a better mouse” and wants the ticket closed.
1. Is “buy her a better mouse” an adequate response? Analyze the interaction barriers.
Read the worked answer
No. A better mouse does not address keyboard, magnifier, or speech-recognition barriers, and it treats a system barrier as a personal equipment deficit. The 10-point text forces excessive magnification and increases disorientation. Hover-only tooltips exclude keyboard and speech users and are hard to read under 4x magnification. The 15-minute timeout can expire while a magnifier user navigates a long form, causing data loss. Drag-and-drop reordering is incompatible with tremor and with speech input that cannot perform precise pointer drags. The employer should provide reasonable accommodations, but it also should remove barriers in the portal when feasible. Closing the ticket as an equipment issue leaves the core workflow inaccessible.
2. How should IT prioritize fixes versus interim accommodations?
Read the worked answer
Prioritize by data loss risk and core-task blockage. First: extend or make configurable the inactivity timeout and warn before logout; this prevents lost work and is low effort. Second: add keyboard-accessible move-up/move-down controls for attachment ordering and a speech-friendly alternative to drag-and-drop. Third: convert hover tooltips to focusable, dismissible help available by keyboard and speech. Fourth: support browser zoom and larger default text. Interim accommodations can include a temporary alternative process, adjusted timeout, and assistance with the attachment step, but they should be time-bound. The goal is an accessible workflow, not a permanent personal workaround.
3. How would you involve the adjuster in testing without making her the sole quality-assurance resource?
Read the worked answer
Use her as a domain expert and participant, not as the only test subject. Run a structured session on the specific tasks: opening claims, reading glossary terms, reordering attachments, and recovering after a timeout. Combine that with a broader assistive-technology test matrix covering keyboard-only, screen magnification, speech recognition, and screen-reader use. Capture task success, time, errors, and workarounds. Share findings as system defects with severity, not as personal preferences. This avoids overgeneralizing from one person while still centering the lived experience of the employee who reported the barrier.