Developing a Justice Oriented, Accessible Dating App Prototype for Disabled Users

In recent decades, online dating has become a primary avenue for forming romantic relationships. For many disabled users, apps expand access to potential partners, reduce reliance on inaccessible venues, and offer safer spaces for disclosure. Yet, despite these benefits, dating often remains especially complex for those facing persistent stigma and marginalization online and offline, like disabled people. This work builds on the findings of a previous master’s thesis that outlined design implications for justice-oriented, accessible app design and development. Using these implications, the main goals of this thesis are: (1) to develop a low-fidelity, accessible prototype using Figma, that demonstrates how these design implications can be put into practice, and (2) to evaluate the prototype with disabled users to refine the prototype and expand the implications contributing to justice oriented and accessible design ap-
proaches in future applications.
This thesis is expected to contribute to the understanding of accessibility of public spaces and to improve access to leisure for disabled people. It is part of the Real-World Lab Accessibility.

Task Summary

The thesis includes the following:

1. Developing the Prototype: Based on earlier research insights and WCAG 2 standards, develop an justice-oriented, accessible dating app prototype using Figma.
2. Usability Evaluation: Conduct evaluation sessions together with disabled persons to understand their perspectives on the prototype.
3. Iterations on Design: Qualitatively analyze evaluation sessions and improve the prototype.

Skills

Required: Human-Computer Interaction, Accessibility, Programming

Beneficial: Evaluation Methods

Contact

Zeynep Yildiz