The University of York would like to invite you to take part in the following project: Investigating how personalisation affects the perceived accessibility of interactive experiences. Before agreeing to take part, please read this information sheet carefully and let us know if anything is unclear or you would like further information.
This project is being performed by Joe Lamyman (jl2160@york.ac.uk), a master’s student on the MSc by Research in Interactive Media degree at the University of York. This research is being undertaken as part of the MSc thesis, which is being supervised by Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks (anna.bramwelldicks@ york.ac.uk) and Dr Debbie Maxwell (debbie.maxwell@york.ac.uk).
The work that is being performed is being conducted according to restrictions that have been subject to approval by the TFTI Ethics committee. The Chair of the TFTI Ethics committee can be contacted on TFTI-ethics@york.ac.uk.
For this research project, we are interested in features that a user would want to personalise to meet their own accessibility needs. In this context, the term accessibility would relate largely to the needs of disabled people, or more broadly, the needs of users when accessing a service. At this stage of the work, we are undertaking a pilot study of our test site to help us to identify any accessibility or usability issues with the main study materials and the process. If selected to take part in this pilot phase of this project, your involvement will require you to take part in the main study and also to provide us with feedback on accessibility and usability problems that you may encounter afterwards. Therefore, we would ask that while you undertake the main study, you keep note of any usability or accessibility issues that you encounter while working through the study. Participation in the pilot phase of this study will take no longer than 60 minutes using a website I have created. More details regarding participation in the main study itself will be provided in the information sheet that is embedded in the website for the main study.
You have been invited to take part after you indicated your interest in helping to test the website. We are accessibility testing the website, to ensure that the site is as accessible to as many people as possible, before releasing it to a wider audience. As we are currently in the testing stage, you may encounter some accessibility issues.
As a result, your participation at this stage will also involve providing detailed feedback on any accessibility issues encountered on the test site. This is to ensure that if there are any accessibility issues, these can be fixed before a wider release.
After reading this information sheet, you will be asked to complete a participant consent form and answer some screening questions. If you wish to withdraw at this point, please contact Joe Lamyman (jl2160@york.ac.uk), and all your data will be deleted as soon as possible. If you are selected to take part in the pilot study conducting initial accessibility testing of the main study materials, Joe Lamyman will contact you and provide details on how to access the main study. To thank you for your participation in the pilot study, you will be provided with a £25 Amazon voucher. If you are not selected to take part in the pilot study, you will have the opportunity to take part in the general release of the study later where you would have the opportunity to win an Amazon voucher in a prize draw.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the University has to identify a legal basis for processing personal data and, where appropriate, an additional condition for processing special category data.
For further information and definitions of personal and special category data, please go to:
Personal data is defined as data from which someone could be identified. For example, in the survey hosted by Google Forms in the second phase of the study we will be collecting personal data such as your name and email address. We need this data in order to be able to contact you if you wish to be entered into the prize draw, to receive a copy of the thesis and be invited to take part in further research sessions.
In line with our charter which states that we advance learning and knowledge by teaching and research, the University processes personal data for research purposes under Article 6 (1) (e) of the GDPR:
In line with ethical expectations and in order to comply with common law duty of confidentiality, we will seek your consent to participate where appropriate. This consent will not, however, be our legal basis for processing your data under the GDPR.
Data will be processed for the purposes outlined in this notice.
No. Data will be accessible to the project team and personnel associated with the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York only.
Anonymised data may be reused by the research team or other third parties for secondary research purposes.
The University will put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data and/or special category data. For the purposes of this project we will store personal and special category data using secure University services provided by Google and the University Filestore.
Information will be treated confidentiality and shared on a need-to-know basis only. The University is committed to the principle of data protection by design and default and will collect the minimum amount of data necessary for the project.
Possibly. The University’s cloud storage solution is provided by Google which means that data can be located at any of Google’s globally spread data centres. The University has data protection complaint arrangements in place with this provider. For further information see, https://www.york.ac.uk/itservices/google/policy/privacy/.
No. Your participation in this research activity will be treated anonymously and you will not be identified in any outputs.
Data will be retained in line with legal requirements or where there is a business need. Retention timeframes will be determined in line with the University’s Records Retention Schedule.
Under the GDPR, you have a general right of access to your data, a right to rectification, erasure, restriction, objection or portability. You also have a right to withdrawal. Please note, not all rights apply where data is processed purely for research purposes. For further information see, https://www.york.ac.uk/records-management/generaldataprotectionregulation/individualsrights/.
If you have any questions about this participant information sheet or concerns about how your data is being processed, please contact the TFTI Ethics Chair (TFTI-ethics@york.ac.uk) in the first instance. If you are still dissatisfied, please contact the University’s Acting Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@york.ac.uk.
If you have any questions about the project itself, please contact the producer Joe Lamyman (jl2160@york.ac.uk) or project supervisors Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks (anna.bramwell-dicks@york.ac.uk) and Dr Debbie Maxwell (debbie.maxwell@york.ac.uk).
If you are unhappy with the way in which the University has handled your personal data, you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. For information on reporting a concern to the Information Commissioner's Office, see www.ico.org.uk/concerns.