Empathy Prompts

Prompts to consider when making things for others to use.

This project is geared towards anyone involved with making digital products. It is my hope that this reaches both:

People who are not necessarily involved in the day-to-day part of the process, but who help shape things like budget, timeline, and scope, and
People who work every day to help to give these products shape and form

These prompts are intended to help build empathy, not describe any one person's experience. These prompts are not intended to tokenize the experience of the individuals experiencing these conditions. For further reading about disability simulations, please refer to Job van Achterberg's excellent presentation, The Imitation Game.

About this page
Contributing
Additional resources
1. Prompt formats
2. Links
Resetting technology
Thanks
License

About this page

You're on GitHub, a service that helps people build digital things. Projects are called "repositories", or "repos" for short. Repositories are collections of files managed by Git, software that helps people code and collaborate.

One file in this repo is called a Readme, which helps helps describe what the project is, why it was made, and how you can help out with it. GitHub takes the Readme for every repo and displays it on the repo's homepage for easier discovery.

To return to the prompt you were viewing, use your browser's back button.

Contributing

If you do not have a GitHub account, you can contact me via email. Please remember that requests submitted via email also need to conform to the project's contributing guidelines.

Suggest a prompt

To suggest a prompt, please submit a GitHub Issue and follow the Issue template's instructions.

Please remember to:

Keep the title, description, and examples brief
Use simple, direct language
Use as little jargon as possible
Provide links to resources

Prompts will be considered and added on a case-by-case basis. Questions and feedback will be handled in the submitted Issue.

Language and terminology concerns

I'm striving to be as respectful as possible. If you feel the words or tone for one of the prompts isn't using the proper terminology, or isn't representative of the condition, please let me know either publicly or privately.

Issues and Pull Requests

The best way to submit Issues (problems with the project) and Pull Requests (adding features to the project, fixing problems, or improving project code) is using this project's Issue tracker. Please make sure you read the contributing guidelines before doing so!

Additional resources

Prompt formats

JSON
PDF

Use the brightness keys (F1 and F2) to restore brightness to a level you find comfortable, or
Go to System Preferences > Displays, and drag the brightness slider to a level you find comfortable

Windows

Select Start > Settings > System > Display, then drag the brightness slider to a level you find comfortable

Dyslexia simulator bookmarklet

Right click on the bookmarklet on your browser's bookmarks bar and choose the Delete option
You may also have to refresh the page

High Contrast Mode

Mac

Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display, then drag the slider for Display contrast to Normal

Windows

Use the Left ALT + Left Shift + Print Screen keyboard shortcut

Low Bandwidth

Close the Chrome Developer Tools
You may also have to refresh the page

NoCoffee Chrome Extension

To disable:
1. Click on the extension's icon
2. Choose the Reset all button
3. You may also have to refresh the page
To remove:
1. Open Chrome's Preferences
2. On the sidebar, select Extensions
3. Find the NoCoffee extension and either uncheck Enabled to disable the extension, or select the trash can icon to delete it
4. You may also have to refresh the page

Screen magnifiers

Mac

Use either the keyboard shortcut (CMD+OPT -) or the mouse command (CMD + Scroll Down) until the screen stops shrinking

Windows

Quit the magnifier program by pressing either WIN + ESC or select the magnifying glass icon and then select the Close button on the Magnifier toolbar.