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A Support Worker Perspective on Use of New Technologies by People with Intellectual Disabilities

Authors:

Saminda Sundeepa Balasuriya,

Laurianne Sitbon,

Margot BreretonAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), Volume 15, Issue 3

Article No.: 21, Pages 1 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/3523058

Published: 08 July 2022 Publication History

Abstract

People with intellectual disability access innovative technologies in disability community centres in Australia, under the guidance of support workers. This article investigates the perspectives of 15 support workers and 5 managers across four community centres on the introduction and use of technology like tablets, video games, 3D printing, virtual reality, and social robots. They had diverse views on who is responsible for facilitating, embedding, and shaping technology for learning life skills and socializing. We found technology use to be driven by facilitator's knowledge (pre-existing, observed, or trained), interests, the value they place on the interactions afforded by the technology, and organization values. We discuss how future designs can emphasise communities of users while empowering individuals to achieve their goals. We suggest co-design strategies for assistive technology that involve support workers in the dual roles of proxy and co-user. We finally discuss how broader organisational factors can influence appropriation and use.

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Cited By

Haidenhofer CSitbon LBeaumont CHoogstrate MKorte J(2024)From research participant to co-researcher: Chloe's story on co-designing inclusive technologies with people with intellectual disabilityProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3688541(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3688541
Hajizadeh Saffar ASitbon LHoogstrate MAbbas ARoomkham SMiller D(2024)Human and Large Language Model Intent Detection in Image-Based Self-Expression of People with Intellectual DisabilityProceedings of the 2024 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3627508.3638347(199-208)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627508.3638347
Roomkham SSitbon L(2024)Restarting the conversation about conversational search: exploring new possibilities for multimodal and collaborative systems with people with intellectual disabilityProceedings of the 2024 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3627508.3638339(231-242)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627508.3638339
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Index Terms

A Support Worker Perspective on Use of New Technologies by People with Intellectual Disabilities
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Accessibility
    1. Accessibility design and evaluation methods

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Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing Volume 15, Issue 3

September 2022

281 pages

ISSN:1936-7228

EISSN:1936-7236

DOI:10.1145/3544005

Editors:
Tiago Guerreiro
Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
,
Stephanie Ludi
University of North Texas, USA

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Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 July 2022

Online AM: 21 April 2022

Accepted: 01 February 2022

Revised: 01 January 2022

Received: 01 March 2021

Published in TACCESS Volume 15, Issue 3

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Cited By

Haidenhofer CSitbon LBeaumont CHoogstrate MKorte J(2024)From research participant to co-researcher: Chloe's story on co-designing inclusive technologies with people with intellectual disabilityProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3688541(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663548.3688541
Hajizadeh Saffar ASitbon LHoogstrate MAbbas ARoomkham SMiller D(2024)Human and Large Language Model Intent Detection in Image-Based Self-Expression of People with Intellectual DisabilityProceedings of the 2024 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3627508.3638347(199-208)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627508.3638347
Roomkham SSitbon L(2024)Restarting the conversation about conversational search: exploring new possibilities for multimodal and collaborative systems with people with intellectual disabilityProceedings of the 2024 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval10.1145/3627508.3638339(231-242)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627508.3638339
Macedo AGonçalves VMandrá PMotti VBulcão-Neto RRodrigues K(2024)A mobile application and system architecture for online speech training in Portuguese: design, development, and evaluation of SofiaFalaMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-19980-5Online publication date: 7-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-19980-5
Guedes LJohnstone JEllis KLandoni M(2024)Creative Technologies in Action: Empowering Individuals with Intellectual DisabilitiesComputers Helping People with Special Needs10.1007/978-3-031-62849-8_24(193-200)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62849-8_24
Sitbon LBalasuriya SPercy L(2023)Guiding non-verbal conversation about meal choices with intelligent technologiesProceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference10.1145/3638380.3638443(350-359)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2023
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Balasuriya SSitbon L(2023)Designing gardening applications to engage people with intellectual disability in gardening activitiesProceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference10.1145/3638380.3638406(415-422)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2023
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Chadwick DBuell S(2023)Interactional power and support in digital inclusion of an adult with intellectual disabilities: a case study analysisJournal of Research in Special Educational Needs10.1111/1471-3802.1259623:3(251-261)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12596
Corriette B(2023)The Affective Impact of Electronic Travel Aids on the Sense of Independence and Quality of Life for the Blind and Visually Impaired Using Public Transit in the U.S.2023 11th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Workshops and Demos (ACIIW)10.1109/ACIIW59127.2023.10388101(1-3)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2023
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Sitbon LBrereton MBircanin F(2023)Reframing search and recommendation as opportunities for communication for people with intellectual disabilityHuman–Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2023.224739439:3-4(206-224)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2247394

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