Understanding Mobile Phone Requirements for Young Adults With Cognitive Disabilities
By Dawe, Melissa; ASSETS 2007 - The Ninth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 179-186Publication Date: October 15-17, 2007
Study exploring cell-phone usage among young adults with cognitive disabilities. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 families to understand the patterns of remote communication among cognitive-impaired young adults and their parental caregivers. The young-adult participants, who ranged in age from 19 to 25, were in transition out of the school system and enrolled in job training and recreational programs. Three of the participants used cell phones; usage was limited to basic features such as re-dial and one-digit speed dial. Four of the participants initiated communication through cell phones or land lines and were able to leave voice-mail messages. Major reasons for remote communication found were safety check-ins and locating each other, and getting stuck, e.g. missing a bus. Participants primarily called their parents, who then coordinated activities among the rest of the caregiver network. Parents also observed that their children did not often chat with friends on the phone. Requirements for an accessible mobile-phone based communication system identified included a simplified navigation menu with fewer options, a simplified voice-mail system, and a rugged handset and charger input.
Published by: Association for Computing Machinery (Website:http://www.acm.org)
SIGACCESS (ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing) (Web Site: http://www.sigaccess.org )
Link to text: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1296843.1296874
