Post on 04-Feb-2016
description
Sociocultural Factors of
Assistive Technology Adoption
among Individuals with
Reading Disabilities
Katherine DeibelComputer Science &
EngineeringUniversity of Washington
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 2
What is this talk (and thesis) about?
Understanding and
supporting the usage and
adoption of assistive
technologies by people with
reading disabilities
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 3
Why does it matter?
– Reading is a critical skill in an information society
– 7-15% of the population have reading disabilities (e.g., dyslexia)
– Computer-based assistive tools can provide successful accommodations
– A tool is only helpful when it is used
Refs: Sands & Buchholz,1997
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 4
Abandonment of Assistive Technology– 35% of all assistive technologies
purchased are abandoned
– Waste of resources, time, and funds for users and disability services
– Bad experiences lead to disillusionment about assistive technologies
Refs: Phillips & Zhao, 1993; Martin & McCormack, 1999; Rimer-Reiss & Wacker, 2000
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 5
Research Questions – What technologies are helpful to people
with reading disabilities?– What technologies are used by people with
reading disabilities?– What technologies get abandoned by
people with reading disabilities? Why?– What helps make a technology adoptable?– How can we use this knowledge to make
better technologies?
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 6
A Multidisciplinary Effort
– Computer science
– Reading on computers
– Digital literacies
– Human-computer interaction
– Education
– Technology adoption
– Reading sciences
– Assistive technology
Insights from many research areas:
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 7
Sociocultural factors
– Various social and cultural factors affect research and development of assistive technologies for reading disabilities
– Understanding these factors allows for better future research
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 8
Outline
– Motivation and Introduction
– Short Background on Reading Disabilities
– Current Research and Its Gaps
– Assistive Technologies for Reading
– Assistive Technology Adoption Studies
– Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps
– Summary
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 9
What is a reading disability?
– Profound difficulty with learning to read and the act of reading
– Phonological processing deficit– Letter and word misidentification
– Impacts reading comprehension
– Visual stress– Letters and words move and blur
together
– Difficulty sustaining readingRefs: Sands & Buchholz,1997; Dickinson et al., 2002
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 10
Social aspects of reading disabilities– Poor reading is socially associated with poor
intelligence
– Individuals with reading disabilities experience:– Self-doubt, low confidence, and feelings of
isolation
– Teasing from peers
– Expectations from others to fail
– Viewed as lazy or attempting to fraud the system
Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Williams & Ceci, 1999; Zirkel, 2000; Cory, 2005;
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 11
Invisible nature of reading disability– Disability not visually apparent to
others
– Allows individual to hide as “normal”– Avoid disability stigma
– Limit knowledge to trusted others
– Delay asking for help
Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Cory, 2005;
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 12
Outline
– Motivation and Introduction
– Short Background on Reading Disabilities
– Current Research and Its Gaps
– Assistive Technologies for Reading
– Assistive Technology Adoption Studies
– Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps
– Summary
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 13
Researched technologies
– Technologies: – Text windows / Single word displays
– Semantic line breaking of text
– Text display (colors, font, size, etc.)
– SeeWord
– Studied briefly then research moves on
– Rarely developed into commercially available products
Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Dickinson et al., 2002; Laga et al., 2006
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 14
EXCEPTION: Text-to-Speech Software– Listen to text read aloud by a
computer– Bypasses phonological processing deficit
– Improves word identification and speed
– Many commercial versions available
– Heavily researched with variations
Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Sands & Buchholz, 1997, Laga et al., 2006
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 15
Summary of assistive technologies– Most technologies never go beyond
the research stage
– Commercially available technologies are primarily text-to-speech
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 16
Outline
– Motivation and Introduction
– Short Background on Reading Disabilities
– Current Research and Its Gaps
– Assistive Technologies for Reading
– Assistive Technology Adoption Studies
– Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps
– Summary
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 17
Studies of assistive technology adoption– Phillips and Zhao (1993)– Elkind et al. (1996)– Jeanes et al. (1997)– Wehmeyer (1995, 1998)– Martin and McCormack (1999)– Riemer-Reiss and Wacker (2000)– Koester (2003)– Dawe (2006)– Shinohara and Tenenberg (2007)– Comden (2007)– Deibel (2007, 2008)
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 18
Studies of assistive technology adoption– Phillips and Zhao (1993)– Elkind et al. (1996) **– Jeanes et al. (1997) **– Wehmeyer (1995, 1998)– Martin and McCormack (1999)– Riemer-Reiss and Wacker (2000) **– Koester (2003) **– Dawe (2006)– Shinohara and Tenenberg (2007)– Comden (2007) **– Deibel (2007, 2008) **
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 19
Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption
Study includes people with reading disabilities
Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities
Focus on Reading Disabilities
0% 100%
ONE
MANY
Typ
es o
f A
ssis
tive
Tec
hn
olo
gie
s
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 20
Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption
Study includes people with reading disabilities
Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities
Focus on Reading Disabilities
0% 100%
ONE
MANY
Typ
es o
f A
ssis
tive
Tec
hn
olo
gie
s
Adoption of specific assistive
technologies
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 21
Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption
Study includes people with reading disabilities
Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities
Focus on Reading Disabilities
0% 100%
ONE
MANY
Typ
es o
f A
ssis
tive
Tec
hn
olo
gie
s
No studies of general
technology adoption
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 22
Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption
Study includes people with reading disabilities
Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities
Focus on Reading Disabilities
0% 100%
ONE
MANY
Typ
es o
f A
ssis
tive
Tec
hn
olo
gie
s
Do not report differences
between disability types
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 23
Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption
Study includes people with reading disabilities
Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities
Focus on Reading Disabilities
0% 100%
ONE
MANY
Typ
es o
f A
ssis
tive
Tec
hn
olo
gie
s
Text-to-Speech abandonment rate
of 50-100%
Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Comden, 2007; Deibel, 2007; Deibel, 2008
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 24
Summary of adoption studies
– Only specific technology studies for users with reading disabilities
– No studies of general technology usage among people with reading disabilities
– Multiple disability studies do not report findings by disability type
– Text-to-speech has a high abandonment rate (small n studies)
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 25
Outline
– Motivation and Introduction
– Short Background on Reading Disabilities
– Current Research and Its Gaps– Assistive Technologies for Reading
– Assistive Technology Adoption Studies
– Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps
– Summary
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 26
The Gaps
– Assistive technology development mainly restricted to text-to-speech despite frequent abandonment
– Adoption studies often cover other disabilities
– Reading disability adoption studies limited to specific technologies
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 27
Sociocultural factors
– Various social and cultural factors affect research and development of assistive technologies for reading disabilities
– Factors include:– Nature of reading disabilities
– Social views on disabilities
– Educational policies and philosophies
– Available technologies
– Technology practices
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 28
Text-to-Speech and Display Technologies– Text-to-speech developed in 1990s
– Most work conducted on desktop machines with CRT displays
– Displays known to be non-conducive to vision-only reading
– Developers made best use of technologies available at the time
– Insight:Explore potentials of portable computers (PDAs, tablets, etc.) that are better designed to support reading
Refs: Farmer, 1992; Gujar et al., 1998; Waycott & Kukulska-Hulme, 2003
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 29
Assistive Technologies and Medicine– Early AT adoption studies conducted
by rehabilitation doctors– Focused on disabilities they treated
– Reading disabilities are not “treated” medically but through education
– Insight:Consider the different policies, laws, funding, philosophies, etc. between medical and educational treatment of disabilities
Refs: Phillips & Zhao, 1993; Clough & Corbett, 2000
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 30
Education and the Medical Model
Typical Education Research Approach:
– Phonological processing deficit
– Listening to text read aloud bypasses deficit
– Text-to-speech technology
– Use text-to-speech for remediation
Medical model of disability:A disability is a flaw or defect that needs fixing or bypassing
Refs: Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Clough & Corbett, 2000
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 31
Educational Model of Disability
– Person has education disability about X
– Sub-skill Y is identified as lacking
– If we remediate or bypass Y, X will improve– Efforts that ignore Y are not pursued
– Insight:Consider interventions not involving phonological processing deficit
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 32
Repercussions of Educational Model– Focus on early reading
– Emphasis on early interventions, K-5
– Ignores transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”
– Insight:Lack of support for more advanced reading skills and tasks
Refs: Wineburg, 1991; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Peskin, 1998, Peer & Reid, 2001
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 33
Repercussions of Educational Model– Focus on reading at school
– Reading takes place outside of schools
– AT often deployed only in the school labs
– Insight:Current assistive devices not designed for use in multiple locales
Refs: Laga et al., 2006
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 34
Invisible nature of reading disability– Disability not visually apparent to
others
– Allows individual to hide as “normal”– Avoid disability stigma
– Limit knowledge to trusted others
– Delay asking for help
Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Cory, 2005;
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 35
Invisibility and Technology Usage
– …lecture hall?– …library?– …study group?– …in a dorm room with roommate?– …in a dorm room alone?
– Insight:Need awareness of different contexts and how they affect usage
Would text-to-speech be used in a….
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 36
Invisibility and Adoption Theories– Diffusion of Innovations is the seminal text
and theory on technology adoption– Key aspect is communication of ideas– Social network of users and adopters
Refs: Rogers, 2003
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 37
Invisibility and Lack of Diffusion– People with reading disabilities tend to
tactically hide disability from others– Stealth usage of technology slows
diffusion
– Social network of users is sparse
– Disclosure of disability also uncertain
– Insight:Standard theory of technology adoption is not readily applicable
Refs: Rogers, 2003
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 38
Outline
– Motivation and Introduction
– Short Background on Reading Disabilities
– Current Research and Its Gaps– Assistive Technologies for Reading
– Assistive Technology Adoption Studies
– Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps
– Summary
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 39
Summary
– Research literature on assistive technologies for reading disabilities is limited in scope
– Various social and cultural factors have influenced previous and current research
– Understanding these factors allows for better future research
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 40
Ongoing research– Case studies of people with reading
disabilities emphasizing:– Usage of technologies to support reading– The types and contexts of their reading
activities– Identifying additional social and cultural factors
– Development of new assistive technologies:– Supports invisible nature of reading disabilities– Adjustable to multiple usage contexts
K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 41
Acknowledgements
– Alan Borning– Sheryl Burgstahler– Josh Tenenberg– Bill Winn– Jennifer C. Stone– Dan Comden– Hilary Holz– Cynthia J. Atman– Lindsay Michimoto– Literacy Source
– John Bransford– Linda Shapiro– Steve Tanimoto– Ken Yasuhara– Richard C. Davis– Imran Rashid– Janet Davis– Jim Borgford-Parnell– Jason Deibel– Johannes Gutenberg
Completion of this work would not have been possible without the influence of many people, including: