sociocultural factors of assistive technology adoption among individuals with reading disabilities

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


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


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


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?


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:


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


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


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


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;


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;


Outline







– Summary


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


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


Summary of assistive technologies– Most technologies never go beyond

the research stage

– Commercially available technologies are primarily text-to-speech


Outline







– Summary


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)


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) **


Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption

Study includes people with reading disabilities

Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities

Focus on Reading Disabilities

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Adoption of specific assistive

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No studies of general

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Text-to-Speech abandonment rate

of 50-100%

Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Comden, 2007; Deibel, 2007; Deibel, 2008


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)


Outline



– Current Research and Its Gaps– Assistive Technologies for Reading



– Summary


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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;


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….


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


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


Outline



– Current Research and Its Gaps– Assistive Technologies for Reading



– Summary


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


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


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:

sociocultural factors of assistive technology adoption among individuals with reading disabilities

Documents

reading disabilitieswhat

reading disabilitieswhy

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