adoption of assistive technologies for reading disabilities: cultural, literacy, and technological...

Adoption of Assistive Technologies for Reading

Disabilities:Cultural, Literacy, and Technological

Aspects

Katherine DeibelUniversity of Washington

Generals Exam PresentationNovember 16, 2007

K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities 2

What I’ve been up to…

… for generals

… for my job

… for cooking

… for voting

… for fun

I’ve been reading…


What is this talk about?

The usage and adoption of

assistive technologies by people

with reading disabilities

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 significant difficulties with reading

– 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


What I did– Reviewed the research literature on:

– Assistive technology for reading disabilities – Technology adoption and abandoment– Assistive technology adoption and

abandonment

– Brought in insights from other research areas: – Human-computer interaction– Reading on computers– Disability studies– Education


Contributions

– Identified gaps in current work in this area

– Identified why those gaps exist and persist

– Research designs to address these gaps

– Synthesizing across disciplines


Outline

– Motivation and Introduction

– Background– Reading Disabilities

– Assistive Technologies

– Overview of Research Literature

– Next Steps in Research

– Summary


What is a reading disability?

A neurological condition defined as a profound difficulty with reading and learning how to read that cannot be explained because of:

– Low intelligence

– Limited sensory ability

– Lack of education

– Lack of socioeconomic opportunity


What’s in a name?

– Dyslexia– Dysphonia (auditory)– Dyseidesia (visual)

– Word blindness– Phonological Processing Deficit– Strephosymbolia (twisted letters)– Visual Stress / Meares-Irlen Syndrome

Reading Disability


Prevalence of reading disabilities– 7—15% of the population have some

difficulty with reading

– Reading disabilities occur in all languages

– Most common form of disability at 4-year universities in the U.S.– 46% of students registered as having a

disability

Refs: Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Lewis et al. 1999’ Smythe et al., 2004


Difficulties

– Phonological processing deficit– Difficulty translating words into sound

– Word misidentification

– Dropping or substitution of letters in words

– Impacts reading comprehension

Refs: Perfetti et al., 1992; Dickinson et al., 2002


Difficulties

– Phonological processing deficit

– Memory– Short-term memory

– Visual memory

Refs: Dickinson et al., 2002


Difficulties


– Memory

– Visual stress– Letters and words move and blur

together

– Eye strain and headaches

– Difficulty sustaining reading

– Affects 20—30% of the general population

Refs: Jeanes et al., 1997; Evans, 2001; Dickinson et al., 2002; Kriss & Evans, 2005


Difficulties


– Memory

– Visual stress

Refs: Dickinson et al., 2002

Severity of difficulties varies greatly across

individuals


Sociocultural aspects of reading disabilities– Self-doubt, low confidence, and

feelings of isolation

– Teasing from peers

– Viewed as lazy or faking

– Expectations from others to fail

– Invisible aspect of disability encourages the hiding or limiting of knowledge of having the disability

Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Zirkel, 2000; Cory, 2005;


Outline


– Background– Reading Disabilities

– Assistive Technologies



– Summary


Assistive technologies for reading– Text-to-speech software

– Listening to text read aloud by a computer

– Bypasses phonological processing deficit

– Improves reading rate and word identification

– Users need strong auditory skills

– Requires digitization of texts

Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Sands & Buchholz, 1997, Laga et al., 2006


Assistive technologies for reading– Text-to-speech software

– Color overlays– Colored transparencies placed over text

to reduce visual stress

– Optimal color differs across individuals

– Optometric screening used to select optimal color

Refs: Jeanes et al., 1997; Evans, 2001; Dickinson et al., 2002; Kriss & Evans, 2005


Outline

– Motivation and Introduction– Background– Overview of Research Literature

– Studies of assistive technology adoption– Models of technology adoption– Other research gaps– Summary of literature review

– Next Steps in Research– 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)


Diversity of methodologies & approaches– Variety of methodologies:

– Large-scale quantitative surveys (4)

– Adoption studies of a single assistive technology (4)

– Small-scale qualitative case studies (3)

– Different approaches– Focus on one or many technologies

– Focus on one or many disabilities


Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption

Types of Disabilities

ONE MANY

ONE

MANY

Typ

es o

f A

ssis

tive

Tec

hn

olo

gie

s

Study includes people with reading disabilities

Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities


Inclusion of reading disabilities

– 6 of the 11 studies included individuals with reading disabilities:– Elkind et al. (1996)– Jeanes et al. (1997)– Riemer-Reiss and Wacker (2000)– Koester (2003)– Comden (2007)– Deibel (2007, 2008)

– Mixed-disability studies do not report results by type


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


Summary of findings

– Only specific technology studies for users with reading disabilities– No study of technology use among

people with reading disabilities– No “in the wild” studies of adoption

– Consistent findings of general predictors of technology adoption– Involvement of user in selection process– Observable performance benefit– Ease of maintenance and configuration


Outline





Models of [assistive] technology adoption– Baker’s Basic Ergonomic Equation

– Kintsch and DePaula’s Adoption Framework for Assistive Technologies

– Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations

Refs: Baker, 1986; King, 1999; Kintsch and DePaula, 2002; Rogers, 2003

Sociocultural factors of reading disabilities affect their usefulness


Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations– Diffusion of Innovations is the seminal

text and theory on technology adoption

– Key aspect is communication of ideas


Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations– People with reading disabilities tend

to tactically hide their disability from others– Stealth usage of technology slows

diffusion

– Social network of users is sparse


Summary of findings

– Sociocultural aspects of reading disabilities hinders applicability of adoption models– Loss of communication and limited social

network due to invisibility of disability

– Stigma issues are a concern

– Lack of usage of models in the adoption studies– Models referenced only in Riemer-Reiss &

Wacker (2000) and Dawe (2006)


Outline





Further gaps in the research

– Reading on computers– Most work conducted on desktop

machines

– Most work used in CRT displays

– Influence of non-reading supportive technologies not accounted for in earlier studies

– Potentials of portable computers (PDAs, tablets, etc.) have yet to be explored

Refs: Farmer, 1992; Gujar et al., 1998; Waycott & Kukulska-Hulme, 2003



– Reading on computers

– Medical approach to reading disabilities– Near total focus on text-to-speech and

compensation / remediation of the phonological processing deficit

– Suggests use of the medical model of disability

– Limits assistive technology to “crutches” instead of “running shoes”

Refs: Hollan & Stornetta, 1992; Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Clough & Corbett, 2000




– Medical approach to reading disabilities

– Ignoring changes in reading over time– Emphasis on early intervention

– From “learning to read” to “reading to learn”

– Lack of support for more advanced reading skills and tasks

Refs: Wineburg, 1991; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Peskin, 1998, Peer & Reid, 2001




– Medical approach to reading disabilities

– Ignoring changes in reading over time

– Focus on reading in schools– Reading takes place outside of schools

– Systems are often deployed within the schools

– Current assistive devices not designed for use in multiple localesRefs: Laga et al., 2006


Summary of findings

– Various factors have limited previous assistive technology design and development– Technological

– Philosophical

– Educational


Outline





Summary of literature review

– Limited development of assistive technologies for supporting reading disabilities

– No knowledge of what technologies are used by people with reading disabilities

– Sociocultural aspects of reading disabilities cause problems with current models of technology adoption


Outline


– Background



– Summary


What to do next?

– Participatory design of assistive technologies has been successful – Aphasia Project (McGrenere et al, 2003)

– Orientation for Amnesiacs (Wu et al, 2005)

– Challenges to this approach– Diversity of user group is problematic

– Unclear on what technology needs to be built


What we really need…

– Fill in the gaps:– What technologies are used? Not used?

– What contexts does reading take place in?

– What reading tasks should we support?

– Proactively address what is known?– How can we design assistive technology

to be more readily adopted?


Proposed research

– Study of technology and literacy practices of people with reading disabilities

– Development of software tools that assist the adoption process


Study of technology and literacy practices– Case study of people with reading

disabilities emphasizing:– their use of regular and assistive technologies

to support reading

– the types and contexts of their reading activities

– Methodologies:– Semi-structured interviews

– Technology biographies

– Modeled after the studies by Dawe (2006) and Shinohara & Tenenberg (2007)


Assisting technology adoption through software

– Findings of adoption studies are fairly consistent

– General predictors of technology adoption:– Involvement of user in selection process

– Observable performance benefit

– Ease of maintenance and configuration

– Understanding of what the technology does


Reframe findings as questions

– Successful adoption of assistive technology relies on the user knowing:– What does this device do?

– Why will this device help people with my disability?

– Will this device help me with my ability?

– How do I configure this device?

– How do I use this device?Can we develop a system that insures

these questions are answered?


Semiotic engineering

– Interface is viewed as a communication between the designer and user

– Usability breakdowns are viewed as miscommunications

– Idea:– Use semiotic engineering principles and

practice to insure the adoption questions are answered

– Has yet to be applied to the design of assistive technologies (Deibel, 2007)Refs: de Souza, 2005; Deibel, 2007


Schematic of Adoption Support System

Document Viewer

Reading Tools

User

Expert System

Screening Questionnaire

Recommended Tools

Tool Demo

Configuration Wizard

Tool

A

BC

A. Overall application. B. Detail of expert system. C. Detail of a reading tool

Refs: Deibel, 2007


What I did– Reviewed the research literature on:

– Assistive technology for reading disabilities – Technology adoption and abandoment– Assistive technology adoption and

abandonment

– Brought in insights from other research areas: – Human-computer interaction– Reading on computers– Disability studies– Education


Contributions– Identified gaps in current work in this area

– Lack of studies on [assistive] technology use

– Models of adoption are inappropriate

– Narrow focus on reading tasks and contexts

– Identified why those gaps exist and persist– Lack of attention to sociocultural factors

– Technology limitations

– Educational philosophies

– Research designs to address these gaps– Study of technology and literacy practices

– How to design technology to support the adoption process

– Synthesizing across mulitple disciplines


Acknowledgements

– Bill Winn

– Jennifer C. Stone

– Dan Comden

– Hilary Holz

– Cynthia J. Atman

– Lindsay Michimoto

– Literacy Source

– 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:

and my advisors and committee members.


Extra slides


The Statistics

Specific Learning Disability

55%Mobility / Orthopedic 12%Speech / Language 1%Blind / Visual 5%Hearing 6%Mental / Emotional 10%Health 6%Other 5%

ReadingDifficult

y

Disabilities at U.S. Colleges & Universities

(NCES Report 1999-046)

– 90% experience difficulty with reading (Kavale & Reese, 1992)

– Data includes ADD/ADHD


Phonological Processing Deficit

MentalWord

Word

LetterForm

LetterSound

PhonemeMorpheme


Other assistive technologies

– Cardboard windows

– Single word displays

– Semantic line breaking of text

– SeeWord

Refs: Frase & Schwartz, 1979; Pepper & Lovegrove, 1999; Dickinson et al., 2002


Summary

– Review of technology adoption literature

– Identification of gaps and shortcomings of current research

– Proposal of two research paths to improve our understanding of how to support the usage of assistive technologies by people with reading disabilities

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