Category: Assistive Technology

Reflection on the field trip

Last Thursday I went to the Shanghai Pudong Special School. We went there with a taxi since the distance was very near, it only took us 15 minutes to get there. The building is very beautiful, it has a lot of trees and a large garden. When we went to the inside of the school, the first thing that we saw was the metro station look-alike. These are used to train the children to use the metro so that when they actually go there they won’t panic. After that, she took us around the school to see the other rooms. She told us that from 1-3^rd grade they will learn about basic knowledge about taking care of themselves, from 4-6^th grade they will learn about living with the community, and in the end, they can go to professional school.  The field trip was very informative, we get to see one of the teachers taught her students how to sharpen their kinetic abilities. It was really heartwarming to see how everyone really cared about the children and they are really passionate about what they’re doing. Another thing that I was really impressed with is how they structure the learning and the classes. They have a shop that the children can buy things from coins that they got if they do something good. It would motivate the students to be more involved in their learning. It really inspires me to know more about the students and how we can help them by learning how they learn. 

Describe your partner as a person

Our partner’s name is Siyi, she is very kind and she loves to help people. Initially, I was very nervous because I am not fluent in Chinese. Thankfully, my teammates were kind enough to translate what she’s saying to me. I feel like she is very eager to learn new things and share her experiences. I’m looking forward to meeting her again!

What were their challenges

At first, she told us that she has trouble getting in and out of the bus because most of the bus does not have a ladder that would allow wheelchair to pass. So we were thinking about making her a wheelchair ladder. However, it found out that is was too dangerous if she decided to use it on her own because the distance between the bus and the ground is pretty steep. Secondly, she told us that she has problems using umbrellas. Her hand is too weak to hold the umbrella, and she can only use her right hand. Therefore, we are very interested to know more about her opinions and experience of using the umbrella.

What is your project

After a lot of brainstorming, we decided to make a helpful tool for her to be able to use for the umbrella. So it would be like two sticks that are attached to each other but are able to be rotated 90 degrees. We will attach the automatic umbrella in one of the stick, and then let our partner rotate the stick whenever she wants to use the umbrella. There are a couple of great things from this design. First, it would be safe for her to use it because the umbrella would be taller than her head so that it won’t hurt her when she opens it. Second, it would be portable and easy to carry around since it can be pulled back and stored when it is not used. We are still thinking about our final design, yet we have made our prototype. The video is attached below. 

1. What are the main challenges in applying mainstream mobile technologies to meet the needs of people who have autism or cognitive disabilities? Mainstream mobile technologies have a great responsibility in reaching all of their consumers. One of their greatest target markets, however, is meeting the needs of people who have autism or cognitive disabilities, as according to Chapter 15 in the book Assistive Technology, they lack attention and perception skills that allow them to connect with the world. Therefore, by these individuals having difficulties in interacting with one another in real life, bringing that to a digital scale turns it even more challenging for the mainstream mobile technology industry. Also, due to the broad range nature and extensive amount of different cognitive disabilities that exist, it becomes difficult for companies to adjust to each individuals’ specific needs. As this would require much dedication and resources to build an accessibility team for maybe not as much profit. For this reason mainstream mobile technologies might rather turn away from the situation by only appealing to “the majority” of the population, and forget the minority in need to be included. 
2. List three benefits of making mainstream mobile technologies accessible for people with autism or cognitive disabilities.
   • Inclusion of all members of society within mainstream mobile technologies, subsequently generating awareness within society of those individuals who are different but equal as well. 
   • The opening of a new market for mobile technology companies to target people with cognitive disabilities.
   • Generating new sources of income for people with autism or cognitive disabilities and making them competitive in the workforce, as they can now use mobile technologies to work.
3. How can technologies help to overcome stigma and discrimination for people with autism or cognitive disabilities?

Technologies can help overcome stigma and discrimination as they have the ability to disseminate information that might inform public opinion about their wrongful perception of disabilities. Also, technology could help ban or filter hurtful words against people with autism and disabilities, that way they feel less discriminated and more included in society.

What are the main challenges in applying mainstream mobile technologies to meet the needs of people who have autism or other cognitive disabilities?

1. For people with cognitive disabilities, learning new functions on mobile devices can be difficult. The mobile technologies may not be that accessible to them.
2. The problems of people with cognitive disabilities are very diverse and there are many special cases. Therefore, the design of products is often customized according to different special needs, which may lead to a lack of capital. Few companies are willing to spend a lot of capital to produce products with low profits.
3. Today’s technology is not fully developed, and some requirements cannot be met due to technical constraints.

List three benefits of making mainstream mobile technologies accessible for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities.

1. Mobile technologies can offer different ways that can’t be achieved by the traditional methods to help people with cognitive disabilities learn about the world comprehensively. According to Chapter 15, notebook computers, mobile phones, and tablets have been programmed to function as both augmentative communication devices (see Chapter 16) and as cognitive assists (Stock et al, 2008). They have an output of either speech or visual characters and text. These input/ output features may be operated in many different ways.
2. Mobile technologies can help strengthen memory. As is talked in the text, reminding people to take their medication is one of the main uses of memory assistance technologies.
3. Mobile technologies can help people with cognitive disabilities have a sense of time. In the text, we know there is one class of devices that uses an alternative format for representing time to make it more accessible to individuals with intellectual disabilities.

How can technologies help to overcome stigma and discrimination for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities?

1. Cognitive disabilities are often regarded as a part of the social identity of people who have them. When the person with such social identity utilizes assistive technologies, especially those based on mainstream technologies, “there is a perception of competence and skill resulting from device use that can positively impact social interaction and self-image” (404).
2. When using online devices, people with cognitive disabilities can have the opportunity to choose whether or not to disclose their disability. So they can communicate with others without disclosing the disability.
3. Technologies designed for people with cognitive disabilities can let them regain the ability to access the Internet. Because of their disabilities, they often cannot access the Internet as others, but mobile devices designed for them can allow them to regain access to the Internet, as long as designers pay attention to some aspects of the device’s design.

What are the main challenges in applying mainstream mobile technologies to meet the needs of people who have autism or other cognitive disabilities?

I believe that the most significant challenge for people with autism to use mobile technologies is the large variety of things that you can choose from. Those functions and applications can overwhelm people in the spectrum of autism since they wouldn’t be able to concentrate on completing one single task. For example, if they are tasked to text someone, and suddenly a notification popped up, then they would be distracted and prompted to do the action said in the notification. Another possible challenge is the name of the function and applications. I feel like the names are not descriptive enough for them to understand. Added with the application’s icon, I think that since it would be difficulties, there would be a learning curve for people with autism to get used to each application. However, these challenges are definitely possible to overcome with the necessary effort.

List three benefits of making mainstream mobile technologies accessible for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities.

1. It would provide a useful alternative for people with autism to communicate with their friends and families in their daily lives.
2. I also believe that it would be useful to use when they are having a meltdown because people with autism do not like to be touched or hear descriptive words (each case may be different) so they can text their immediate families what they need and what they do not want.
3. It would also help people in the autism spectrum to be more independent as they are capable of using mobile phones to complete simple tasks such as making a call or texting someone.

How can technologies help to overcome stigma and discrimination for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities?

I think that the use of mobile technologies can help to minimize the stigma and discrimination of people with autism and other cognitive technologies as they would be able to understand and connect with other people more easily. It would also promote inclusivity within society and help bridge the distance between them and society.

1. What are the main challenges in applying mainstream mobile technologies to meet the needs of people who have autism or other cognitive disabilities?

I feel one of the main challenges for people with cognitive disabilities to use mobile technologies is that the language is not easy and concise enough for them to understand. For example, in the Settings of the iPhone, there are many words that are hard to understand, such as Cellular. Even my grandparents who don’t have cognitive disabilities didn’t know the meaning originally. Now that people without cognitive disabilities found it difficult to understand how to set their phones properly, these words will definitely confuse people with cognitive disabilities. Another challenge, especially for people who have autism, is the technologies that require communication with other people. For example, when ordering Eleme or buying stuff on Taobao, the delivery guy often calls you. This will get people who have autism into trouble since they have difficulty in communication. 

2. List three benefits of making mainstream mobile technologies accessible for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities.

1. By making mainstream mobile technologies accessible for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities, this also means making mobile technologies easier to understand for people without cognitive disabilities. Therefore, this not only benefits people with cognitive disabilities but also benefits everyone.
2. People with cognitive disabilities can live more independently if they are able to use mobile technologies including Taobao, Eleme, etc.
3. People with autism may be able to overcome the difficulty in communication if they can use social media to communicate with other people first since talking online will be easier for them than talking face to face.

3. How can technologies help to overcome stigma and discrimination for people with autism or other cognitive disabilities?

If people with autism or other cognitive disabilities are able to use mobile technologies, they can bridge the gap between them and those who don’t have cognitive disabilities since mobile technologies play a large part in normal people’s life. Many stigmas and discriminations exist because people with cognitive disabilities are different from normal people. By eliminating the differences in using mobile technologies, the discriminations may also be reduced.