- From: Katherine Deibel <katherine.deibel@gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:52:17 -0700
- To: public-cognitive-a11y-tf <public-cognitive-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Making the computer accessible to mentally retarded adults Gretchen L. Robertson and Deborah Hix Communications of the ACM Volume 45 Issue 4, April 2002 Pages 171-183 ACM New York, NY, USA Abstract: Little research has been conducted on how to teach computer skills to developmentally disabled adults. A head counselor at a home for mentally retarded adults, who served as the inspiration for this article, was an enthusiastic personal computer user who tried to share computer instruction with home residents. Efforts at using commercial applications designed for young children were unsuccessful. Residents briefly watched the counselor use the applications, then lost interest. Staff members had neither the time nor the user interface background to investigate which applications and user interaction design factors might make computers accessible to home residents. In this article, we describe our empirical investigation of computer use among moderately developmentally disabled individuals. We investigated the input devices preferred, and the user interaction design issues to be considered when designing or selecting applications for this population. -- Kate Deibel, PhD URL: http://staff.washington.edu/deibel -- "To make a difference, one must subtract one number from another."
Received on Monday, 2 June 2014 20:58:20 UTC