This article presents the results to date of an on-going research project of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for Persons with Disabilities (Wireless RERC), which was established in the fall of 2001. The purpose of this project is to identify, prioritize, and disseminate information about the ergonomic needs of users with disabilities for mobile wireless technologies. This article describes the findings of two parts of this research project: (a) a survey of user needs, in both paper and accessible Web-based formats; and (b) focus group discussions with groups of persons with disabilities who are users of mobile wireless products and services. The results demonstrate that persons with disabilities are a significant customer market for wireless goods and services and that issues affecting usability for this population are similar to those of customers without disabilities. The article also describes the development of two tools for disseminating project data: (a) a database query tool for access to survey data in real time; and (b) personas depicting the characteristics of wireless customers with disabilities.

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A compensatory aid is being developed to support community re-entry for persons with cognitive impairments resulting from acquired brain injuries (ABI). With mobile wireless technology as a design platform, research in computer science and rehabilitation engineering is integrated with industrial design to explore the central concern: the design of a user interface that is understandable and operable by individuals with significant cognitive impairments. Much of what is learned during this project is applicable to enhancing the usability of mobile wireless technologies for users without disabilities.

Voice-mail communication is often used to convey information between the registered nurse (RN) and the Veteran. Using a pretest-posttest design, this study examined whether implementation of a standardized voice-mail greeting had an impact on Veteran satisfaction and the number of messages left on the RN voice-mail. Veterans were more satisfied and there was a significant decrease in RN voice-mail messages post-implementation. This study highlights effects of the voice-mail greeting and has implications for other health care settings.

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