Designing wearable technologies for users with disabilities: Accessibility, usability, and connectivity factors

Abstract

The increasing availability of wearable devices (wearables), “smart” home, and other next-generation wirelessly connected devices for work, home, and leisure presents opportunities and challenges for users with disabilities. As augmentative tools for engagement, control, and information, these technologies should not only be usable, but also be accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. In order to better capture the dimensions of inclusivity of wearable devices, the authors have conducted a review of pertinent literature with respect to a range of representative applications and examples of currently available technologies. Drawing on the findings of the review, the aim of this article is to explore the potential impact of inclusive design principles on future device development for users with disabilities. These observations can help designers incorporate inclusive perspectives into the development process. Such an approach, where people with disabilities constitute an integral part of the development process, will yield products and services that can facilitate increased accessibility, independence, and community participation.

Perspectives on the prospective development of stroke-specific lower extremity wearable monitoring technology: a qualitative focus group study with physical therapists and individuals with stroke

“…As the potential to develop wearable technology that can capture the even the finest details of leg function and walking becomes a reality, considerations of the design features that will facilitate adoption are key. From the perspective of wearable product design for individuals with a disability, usability and wearability are essential factors that should inform development [49,50]. While a wearable monitor may be developed to carry out a specific measurement, usability reflects whether the device is userfriendly, including easy to set-up and minimal errors [49].…”

“…From the perspective of wearable product design for individuals with a disability, usability and wearability are essential factors that should inform development [49,50]. While a wearable monitor may be developed to carry out a specific measurement, usability reflects whether the device is userfriendly, including easy to set-up and minimal errors [49]. On the other hand, wearability are those features that make a wearable monitor actually acceptable to put on, including aesthetics, ease of donning and doffing, and comfort.…”

Social Media and IOT Wearables in Developing Marketing Strategies. Do SMEs Differ From Large Enterprises?

“…Studies [69] also pointed out that the most important features of wearables reside in them being: unrestrictive (they have incorporated hands-free technology, which enables users to performing several activities at the same time); controllable (the user has the ability to control it always); attentive (technologies having various sensors and functioning modes); observable (giving the opportunity to use alerts, reminders, or messages in order to attract user's interest); communicative (offering the possibility of exchanging information through various options such as Bluetooth and wireless networks) and unmonopolizing (there are several actions that the user can do at the same time, minimal attention being necessary for these activities). These advantages are presented in Figure 1, below:…”

When Design Fiction Meets Geospatial Sciences to Create a More Inclusive Smart City

“…The development of more inclusive and ethical smart city platforms is also regularly studied [33,34] in order to make online municipal services disabled-user-friendly, and as a way of using data analysis to better understand the specific urban stakes that citizen with disabilities may face. Research about adapted digital interfaces (mobile or fixed) has also developed quite a lot [29,35,36]. Another very important field of study is the design of urban places and spaces itself.…”

“…However, people with disabilities in general, and deaf people in particular, are most often overlooked when smart urban areas are designed and planned [22,36]. Numerous studies show how much the sensory characteristics of deaf people require that their life and mobility spaces be adapted [40], that the design of their components take into account deafness [18,41], and that the design of assistive technologies modulated interactions between the deaf and their spaces to anchor them in the state of deafness [18,41].…”