Sociocultural Factors of Assistive Technology Adoption among Individuals with Reading Disabilities Katherine Deibel Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington

What is this talk (and thesis) about? Understanding and supporting the usage and adoption of assistive technologies by people with reading disabilities K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Why does it matter? Reading is a critical skill in an information society 7-15% of the population have reading disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) Computer-based assistive tools can provide successful accommodations A tool is only helpful when it is used Refs: Sands & Buchholz,1997 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

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 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Research Questions What technologies are helpful to people with reading disabilities? What technologies are used by people with reading disabilities? What technologies get abandoned by people with reading disabilities? Why? What helps make a technology adoptable? How can we use this knowledge to make better technologies? K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

A Multidisciplinary Effort Insights from many research areas: Computer science Reading on computers Digital literacies Human-computer interaction Education Technology adoption Reading sciences Assistive technology K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Sociocultural factors Various social and cultural factors affect research and development of assistive technologies for reading disabilities Understanding these factors allows for better future research K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Outline Motivation and Introduction Short Background on Reading Disabilities Current Research and Its Gaps Assistive Technologies for Reading Assistive Technology Adoption Studies Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps Summary K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

What is a reading disability? Profound difficulty with learning to read and the act of reading Phonological processing deficit Letter and word misidentification Impacts reading comprehension Visual stress Letters and words move and blur together Difficulty sustaining reading Refs: Sands & Buchholz,1997; Dickinson et al., 2002 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Social aspects of reading disabilities Poor reading is socially associated with poor intelligence Individuals with reading disabilities experience: Self-doubt, low confidence, and feelings of isolation Teasing from peers Expectations from others to fail Viewed as lazy or attempting to fraud the system Mention the CHEd articles Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Williams & Ceci, 1999; Zirkel, 2000; Cory, 2005; K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Invisible nature of reading disability Disability not visually apparent to others Allows individual to hide as “normal” Avoid disability stigma Limit knowledge to trusted others Delay asking for help Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Cory, 2005; K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Outline Motivation and Introduction Short Background on Reading Disabilities Current Research and Its Gaps Assistive Technologies for Reading Assistive Technology Adoption Studies Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps Summary K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Researched technologies Text windows / Single word displays Semantic line breaking of text Text display (colors, font, size, etc.) SeeWord Studied briefly then research moves on Rarely developed into commercially available products Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Dickinson et al., 2002; Laga et al., 2006 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

EXCEPTION: Text-to-Speech Software Listen to text read aloud by a computer Bypasses phonological processing deficit Improves word identification and speed Many commercial versions available Heavily researched with variations Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Sands & Buchholz, 1997, Laga et al., 2006 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Summary of assistive technologies Most technologies never go beyond the research stage Commercially available technologies are primarily text-to-speech K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Outline Motivation and Introduction Short Background on Reading Disabilities Current Research and Its Gaps Assistive Technologies for Reading Assistive Technology Adoption Studies Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps Summary K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

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) K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

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) ** K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption ONE MANY Study includes people with reading disabilities Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities Types of Assistive Technologies 0% 100% Focus on Reading Disabilities K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption ONE MANY Study includes people with reading disabilities Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities Adoption of specific assistive technologies Types of Assistive Technologies 0% 100% Focus on Reading Disabilities K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption ONE MANY Study includes people with reading disabilities Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities No studies of general technology adoption Types of Assistive Technologies 0% 100% Focus on Reading Disabilities K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption ONE MANY Study includes people with reading disabilities Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities Do not report differences between disability types Types of Assistive Technologies 0% 100% Focus on Reading Disabilities K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Studies of Assistive Technology Adoption ONE MANY Study includes people with reading disabilities Study does NOT include people with reading disabilities Text-to-Speech abandonment rate of 50-100% Types of Assistive Technologies 0% 100% Focus on Reading Disabilities Refs: Elkind et al., 1996; Comden, 2007; Deibel, 2007; Deibel, 2008 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Summary of adoption studies Only specific technology studies for users with reading disabilities No studies of general technology usage among people with reading disabilities Multiple disability studies do not report findings by disability type Text-to-speech has a high abandonment rate (small n studies) K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Outline Motivation and Introduction Short Background on Reading Disabilities Current Research and Its Gaps Assistive Technologies for Reading Assistive Technology Adoption Studies Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps Summary K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

The Gaps Assistive technology development mainly restricted to text-to-speech despite frequent abandonment Adoption studies often cover other disabilities Reading disability adoption studies limited to specific technologies K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Sociocultural factors Various social and cultural factors affect research and development of assistive technologies for reading disabilities Factors include: Nature of reading disabilities Social views on disabilities Educational policies and philosophies Available technologies Technology practices K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Text-to-Speech and Display Technologies Text-to-speech developed in 1990s Most work conducted on desktop machines with CRT displays Displays known to be non-conducive to vision-only reading Developers made best use of technologies available at the time Insight: Explore potentials of portable computers (PDAs, tablets, etc.) that are better designed to support reading Refs: Farmer, 1992; Gujar et al., 1998; Waycott & Kukulska-Hulme, 2003 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Assistive Technologies and Medicine Early AT adoption studies conducted by rehabilitation doctors Focused on disabilities they treated Reading disabilities are not “treated” medically but through education Insight: Consider the different policies, laws, funding, philosophies, etc. between medical and educational treatment of disabilities Refs: Phillips & Zhao, 1993; Clough & Corbett, 2000 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Education and the Medical Model Medical model of disability: A disability is a flaw or defect that needs fixing or bypassing Typical Education Research Approach: Phonological processing deficit Listening to text read aloud bypasses deficit Text-to-speech technology Use text-to-speech for remediation Refs: Sands & Buchholz, 1997; Clough & Corbett, 2000 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Educational Model of Disability Person has education disability about X Sub-skill Y is identified as lacking If we remediate or bypass Y, X will improve Efforts that ignore Y are not pursued Insight: Consider interventions not involving phonological processing deficit K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Repercussions of Educational Model Focus on early reading Emphasis on early interventions, K-5 Ignores transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” Insight: Lack of support for more advanced reading skills and tasks Refs: Wineburg, 1991; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Peskin, 1998, Peer & Reid, 2001 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Repercussions of Educational Model Focus on reading at school Reading takes place outside of schools AT often deployed only in the school labs Insight: Current assistive devices not designed for use in multiple locales Refs: Laga et al., 2006 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Invisible nature of reading disability Disability not visually apparent to others Allows individual to hide as “normal” Avoid disability stigma Limit knowledge to trusted others Delay asking for help Refs: McDermott, 1993; Edwards, 1994; Cory, 2005; K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Invisibility and Technology Usage Would text-to-speech be used in a…. …lecture hall? …library? …study group? …in a dorm room with roommate? …in a dorm room alone? Insight: Need awareness of different contexts and how they affect usage K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Invisibility and Adoption Theories Diffusion of Innovations is the seminal text and theory on technology adoption Key aspect is communication of ideas Social network of users and adopters Refs: Rogers, 2003 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Invisibility and Lack of Diffusion People with reading disabilities tend to tactically hide disability from others Stealth usage of technology slows diffusion Social network of users is sparse Disclosure of disability also uncertain Insight: Standard theory of technology adoption is not readily applicable Refs: Rogers, 2003 K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Outline Motivation and Introduction Short Background on Reading Disabilities Current Research and Its Gaps Assistive Technologies for Reading Assistive Technology Adoption Studies Sociocultural Factors: Understanding the Gaps Summary K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Summary Research literature on assistive technologies for reading disabilities is limited in scope Various social and cultural factors have influenced previous and current research Understanding these factors allows for better future research K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Ongoing research Case studies of people with reading disabilities emphasizing: Usage of technologies to support reading The types and contexts of their reading activities Identifying additional social and cultural factors Development of new assistive technologies: Supports invisible nature of reading disabilities Adjustable to multiple usage contexts K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities

Acknowledgements Completion of this work would not have been possible without the influence of many people, including: Alan Borning Sheryl Burgstahler Josh Tenenberg Bill Winn Jennifer C. Stone Dan Comden Hilary Holz Cynthia J. Atman Lindsay Michimoto Literacy Source John Bransford Linda Shapiro Steve Tanimoto Ken Yasuhara Richard C. Davis Imran Rashid Janet Davis Jim Borgford-Parnell Jason Deibel Johannes Gutenberg K. Deibel, Assistive Technologies and Reading Disabilities