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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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 %
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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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