Co-designing wearable technology together with visually impaired children

Summary, in English

This paper presents the process and results of a set of studies within the ABBI EU project, with the general aim to co-design wearable technology (an audio bracelet) together with visually impaired children, starting at a young age. The authors discuss user preferences related to sounds and tactile materials and present the results of a focus group with very young visually-impaired children under the age of 5, together with their parents. They find that multisensory feedback (visual, tactile/haptic, auditory) is useful and that preferences vary - also the drastic and potentially unpleasant sounds and materials may have a role. Further studies investigate the possibilities of using the ABBI wearable technology for social contexts and games. In a series of game workshops children with and without visual impairments created games with wearable technology employing very simple interactivity. The authors report the created games, and note that even with this simple interactivity it is possible to create fun, inclusive and rich socially co-located games.

• Author: Héctor Caltenco; Charlotte Magnusson; Bitte Rydeman; Sara Finocchietti; Giulia Cappagli; Elena Cocchi; Lope Ben Porquis; Gabriel Baud-Bovy; Monica Gori
• Department/s: Certec - Rehabilitation Engineering and Design
• Publishing year: 2016-10-01
• Language: English
• Pages: 68-84
• Publication/Series: International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/IJMHCI.2016100104
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: The Information Resources Management Association (IRMA)
• Topic: Other Medical Engineering
• Keywords: Audio; Blind; Co-Creation; Games; Information; Interface; Participative design; Play; Sound; Visual impairment; Wearable
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1942-390X