Exploring the Data Tracking and Sharing Preferences of Wheelchair Athletes
Patrick Carrington, Gierad Laput, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18) · doi:10.1145/3234695.3236353
Summary
This paper explores how wheelchair basketball players want to use and share automatically tracked performance data, using a prototype sensor device as a discussion probe. The researchers interviewed 15 wheelchair basketball players (mean age 33, 1 female, 3 who also coached) recruited from a local team practice and the 2018 National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament (NWBT). The prototype used a WiFi-enabled microcontroller with a 9-axis IMU attached to the wheelchair to capture real-time metrics including speed, acceleration, distance traveled, and peak acceleration, displayed on a 42-inch screen. Sessions consisted of a demonstration of the prototype followed by a semi-structured interview covering data usefulness, use cases for players versus coaches, and data ownership preferences. The study extends prior research on health and fitness data sharing — which has focused on wellness contexts — into the competitive sports domain, where motivations and privacy considerations differ fundamentally.
Key findings
Players were enthusiastic about real-time performance data, seeing it as a novel and valuable addition to wheelchair basketball. Key use cases included skill training evaluation, endurance assessment, fatigue management, and strategy development. Players distinguished between practice (where real-time feedback is most useful) and games (where post-hoc review is preferred). Competition was a central motivator — athletes wanted to compare their metrics against peers, with one player envisioning a "scouting database" for the community. Strikingly, players were largely unconcerned about data privacy, contrasting sharply with health data sharing research. This openness stems from the wheelchair basketball community's supportive, inclusive culture — as one player noted, "They've given so much from this sport that I don't think anyone would be unwilling to give back." Players generally preferred team-based ownership of devices and data over individual ownership, for practical reasons (setup complexity, cost) and because team contexts made more sense for the data. However, in scouting situations, players wanted more control. Coaches saw the data as complementing their existing video analysis workflows, potentially reducing the hours spent on post-game review. Players emphasized that "activity" in wheelchair basketball means something fundamentally different from step-count-based fitness tracking — it involves time battling for position, quick acceleration bursts, and coasting patterns.
Relevance
This research reframes disability technology from a deficit model (compensating for limitations) to an empowerment model (enhancing athletic performance). The finding that wheelchair athletes' data sharing preferences diverge significantly from health data research challenges researchers to consider context carefully when designing activity tracking systems — the same person may have very different privacy preferences for health data versus sports performance data. For technology designers, the study identifies specific metrics that matter to wheelchair athletes (speed, acceleration, distance, endurance patterns) that differ from standard fitness tracker outputs (steps, calories). The community-driven willingness to share data opens possibilities for collective databases that could benefit the entire adaptive sports ecosystem, from youth players to Paralympic athletes. The practical insight that team-based rather than individual device ownership may be more appropriate for sports contexts has implications for how adaptive sports technology is funded and distributed.
Tags: wheelchair accessibility · adaptive sports · fitness tracking · data privacy · wearable technology · activity recognition · wheelchair basketball