Accessibility in Context: Understanding the Truly Mobile Experience of Smartphone Users with Motor Impairments
Maia Naftali, Leah Findlater · 2014 · ASSETS '14: Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility · doi:10.1145/2661334.2661372
Summary
This paper moves beyond lab-based studies to investigate how people with motor impairments actually use smartphones in their daily lives, particularly outside the home. The research combines two studies: an online survey of 16 smartphone users with motor impairments (conditions including cerebral palsy, neuropathy, arthritis, and spinal cord injury), and in-depth multi-method case studies with four expert smartphone users. The case studies involved initial interviews, two weeks of diary entries, and three-hour contextual sessions that included neighborhood activities like visiting pharmacies, coffee shops, and using public transit. The participants were all male, aged 24-46, used wheelchairs, and owned Android or iPhone devices. The research examines how smartphones enable everyday activities, what contextual challenges users encounter in mobile settings, and how situational factors compound existing motor accessibility barriers.
Key findings
Smartphones proved to be powerful enablers for participants, particularly in five areas: supporting transit (checking elevator status at subway stations, GPS navigation), enabling remote work, facilitating online shopping and banking to avoid physically inaccessible stores, controlling other devices at home (TV, workstation), and providing an accessible alternative to physical writing. Situational impairments were significant—participants struggled to retrieve phones from pockets or bags while in transit, and weather and clothing affected device access. Text entry and correction were the most frequently cited input difficulties both at home and while out, with multitouch gestures proving difficult or impossible for most participants. Notably, participants adopted few or no assistive technologies on their phones, preferring to maintain portability over adding bulky accessories. Mobile speech dictation (particularly Siri) was found inadequate compared to desktop alternatives, and text correction was especially frustrating due to small selection controls.
Relevance
This research is valuable for mobile accessibility practitioners because it grounds lab findings in real-world contexts. The discovery that smartphones help users circumvent physical world accessibility barriers—checking elevator status, avoiding inaccessible stores, reducing physical writing—expands the understanding of mobile accessibility beyond touchscreen interaction. Design implications include increasing the size of text correction controls, providing modal correction modes, offering alternatives to multitouch gestures, and improving mobile speech input. The study also highlights that designers of physical spaces should consider how mobile services can complement physical accessibility. The findings on situational impairments suggest that wearable devices could distribute input across the body, eliminating the need to retrieve a phone. While limited by a small, demographically narrow sample, this work demonstrates the importance of studying accessibility in situ rather than only in labs.
Tags: motor impairments · mobile accessibility · smartphones · touchscreen · situational impairments · contextual inquiry · diary study