Personal informatics (PI) supports people from many backgrounds and life contexts in collecting and finding value in their personal data. This project aims to understand how to design Personal informatics tools for people with Motor Disabilities (MD).
To explore how current PI systems involve people with MD, we reviewed the literature at the intersection of personal informatics and people with MD. We conducted a mapping review on PI publications published between 2010 and March 2021 that were indexed in the ACM digital library, PubMed, JMIR, SCOPUS, and IEEE Xplore. Our search identified 50 publications where PI was implemented or discussed for people with MD. For each paper, we identified the data domains, tracking processes (tools and interactions), and motivations of the PI literature implemented or discussed for people with motor disabilities. We also identified which PI stages were present in these papers and the considerations researchers made for people with motor disabilities when designing or discussing PI systems for this target population. Our analysis revealed:
(1) there are inconsistencies in reporting the level of motor disabilities in current PI publications
(2) contemporary PI only focuses on the health-related domains of people with MD, despite a need for other PI domains to account for or accommodate motor disability in their design
(3) current PI systems do not accommodate the wide range of disabilities and co-morbidities
that people with motor disabilities can have
(4) individuals other than primary participants — such as family members, caregivers, researchers, and doctors — were extensively involved in all of the PI stages
The primary contribution of this work is a deep understanding of the complex space between PI and MD, and exploring the research gap between these two critical domains: currently, PI research almost completely ignores people with severe MD. In addition to identifying factors that inhibit contemporary PI from facilitating support to the target population, we further provided guidelines for designing future PI systems for people with any disability, adapted from the principles of Universal Design.
To explore how current PI systems involve people with MD, we reviewed the literature at the intersection of personal informatics and people with MD. We conducted a mapping review on PI publications published between 2010 and March 2021 that were indexed in the ACM digital library, PubMed, JMIR, SCOPUS, and IEEE Xplore. Our search identified 50 publications where PI was implemented or discussed for people with MD. For each paper, we identified the data domains, tracking processes (tools and interactions), and motivations of the PI literature implemented or discussed for people with motor disabilities. We also identified which PI stages were present in these papers and the considerations researchers made for people with motor disabilities when designing or discussing PI systems for this target population. Our analysis revealed:
(1) there are inconsistencies in reporting the level of motor disabilities in current PI publications
(2) contemporary PI only focuses on the health-related domains of people with MD, despite a need for other PI domains to account for or accommodate motor disability in their design
(3) current PI systems do not accommodate the wide range of disabilities and co-morbidities
that people with motor disabilities can have
(4) individuals other than primary participants — such as family members, caregivers, researchers, and doctors — were extensively involved in all of the PI stages
The primary contribution of this work is a deep understanding of the complex space between PI and MD, and exploring the research gap between these two critical domains: currently, PI research almost completely ignores people with severe MD. In addition to identifying factors that inhibit contemporary PI from facilitating support to the target population, we further provided guidelines for designing future PI systems for people with any disability, adapted from the principles of Universal Design.
