Project Update: April, 2002

Continuing focus groups

We have conducted three focus groups in the Eugene area and are currently scheduling additional groups in Portland, Bend, and Medford. We decided to add another Eugene group, this one with care providers, in April. Although it is too soon to announce findings from the groups, we say with some confidence that the different groups have been consistent in their observations about the barriers to using email when one has a cognitive impairment and in their suggestions for strategies to overcome the barriers. We are excited about the quality of information we are gathering and how it will guide the design of our email interface.

The user profile is helping us understand the population this project is intended to serve. In conjunction with the information from the focus groups, the profile offers valuable information about the barriers to technology for people with cognitive impairment. We have greatly expanded the numbers of profiles we will collect. If you know of someone who would like to complete the profile, but doesn't have access to our online version, please contact us and we may be able to send a printed version to you.

We are in the planning stages for our first three substudies evaluating specific questions relevant to email use for people with cognitive disabilities.

The first study involves a comparison of performance on email tasks across different prompt (visual vs. visual plus auditory prompts) and navigation conditions (mouse vs. arrow navigation) We hope to learn more about what types of cueing and navigation allow computer users with cognitive disabilities to be the most independent. The second study will develop and evaluate an instructional method to teach people to use email. The notion is to use the instructional literature to develop a teaching package that is based on instructional design and teaching strategies known to be effective with learners who have memory and organizational deficits.

The third study seeks to understand the purposes for using email. We will be analyzing emails generated by people with and without cognitive disabilities to develop a framework for understanding the different uses of email.

Our consultants will be visiting at the end of April and beginning of May. Dr. Gerhardt Fischer, Director of the Center for LifeLong Learning and Design will work with us to incorporate his group's exciting accomplishments in integrating the needs of persons with disabilities with technological devices. To learn more about Dr. Fischer's research project, "Cognitive Levers (CLever): Helping People Help Themselves" see the website:(http://www.cs.Colorado.edu/~l3d/clever/)

We will also host a visit from Dr. Alistair Sutcliffe, Professor of Systems Engineering and Director of the Centre for Human Computer Interface Design, at UMIST in Manchester. Dr. Sutcliffe brings extensive experience in visual user interface design and usability solutions. For more information about Dr. Stucliffe's work, please see: http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/hci_design/alistair-stdpage.htm

The software development team has been adding and testing features that may become part of our final product (and you can see some of the results!) We now have screenshots of our prototype you can view. You will find them in the Researchers, Developers, and Survivors links on this site. As always, please contact us if you have questions or suggestions about our website or our project.