CAREER: Advancing Remote Collaboration: Inclusive Design for People with Dementia

技术越来越多地提供了与他人远程互动的机会。当技术的设计没有考虑到他们的需求、偏好和能力时，认知障碍者可能会被排除在这些机会之外。轻度痴呆症是一种认知障碍，全世界许多人都有这种症状。关于应该如何设计技术来支持轻度痴呆症患者，人们知之甚少。在解决这一差距方面，该项目不仅有可能使痴呆症患者受益，而且还有可能使研究人员、照顾者和普通公众受益，他们目前缺乏与痴呆症患者互动和向他们学习的机会。该项目还将通过两种关键方式培训下一代技术研究人员和设计师：1)通过远程痴呆症实验室，为涉及痴呆症最终用户的设计活动搭建脚手架；2)与痴呆症患者、残疾倡导者和医疗保健专业人员共同开发和传播模块，这些模块可以灵活地整合到以人为中心的设计课程中。该项目的目标是设计、开发和评估支持和研究包容性协作技术的方法，这些技术支持和研究在远程交互中支持轻度痴呆症患者。该项目将调查：1)关于轻度痴呆症患者在使用数字协作工具时所经历的偏好、好处和障碍的经验知识；2)通过迭代开发三个新应用程序，使痴呆症患者使用远程协作技术的新交互技术；3)从理论上理解已建立的计算机支持的协同工作(CSCW)理论如何适用于痴呆症患者；4)为轻度痴呆症患者设计的经验证的框架；以及5)远程将痴呆症患者纳入设计活动的创新方法。为了实现这些目标，该项目涉及针对三个不同领域(社会、目的导向和认知)和互动伙伴(患有痴呆症的同龄人、老年人混合能力群体和照顾者)的研究线索。该项目有可能改变认知障碍人士的技术研究、设计、开发和部署，将协作技术设计从高度定制和定制的技术推进到一个成熟的可扩展开发和部署领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Technology increasingly provides opportunities to interact remotely with others. People with cognitive impairment can be excluded from these opportunities when technology is not designed with their needs, preferences, and abilities in mind. Mild dementia is one form of cognitive impairment that is experienced by many individuals worldwide. Little is known about how technology should be designed to support people with mild dementia. In addressing this gap, this project has the potential to benefit not only people with dementia, but also researchers, caregivers, and the general public, who currently lack opportunities to interact with and learn from people with dementia. This project will also train the next generation of technology researchers and designers in two key ways: 1) with a remote dementia lab that scaffolds design activities involving end users with dementia, and 2) by co-developing and disseminating modules with people with dementia, disability advocates, and healthcare professionals that can be flexibly integrated into human-centered design courses.The goal of this project is to design, develop, and evaluate approaches to support and study inclusive collaborative technologies that support people with mild dementia in remote interaction. The project will investigate: 1) empirical knowledge of preferences, benefits, and barriers experienced by people with mild dementia in using digital collaborative tools; 2) new interaction techniques to engage people with dementia in remote collaborative technology use through the iterative development of three novel applications; 3) a theoretical understanding of how established Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) theories can be adapted for dementia; 4) a validated framework for designing for people with mild dementia; and 5) innovative methods to remotely include people with dementia in design activities. In order to achieve these goals, this project involves research threads targeting three diverse domains (social, purpose-oriented, and cognitive) and interaction partners (peers with dementia, mixed ability groups of older adults, and caregivers). This project has the potential to transform research, design, development, and deployment of technologies for people with cognitive impairment, advancing collaborative technology design from highly customized and bespoke technology to an area ripe for scalable development and deployment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.