A recent survey by FAST (Foundation for Assistive Technology) has found that involving users in the assistive technology (AT) research and development process is widely acknowledged as crucial, but that there remain a number of barriers to doing so successfully.
User involvement is increasingly recognised as a means of increasing the reliability and relevance of research, and of improving the usability and accessibility of technology.
The majority of those polled felt user involvement was critical at all stages of the research and development process. Two thirds of respondents (67%) described user involvement in setting research priorities as ‘very important', while 31% saw this as ‘quite important'.
A similar proportion felt that user involvement was either very important (79%) or quite important (12%) in the early stages of the design process, while the vast majority (90%) identified user involvement as very important in the evaluation phases of any AT research and development work. One respondent commented ““Users should be the driving force for new developments.”
The reasons given for user involvement included
· to understand user needs and identify unmet needs;
· to improve the usability of products
· to improve the quality, relevance and usefulness of research
· to gather feedback and to generate new ideas. .
Almost all (90%) of those who took part in FAST's survey had sought users' involvement in their own AT research and development work in the last three years. Respondents described a mix of experiences in finding and recruiting users, but a significant proportion of responses suggested problems were common.
A third (31%) of respondents said that it was hard to identify appropriate users for AT research projects, with more people (41%) reporting difficulties in finding the right number of users, and 30% finding it hard or very hard to engage users to participate in research.
Individual replies indicated that the most common challenge, cited by 41%, related to recruitment of users. Identifying the appropriate groups and third parties to work with to find suitable recruits was difficult, particularly if the research required finding very specialist users, or reaching a cross section of users. One researcher commented “Without good links with gatekeepers, recruiting older people for technology research is extremely hard.”
Respondents pointed to difficulties in identifying users with the right skills and interests, and particularly people with knowledge of AT.
Respondents also mentioned the challenges of ethics approval, along with the time required to recruit and administer groups of users. Maintaining people's interest and commitment during the lifetime of a particular research project could be problematic, either because of the health needs of the target group or because of waning motivation.
One in five described problems in working with users, such as limited time available to explain the technology involved; managing user expectations; and providing sufficient support to facilitate meaningful engagement.
Sam Collin, Senior Project Manager at FAST commented, “These findings highlight the significance of user involvement in AT research and development. The results will inform the establishment of our Technology for All programme to enable more disabled and older people to participate in the development of new technology. We will work with the research community to overcome the challenges identified by the survey.”
FAST will be holding a meeting of third sector groups on 16th February to examine how older and disabled people can best be engaged in technology research and evaluation.
FAST (Foundation for Assistive Technology) is a charity which works collaboratively with members of the AT community across statutory, voluntary and private sectors to bring innovative products to market and to improve services for disabled and older people.
For more details, go to the FAST website