Promoting Inclusive Work with Digital Assistance Systems: Experiences of Cognitively Disabled Workers with In-Situ Assembly Support

Abstract

Digital work assistance systems have the potential to promote inclusive work by supporting people with disabilities to carry out manual work processes independently, thereby contributing to a greater degree of personal autonomy. However, the question arises whether people with cognitive disabilities would accept digital assistance systems in the professional environment. In this paper, we present a user study with workers with intellectual and mental disabilities from a sheltered workshop organization to investigate their experiences using projection-based assembly assistance systems. Our results show that people with cognitive disabilities generally have positive experiences using projection-based assistance systems to carry out manual assembly processes. Furthermore, the participants showed a positive emotional connection to the assistance system and reported no to low health symptoms while using the system.