{"title":"An approach for assessing usability and accessibility of assistive technology for persons with disabilities","authors":"Vanessa Nasr , Mark Benden , Maryam Zahabi","doi":"10.1016/j.apergo.2025.104581","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Assistive technologies can help persons with disabilities (PWD) gain independence and improve their quality of life. However, for these technologies to be helpful, interface design is important to ensure devices can be seamlessly added to everyday life. This study investigates a novel approach to assess the usability of assistive technologies called SUMA – The Single Usability Metric that Accounts for Accessibility. The model includes 13 common measures used to capture website and app usability with special consideration to measure accessibility. To simplify the model, user testing was conducted with PWD, and principal component analysis of the results revealed a subset of dimensions. The finalized SUMA model includes four usability metrics: satisfaction, efficiency, learnability, and accessibility. The model is coded into an Excel workbook enabling other researchers to easily use SUMA to assess the usability of their technologies for PWD. Findings highlighted the importance of capturing accessibility to ensure inclusive design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55502,"journal":{"name":"Applied Ergonomics","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104581"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Applied Ergonomics","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687025001176","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Assistive technologies can help persons with disabilities (PWD) gain independence and improve their quality of life. However, for these technologies to be helpful, interface design is important to ensure devices can be seamlessly added to everyday life. This study investigates a novel approach to assess the usability of assistive technologies called SUMA – The Single Usability Metric that Accounts for Accessibility. The model includes 13 common measures used to capture website and app usability with special consideration to measure accessibility. To simplify the model, user testing was conducted with PWD, and principal component analysis of the results revealed a subset of dimensions. The finalized SUMA model includes four usability metrics: satisfaction, efficiency, learnability, and accessibility. The model is coded into an Excel workbook enabling other researchers to easily use SUMA to assess the usability of their technologies for PWD. Findings highlighted the importance of capturing accessibility to ensure inclusive design.
期刊介绍:
Applied Ergonomics is aimed at ergonomists and all those interested in applying ergonomics/human factors in the design, planning and management of technical and social systems at work or leisure. Readership is truly international with subscribers in over 50 countries. Professionals for whom Applied Ergonomics is of interest include: ergonomists, designers, industrial engineers, health and safety specialists, systems engineers, design engineers, organizational psychologists, occupational health specialists and human-computer interaction specialists.